Decorating With Color
Rumor Has It, Behr’s 2025 Color Of The Year Is The Perfect Shade For Fall
Updated on August 29, 2024
H&H Senior Editor Wendy Jacob visits Behr’s 2025 Color Of The Year reveal in West Hollywood, California.
In a move that bolsters the popularity of Unexpected Red Theory, the 2025 Behr Color Of The Year is Rumors, a deep ruby red shot with brown undertones that delivers a deep charge of energy.
Erika Woelfel, vice president of Color and Creative Services at Behr, says “This color is grounded in nature, it’s empowering to use and elevates a room’s design.” A recent poll conducted by Behr confirmed that 69 per cent of Canadian respondents would consider using red in in their homes, with accent walls, front doors, and bedrooms topping the list. For those who may be apprehensive about test driving such a bold hue, it’s tempered by a brownish undertone to make it livable and comforting, so you get the innate energy of red, without it being too overpowering.
Scroll down for more inspo on how to use Behr’s 2025 Color Of The Year!
According to Erika, Rumors riffs on 90s reds, which tended to be a brighter, cherry red with blue undertones. The brown tones make it mellower and more livable, and it pairs well with natural materials like white oak floors and veined marble.
Rumors gives a warm jolt to the walls of a cosy home office: it’s the visual equivalent of a cup of coffee in the morning.
The survey noted that 84% of Canadians agree a small pop of red in a room catches their attention and 68% said it made a space feel more elegant and cohesive.
Applied to both the walls and ceiling, this hue is enveloping and dramatic in an entry, and plays up the applied mouldings, for a high-end hotel vibe.
Not sure if you can commit to a whole room? Use a coat of this hue to give a well loved piece of furniture an instant refresh.
The move towards richer palettes is a growing trend, and they help to amplify textural panelled walls, giving them more dimension.
In the kitchen, painted cabinets are a welcome alternative to navy or white, and the effect is appetizing and luscious. Designer Jane Hallworth chose a very similar color for the lower cabinets in actress Kirstin Dunst’s San Fernando ranch house.
In a bedroom, the moody paint tone complements textured quilted bedding, for a cosy, cocooning effect.
At the Color Of The Year launch party reveal in Los Angeles, a mantel painted in Rumors is fiery under the California sun.
The mantel is accented by another hue from the 2025 trend palette on the wall. Cool, grey Rock Crystal has a subtle lilac tint for a soothing counterpoint.
Behr’s 2024 Color of the Year, Cracked Pepper, is paired with Rumors and stencilled on in a pattern to mimic wallpaper and spark up a grey vanity.
Other colors from the 2025 trend palette include (from left), Rumors, Boreal, Aerial View, Jackfruit, Frosted Jade, Nutmeg Frost, Amazon Jungle, and Colorful Leaves.
Courtesy Behr/(exterior shots) Wendy Jacob