Color is having a main-character moment. After years of gray sofas, white walls, and interiors so neutral they could disappear into a bowl of oatmeal, 2023 reminded homeowners that rooms are allowed to have a pulse. The year’s best color-forward interiors did not simply toss paint at the wall and hope for a miracle. They used color with intention: to guide the eye, shape a mood, highlight architecture, energize a sleepy corner, or make a dining room feel like it has excellent dinner-party gossip.
The 2023 Color Stars celebrated here are designers who understand that decorating with color is not about being loud for the sake of being loud. It is about confidence, balance, rhythm, and a little courage. From saturated blues and historic paint shades to warm whites, citrus hues, jewel tones, pink-and-green pairings, and earthy neutrals, these designers prove that color can be playful without becoming chaotic, sophisticated without becoming stiff, and personal without looking like a paint-store explosion.
Below, we explore 10 standout designers and the practical color lessons homeowners can borrow from their work. Whether you are planning a full-room paint makeover or just trying to convince yourself that a colorful lampshade is not a life-threatening commitment, consider this your friendly guide to decorating with color like a pro.
Why 2023 Was the Year Color Came Roaring Back
Interior design in 2023 moved away from overly safe minimalism and toward richer, more expressive palettes. Major paint brands and color authorities supported the shift. Pantone selected Viva Magenta, a powerful crimson-red tone rooted in nature. Benjamin Moore chose Raspberry Blush, a vivid coral-pink shade that practically asks for a spotlight. Sherwin-Williams leaned into Redend Point, a warm blush-beige neutral, while Behr named Blank Canvas, a soft warm white designed for flexibility and fresh starts.
Taken together, these selections tell an interesting story: homeowners wanted comfort, but not boredom. They wanted warmth, personality, optimism, and spaces that felt alive. That is exactly where the 2023 Color Stars shine. Their work demonstrates that bold color and livable design can absolutely share the same sofa.
Meet the 10 Designers Expertly Decorating with Color
1. Danielle Fennoy: The Power of Color Blocking
Danielle Fennoy, founder of Brooklyn-based Revamp Interior Design, is a master of using color to define areas within a room. Her approach is especially useful in open-plan homes, where one large space may need to function as dining room, living room, office, and “where did I put my keys?” zone.
Fennoy’s color strategy often begins with the floor plan. Instead of picking paint in isolation, she considers how someone will move through the room and where the eye should land. A bold wallpaper, a saturated ceiling, or a bright wall can create a visual pause. Her work shows that color blocking is not just a graphic trick; it is a practical design tool.
Takeaway: Choose one bold statement area, then let the supporting colors play quieter backup vocals. If everything is shouting, nothing gets heard.
2. Mark D. Sikes: Blue and White, Forever Fresh
Los Angeles designer Mark D. Sikes proves that blue and white never really go out of style. His rooms often feel crisp, tailored, breezy, and timeless, with layered blues that bring a coastal freshness without turning the home into a souvenir shop.
The secret is undertone discipline. Blue can lean green, gray, purple, or red. Sikes shows that choosing blues with compatible undertones creates harmony throughout a home. He also uses repetition wisely, carrying blue from room to room through walls, upholstery, fabrics, stripes, and accessories.
Takeaway: If you love blue, use it as a thread throughout the home. Vary the intensity, but keep the undertones friendly.
3. Leanne Ford: White Is a Color, Too
Leanne Ford has long made a convincing case that white is not the absence of design. In her hands, white becomes layered, sculptural, warm, and deeply textural. Her rooms show how cream, chalk, ivory, warm white, and crisp white can create depth without relying on bright hue.
The key is texture. White walls alone can feel flat, but add plaster, linen, slipcovered furniture, wood, stone, layered rugs, and vintage pieces, and suddenly the room has a quiet richness. Ford’s approach is ideal for homeowners who love simplicity but do not want their space to feel like a very polite waiting room.
Takeaway: When decorating with white, add texture before adding more stuff. White needs dimension, not clutter.
4. Sheila Bridges: Historic Color with Modern Soul
New York designer Sheila Bridges is known for bringing history, culture, and storytelling into her interiors. Her iconic Harlem Toile de Jouy pattern reimagines traditional French toile through an African American lens, and her color work often follows the same principle: honor the past while making it feel completely current.
