If you’re like a lot of people, you’re just ready for 2020 to be over — so maybe it’s time to look ahead and start thinking about 2021. Sherwin-Williams has announced its 2021 Color of the Year, and the honor has gone to Urbane Bronze.
What makes Urbane Bronze so special? Equally timeless and trendy, this warm, earthy color with notes of grey can help you turn your home into a sanctuary against all of the troubles in the world. Urbane Bronze has been described as a “new neutral” that goes well in any part of the home.
In the words of the director of color marketing for Sherwin-Williams, “Urbane Bronze is a comforting color, drawing from nature for a feeling of relaxation and serenity.” The color gives a nod to design trends in both the 1970s and 1990s, but its undertones give it a fresh, updated feel. Use it well, and you can create an aesthetic balance in your home between the past and the present, and make your home a calming place to retreat when the world gets overwhelming.
How can you best use Urbane Bronze SW 7048 in your home? Really, it’s such an easy color to love that you can put it almost anywhere (indoors or out) with success, but here are a few ideas that you can use for inspiration:
Add Depth and Warmth to Your Kitchen
In recent years, homeowners have embraced the idea of dark colors in their kitchens. Eschewing light wood tones and white, adding deeper colors to the kitchen cabinets is a great way to inject a sense of warmth and add a connection to nature into a room that can otherwise be dominated by modern appliances.
Urbane Bronze, like the Naval Blue that got the nod in 2019 before it, pairs beautifully with any kind of metal fixtures. If you can’t commit to dark cabinets, you can always use this shade as your accent color around the cabinets to create more depth.
Showcase Color on Your Doors
If you’re looking for a way to quickly and easily refresh the look of your home, why not give your doors a new coat of paint? It’s a budget-friendly way to quickly increase your home’s curb appeal. Urbane Bronze pairs well with virtually any shade of white, beige or brown, making it an excellent choice for many exterior doors.
Don’t forget your interior doors, however! Using this color on the interior of your front door can immediately set the tone that tells your guests, “This is a place of comfort.” It evokes warm welcomes, hot coffee and quiet refuge from the world, which also makes it an ideal choice for the bedroom doors in your hallway upstairs.
Add Depth to the Back of Your Built-Ins
Do you have a built-in entertainment center? What about built-in bookcases or curio shelves? Again, Urbane Bronze can help you create the illusion of depth and make a room seem richer and more sophisticated very easily.
Just empty the shelves, grab some of this paint and apply to the back walls of your built-ins. It’s something you can manage in a single afternoon, and it will instantly update the look of your space.
Get Creative with Your Old Furniture
Maybe you don’t want to commit to adding all-new color to your walls (or just don’t have the time and energy for a big job), but you still want to update your living space a little. In that case, look around for a few pieces of wooden furniture that have seen better days and get to work.
If that black dining room table set you bought a few years ago now seems oddly cold and formal, you can completely change the atmosphere by painting it Urban Bronze. Add a few of your favorite prints or photos in frames painted the same color and you immediately have a coordinated look that’s much warmer.
Add an Accent Wall to Your Favorite Space
What’s your favorite space to sit in the house? Whether you’ve got a cozy chair in the living room that’s “yours,” or you like sitting at the kitchen table with your coffee to relax, why not add Urbane Bronze to an accent wall in your view?
Accent walls are a great way to embrace color trends without making a big commitment, and they automatically add a little pop of pizzaz to a room. In this case, putting the accent wall directly in your view can help you achieve that meditative tranquility you may crave when you’re recharging your batteries after a long day.
What Design Elements Mix Well with Urbane Bronze?
Urbane Bronze continues the steady trend toward embracing natural materials in home decor. It’s a lovely compliment to those beautiful wood floors you love, the stone in your bathroom shower and the metal fixtures in your kitchen (whether they’re copper, gold or nickel). The earthy tones in this color also look fantastic with leather furniture, lots of big green plants and throw rugs woven with natural fibers.
If you aren’t sure what colors go well with Urbane Bronze, never fear: Sherwin-Williams makes it easy on you by suggesting SW 7006 Extra White, SW 6127 Ivoire and SW 7042 Shoji White as fantastic coordinating colors that will always pair up nicely with this shade.
Ultimately, your home really is your castle and your place to retreat. Go ahead and embrace colors that enhance your sense of peace and help calm your spirit — like Urbane Bronze. You won’t regret it.
