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PPG color of the year

PPG’s 2022 Color of the Year

PPG introduced its 2022 Color of the Year: Olive Sprig, an elegant, grounded, versatile and high-adaptable grey-green. This color represents regrowth in a post-pandemic world, mimicking nature’s resiliency.

Olive Sprig is an enticing, relaxed green that emulates feelings of soothing aloe vera and fragrant plants, brightening any space with organic liveliness. Olive Sprig works well inside or outside and blends in with nearly any environment.

“As many of us know, following a year of lockdown the easiest way to shift your mindset is to change your environment. While we begin to trade sweatpants for strappy shoes, recipes for reservations and a night in for a night out, our paint color preferences are shifting too, in both residential and commercial spaces,” says Amy Donato, senior color marketing manager, PPG paint. “DIYers, property managers, designers and architects are shifting away from the stark, neutral palettes of yesterday and opting for color in all forms. Call it rebellion, but we are certainly here for the resurgence of optimistic colors to guide us into a new era of home design.”

After the rise of working from home and remote learning, homeowners have shifted away from open concept living spaces to individual rooms to create privacy and compartmentalize working life from personal. Painting a wall or nook a different color from the rest of the room is a simple, affordable project that can instantly transform a space and help create boundaries that will change and adapt as our lives do.

Olive Sprig pairs well with unique architectural elements and furniture with curved forms to create a comfortable, grounded space. The color can help create a sanctuary in a bedroom, encourage focus in an office, offer a neutral backdrop in a retail store or restaurant and create a grounded getaway in hotels. It also pairs with brass accents and wood tones on an island or lower kitchen cabinets. Homeowners, designers, architects and other customers of professional painters can also gather inspiration from this color by adding floor-to-ceiling emerald tiles in bathrooms, incorporating a luxe velvet green couch in living rooms or immersing homes in plants in a variety of colors, shapes and sizes.

The company’s experts at PPG’s annual Global Color Forecasting Workshop found that consumers are more inclined to adopt more colorful selections after difficult inflection points throughout history, often seen during the Roaring Twenties or after the Great Depression. PPG is seeing post-pandemic optimism infiltrating residential and commercial design spaces to create a sense of escapism. Trends in the 1920s were marked by metallics, rich woods, layers, moody colors, angular space and opulence. By the same token, today’s trends drawn inspiration from Antiquity, Baroque and Renaissance art, sculpture and architectural forms. Such a colorful embrace is thought to reflect optimistic rebellion, a sign of personal expression or soothing self-care.

PPG has been trusted by customers to deliver paints, coating and materials for more than 135 years. The company operates in more than 75 countries and has reported record-breaking sales in the first and second quarters of 2021. PPG serves customers in construction, consumer products, industrial and transportation markets and aftermarkets.

About Lindsey Thompson

Lindsey joined the NHPA staff in 2021 as an associate editor and has served as senior editor and now managing editor. A native of Ohio, Lindsey earned a B.S. in journalism and minors in business and sociology from Ohio University. She loves spending time with her husband, two kids, two cats and one dog, as well as doing DIY projects around the house, coaching basketball, going to concerts, boating and cheering on the Cleveland Guardians.

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