Bridges often turns to historic paint colors and nature-inspired combinations. Greens, yellows, lilacs, soft blues, and warm neutrals appear in ways that feel grounded rather than trendy. Her work reminds us that color does not have to chase every passing fad. A shade with roots can still feel fresh when used with confidence.
Takeaway: Look to historic palettes and natural color pairings when you want a room that feels timeless but not predictable.
5. Nick Olsen: Bold Color Needs Guardrails
Nick Olsen’s interiors are joyful, fearless, and often deliciously unexpected. Think lacquered walls, bright upholstery, rich reds, acid greens, and classic furniture made suddenly electric with a surprising fabric choice. His rooms have personality, but they also have control.
That control comes from what might be called visual guardrails. Black details, white trim, natural fiber rugs, neutral ceilings, or small-scale patterns can give bold color a boundary. Olsen’s work teaches an important lesson: the bolder the color, the more important the supporting structure becomes.
Takeaway: Pair daring colors with grounding elements. Even the wildest room needs a place for the eye to rest.
6. Hendricks Churchill: Classic Architecture, Fresh Color
Design partners Heide Hendricks and Rafe Churchill bring a fresh twist to classic American style. Their use of colored trim, window sashes, doors, and architectural details shows that you do not always need to paint an entire room to make a big impact.
This is especially helpful for homeowners nervous about color. A painted door slab, contrast trim, or colorful window frame can shift the mood of a room without requiring a full commitment. Their work also emphasizes flow: colors should transition smoothly from one space to the next, especially in older homes with strong architectural character.
Takeaway: Paint the details. Trim, doors, and window frames are small surfaces with major style potential.
7. Peti Lau: Jewel Tones with Drama
Peti Lau’s design language is glamorous, rich, and daring. Her rooms often feature jewel tones such as sapphire, amethyst, turquoise, emerald, and deep blue. These colors bring instant mood, but Lau’s approach is not random maximalism. She understands temperature: warm jewel tones and cool jewel tones each create different energy.
Her best lesson is commitment. A deep teal wall or saturated blue room can feel more sophisticated when the designer fully embraces it instead of treating it like a timid accent. Jewel tones work beautifully in lounges, dining rooms, powder rooms, and bedrooms where atmosphere matters.
Takeaway: If you choose a jewel tone, do not apologize for it. Let the color create drama, then balance it with texture, lighting, and thoughtful furnishings.
8. Patrick Mele: Citrus Colors with Sophistication
Patrick Mele makes citrus tones feel polished rather than juvenile. Yellow, citrine, mustard, lime, acid green, peach, and orange can be tricky because they bring so much energy. Used poorly, they can feel like a highlighter had a decorating budget. Used well, they make a room feel sunny, fresh, and memorable.
Mele often pairs related shades within the same color family, such as mustard with citrine or navy with sky blue. This creates tension without chaos. His approach is especially effective in breakfast rooms, sunrooms, garden rooms, and spaces with strong natural light.
Takeaway: Citrus colors work best when balanced with lighter floors, natural textures, and softer companion shades.
9. Mikel Welch: Earthy Neutrals That Still Tell a Story
Mikel Welch proves that neutral does not mean lifeless. His interiors use earthy tones, warm whites, browns, grays, blacks, navy, greenery, wood, metal, velvet, boucle, and woven materials to create depth. In his work, a neutral palette is less about playing it safe and more about building a layered story.
The lesson is texture and tonal variation. A room of beige-on-beige can fall flat if every surface looks the same. But mix matte walls, nubby textiles, dark wood, greenery, soft upholstery, and metal accents, and the palette becomes rich and grounded.
Takeaway: For neutral rooms, choose materials first and paint second. Texture is the difference between calm and boring.
10. Jessica Ayromloo: Fearless Color Pairings
Jessica Ayromloo brings a vibrant California energy to color. Her work often combines pink with green, pink with orange, and other unexpected pairings that should clash on paper but sing in a room. The reason they work is distribution. Repetition helps the eye connect the dots.
If a bold color appears only once, it can look accidental. If it appears in artwork, a pillow, a lampshade, and a small trim detail, the room suddenly feels intentional. Ayromloo’s interiors are a master class in making surprising combinations feel balanced.
Takeaway: Repeat your boldest color at least three times in a room. That is how a “clash” becomes a design decision.
