Trends

Benjamin Moore’s 2016 Colour of the Year? Simply White

"White is transcendent, timeless, its versatility unrivalled." Ellen O'Neill, Benjamin Moore creative director

By Julia Dilworth / October 16, 2015

“White is transcendent, timeless, its versatility unrivalled.” Ellen O’Neill, Benjamin Moore creative director

So what if it’s not technically a colour? Benjamin Moore‘s team of colour experts had been travelling the globe since early this year, collecting samples and researching and reconvening—all the while coming back to white, reluctantly.”We wanted to ignore it,” said colour and design expert Sharon Grech at last night’s Benjamin Moore Colour of the Year party. “Because that’s what we do in the paint industry, we kind of ignore white—we don’t talk a lot about it.”She said it wasn’t until Benjamin Moore’s creative director Ellen O’Neill confronted the team with her main inspiration, Frank Gehry’s new (and very white) Fondation Louis Vuitton, that they all noticed how much white they were collecting themselves.This “non-colour” is very much a colour in the home furnishings industry, explained Grech. “We don’t just have one white, we have many whites, Benjamin Moore has 250 whites … because it’s that colour that balances and grounds everything.”According to O’Neill, white is everywhere, in every form, and that’s why they chose it (Simply White OC-117) as Benjamin Moore’s 2016 Colour of the Year.To illustrate its versatility, Benjamin Moore put together a white-palette showcase featuring four creative individual’s homes: an abstract artist, a digital designer, a ceramicist and a gallerist.