In the 1930s, home kitchens opened up. They were previously walled-off rooms from which beautiful food emerged; during this decade, architects began designing them not just for ergonomic cooking ease, but to be seen. And for the first time, appliances and cookware had to look good, not just work well.
The point of today’s kitchenware isn’t merely to function, it is to be seen functioning. Our kitchens are stages, whether it’s because they’re open to the rest of the home, or endlessly documented on social media. Kitchenware companies are well aware of this, creating new colors and patterns every year to match consumer desires. Le Creuset currently has 34 active colors to choose from for its enameled cast-iron products, with newcomers like pale purple Shallot and creamy Brioche. Great Jones recently partnered with illustrator Laura Chautin for a line of Dutch ovens in white and pink with delicate florals. Staub launched light yellow Citron on March 1, and introduced Eucalyptus, a smoky green, in 2023, and Lilac the year before that. And in February KitchenAid released Blue Salt, a baby blue with a red pearl finish, as its color of the year.
Designers and decorators have always had their eyes on color trends, and home design magazines have long spoken to subscribers who care to track these things. But the idea that certain colors could be trendy reached widespread awareness with Pantone’s Color of the Year program. In 2000, the institute named cerulean its first color of the year. Other home design brands like Sherwin-Williams and Valspar followed with “color of the year” declarations; Benjamin Moore started releasing its own color of the year in 2005.
KitchenAid, founded in 1919, only started releasing a “color of the year” in 2018. “Before that, we did a lot of trend research predicting color. We thought, why don’t we do our own color of the year because we wanted to make a statement there,” says Brittni Pertijs, the color, finish, and material manager for Whirlpool, KitchenAid’s parent company. According to Pertijs, KitchenAid starts researching colors a few years out, assessing interior design trends, pop culture, and the news cycle. “We’re looking at people and behaviors and just trying to tap into what people are feeling,” she says.
Even if there wasn’t an official color of the year, color has always mattered to homeware brands. Le Creuset was founded in 1925, and in 1934 it launched its iconic Volcanic orange shade for its cocottes. In the 1960s, the brand launched yellow and blue options. Sara Whitaker, director of category marketing at Le Creuset, says the company now releases two to three new colors each year and its process for determining what will speak to customers is similar to KitchenAid’s, looking at trend forecasts and consumer psychology. But it’s not just as easy as seeing what’s on the runways and spraying that color on a pan.
“The process of making the color itself can take months or even years depending on the look we are trying to achieve,” Whitaker says. “Since the colors on the cookware are not paint, but rather chemical reactions and bonding experiments, the length of the process varies from color to color.” And while brands of course want to be trendsetters, choosing what colors are made available to purchase is also about responding to trends. “We have high expectations for every color we release, but of course some don’t perform the way we intend,” says Whitaker. “If a color isn’t getting the love we typically see, we may decide to retire it.” This is why you can’t buy a Dutch oven in Kiwi, unless you look on eBay.
There is similarity among the recent colors released by top brands. Despite maximalism having a moment, the home design colors are veering muted and unsaturated. Pantone’s color of the year for 2024 is Peach Fuzz, a soft, light orange. Benjamin Moore’s is Blue Nova, and Valspar’s is Renew Blue, both described as “mid-tone” neutrals. Compare these to KitchenAid’s color of the year in 2023, the bright and bold Hibiscus, quite similar to Pantone’s 2023 color, Viva Magenta.
So what are the recent colors saying about what people are feeling? Pantone’s Peach Fuzz “captures our desire to nurture ourselves and others,” according to the company. Whitaker says Brioche is “inspired by a desire for tranquility.” It has a matte finish instead of a shine, and its neutrality “speaks to consumers’ desire for comfort and security.” Le Creuset describes Shallot as “a hue so gentle, so refined, it enhances anything it touches with grace, glamor and gloss.”
These are all gesturing toward the quiet luxury trend, marked by a preference for items that look expensive but understated. But also, there is an assumption here that by filling our homes with soothing, comforting colors, we will actually be soothed and comforted. The relationship between colors and emotions is real, but that is a lot to put on a color, especially if it’s on an appliance that might be kept in a cabinet most of the time.
Not everyone is in lockstep. Staub’s Citron is bright and warm. And Blue Salt is a little more cerebral; Pertijs says it’s “all about optimism,” but the combination of the base blue and the red sheen is meant to be representative of the combination of nature and AI. “The blue is the air and the water, and then putting that pearl — that’s like the digital. It’s optimism and whimsy and putting that duality together,” she says. Perhaps it’s like looking at the sky through a VR headset, which is still something a rich person would do.
But who are these new lines of cookware for? Cast-iron cookware is famously sturdy, and appliances like a stand mixer are ideally built to last decades. Certainly very few people are swapping out their Dutch ovens every year to keep up with the trends. Whitaker says Le Creuset sees a combination of new customers and people who already have Le Creuset products buying newly released colors, as “it’s easy to match your go-to color with the new releases.” After all, Brioche is not so different from older colors like Meringue and Nutmeg.
Pertijs insists the goal of having a color of the year is simply for KitchenAid to be in the design space (though tempting people to buy new appliances certainly doesn’t hurt). “It doesn’t necessarily mean [customers] have to go out and buy the product,” she says. “I think it’d be great if people see Blue Salt, and they’re like, Cool, I’m going to go buy a throw pillow in that color.” Most of us don’t hire interior designers, nor are we regularly in the market for a new couch. But buying a new pan or casserole dish every once in a while feels much more reasonable. Because of that, kitchenware colors can become an accessible way for many people to see what’s trending in interior design.
Pertijs says KitchenAid is already at work on the 2025 and 2026 colors, and predicts the popular colors are going to keep veering toward cool, blue undertones. “We’ve been in a very warm space, with warm whites and taupes, but we feel like cool tones are starting to come back.” If these are colors that represent optimism, comfort and tranquility, that makes sense. What else is a home for? Besides showing off your beautiful, comforting, on-trend cookware to your guests, of course.
