Decorating 2017: “Greenery” Is the New Color for Your Home

Symbolic of “new beginnings, Pantone’s 2017 Color of the Year can help refresh your home this coming year

The Pantone Color Institute recently announced “Greenery” as 2017’s Color of the Year. Officially Pantone 15-0343, the hue is described as “a fresh and zesty yellow-green shade that evokes the first days of spring when nature’s greens revive, restore, and renew.” Seemingly appropriate given our need for a fresh start after what can best be described as a strenuous 2016.

Pantone executive director Leatrice Eisman adds: “Greenery bursts forth in 2017 to provide us the reassurance we yearn for amid a tumultuous social and political environment. Satisfying our growing desire to rejuvenate and revitalize, Greenery symbolizes the reconnection we seek with nature, one another, and a larger purpose.”

Forest Bathing

Attributing Greenery’s popularity to our desire to retreat to nature, which was fueled by our deep immersion in current events, urban life, and contemporary technologies, Eisman connects this color to Shinrin-yoku, “a Japanese concept called ‘forest bathing,’ which says that when you are feeling stressed, one of the best things to do is go walk in the forest.”

Yet how can one do when nowhere near a forest? Bring it into your own living environment of course, decorating and equipping your home with 2017’s featured color. You need not buy all the latest in décor, even if many manufacturers would expectedly use Greenery with their new offerings, but rather just look for what you may need or want for your home and consider having them in this color.

It Can Be Easy Being Green

Before you say “it is not easy being green,” remember that your home need not turn entirely into the Incredible Hulk. You can definitely use Greenery as a centerpiece color combined with others. For example, instead of completely repainting your living room walls, you could opt for your doors and curtains to be in Greenery.