If you’re looking for a way to make a big style change at home without breaking the bank, painting a few walls is the way to go. If you want to not only elevate your walls but also improve the mood of everyone who steps inside your place, you’ll want to choose BEHR’s 2024 Color of the Year, Cracked Pepper, as your primary paint shade. This soft black shade has a way of feeling simultaneously bold, timeless and modern. We expect to see it featured in rooms, and even exterior spaces, that need an anchor. Much like its namesake, though, this deep and intriguing hue will definitely spice any bland room.
While there will always be homes that call for a beautiful, neutral shade like BEHR’s 2023 Color of the Year Blank Canvas, new research from the BEHR Paint team found that nearly 75% of Americans are open to painting their homes with a dark, inky hue like Cracked Pepper. In fact, about 50% of people shared that dark hues actually “create a sense of comfort” and infinite style.
Ready to make a color switch? Here’s exactly how and where to use this soothing black shade in your own abode.
Color Combos That Work With Cracked Pepper
Forbes Home had the opportunity to go directly to the source and ask BEHR’s VP of Color and Creative Services, Erika Woelfel, what other hues would complement such an inky shade, and the answers were surprising.
Although at first glance, Cracked Pepper might seem like it would steal the spotlight, it’s actually “infinitely versatile” according to Woelfel. She noted that it pairs beautifully with “warm neutrals like Blank Canvas, Whipped Cream or Even Better Beige. Pairing what might seem like stark opposites can actually create a designer-approved vignette that will “add sophistication to any space.”
If you’re interested in a more vibrant color scheme, you can add in metallic touches. Try coating a few decorative pieces with BEHR Premium Spray Paint in Metallic Vintage Gold for a luxe effect.
How to Experiment With Bold Colors
Introducing bolder colors into your space may seem tricky, especially if you’re used to a more neutral palette at home. But it’s totally possible to fold in rich and interesting hues. If you want to test the waters before jumping in with both feet, try applying the dark shade in small doses or in rooms that get ample sunlight for balance. Woelfel noted that “Cracked Pepper, [in particular], can be used on any scale and [transcend] every type of design style.”
She recommends adding it to a single wall in your bedroom or sweeping it onto just your kitchen cabinets. For those who are DIY-minded, Woelfel suggests giving an old furniture item that needs a bit of love a fresh coat of Cracked Pepper. The result will likely be a focal point piece that is as soothing to the senses as it is alluring.
Where to Use Cracked Pepper
Certain colors do best in certain rooms. Relaxing hues tend to work beautifully as bedroom paint colors, for example. While invigorating shades shine in kitchens. Because Cracked Pepper checks off multiple boxes, though—it’s both soft and energizing—it can work in many different environments.
Woelfel believes that the BEHR 2024 Color of the Year will “awaken your senses and elevate not only the room you’re in, but the way you feel in it.” She told Forbes Home that it has enough quiet confidence to “pique all our senses.”
So what does that mean for practical application?
This is the kind of shade that can go in any room. The standout color can, as Woelfel shared, blend into any existing aesthetic from modern or classic to casual or retro. You can wrap your bedroom walls in this multi-dimensional paint to create a “cacooned enviornment or [add] an accent wall to a living room.”
Any space that needs a refresh in a flash could use a few coats of Cracked Pepper.
0 Comments