How to Decorate with Color Like a 2023 Color Star
Start with a Feeling, Not a Paint Chip
Before picking a color, ask what the room should feel like. Calm? Romantic? Energizing? Cozy? Dramatic? A bedroom may call for moody blue or warm neutral, while a breakfast nook can handle citrus, coral, or fresh green. Color is emotional. Paint chips are just the tiny paper mess we make while figuring that out.
Test Color in Real Light
Every designer knows that lighting can turn a dream color into a weird surprise. A warm white may look creamy in morning light and yellow at night. A blue may become gray in a north-facing room. Always test paint samples on multiple walls and observe them morning, afternoon, and evening before committing.
Use the 60-30-10 Rule Loosely
A classic color formula is 60 percent dominant color, 30 percent secondary color, and 10 percent accent color. It is not a law, and no one from the Color Police will arrive at your door. But it does help beginners create balance. For example, warm white walls, blue upholstery, and raspberry accents can feel polished without becoming too busy.
Repeat Colors for Flow
In a whole-home palette, repetition matters. A green from the living room can reappear as a kitchen tile, a hallway painting, or bedroom pillow trim. This creates continuity without making every room match like a hotel chain with commitment issues.
Do Not Forget Ceilings, Trim, and Doors
Some of the most exciting color moments happen outside the obvious wall space. A painted ceiling can make a room feel enveloping. Contrast trim can sharpen architecture. A colorful interior door can add personality without overwhelming the room. These smaller applications are perfect for homeowners who want color but are not ready to marry a magenta living room.
Best Color Ideas Inspired by the 2023 Color Stars
- For a bold dining room: Try deep plum, burgundy, teal, or lacquered blue with warm lighting and simple tableware.
- For a calm bedroom: Use dusty blue, warm white, soft blush-beige, or layered earth tones.
- For a cheerful kitchen: Add citrus accents, green trim, colorful stools, or a sunny breakfast nook wall.
- For a powder room: Go dramatic with wallpaper, jewel-tone paint, or a high-gloss finish.
- For an open floor plan: Use color blocking to define dining, lounging, and work areas.
- For a timeless living room: Layer blue and white, historic colors, natural textures, and repeated accent tones.
Common Color Mistakes to Avoid
The first mistake is choosing a paint color before considering furniture, rugs, art, and light. Paint should support the room, not boss everyone around. The second mistake is using too many high-intensity colors at once. A room needs hierarchy: one star, a few supporting actors, and maybe one scene-stealing side table.
The third mistake is ignoring finish. Matte walls, satin trim, glossy doors, and lacquered furniture all affect how color behaves. A deep color in high gloss can feel glamorous, while the same shade in matte may feel moody and soft. Finally, many homeowners stop too soon. A bold color may look strange when the room is half finished, but once art, lighting, textiles, and accessories join the party, the palette often makes sense.
Experience Notes: What Decorating with Color Really Teaches You
One of the biggest lessons from living with color is that confidence usually comes after the first brushstroke, not before it. Most people wait to feel brave before they paint a room, but decorating rarely works that way. You become brave by testing, adjusting, and realizing that paint is not a tattoo. If a color fails, you can repaint. The sofa will survive. The house will not file a complaint.
In real homes, the best color decisions often begin with something small: a vintage rug, a favorite ceramic bowl, a piece of art, a patterned curtain, or even a flower arrangement that makes you stop and stare. Pulling a palette from an object you already love is much easier than inventing one from scratch. It also keeps the design personal. A room should not look like a showroom pretending to have hobbies. It should look like people live there, laugh there, and occasionally leave coffee cups in mysterious places.
Another practical experience: color changes with context. A green paint chip may look earthy in the store, muddy beside your sofa, and glorious next to brass hardware. A white wall may feel crisp in one room and cold in another. This is why designers obsess over samples. Put swatches near the floor, beside trim, next to upholstery, and across from windows. If possible, paint a large sample board and move it around the room. Tiny chips are cute, but they are not emotionally prepared for major design responsibility.
Color also teaches patience. Many rooms go through an awkward middle stage. The walls are painted, but the curtains are missing. The rug has not arrived. The old lamp suddenly looks like it wandered in from a different decade. Do not judge the palette too early. A strong color needs its supporting cast: texture, lighting, art, plants, books, wood tones, and fabric. Once those layers arrive, the room begins to feel intentional.
Finally, decorating with color teaches you to trust your own taste. Trends are useful for inspiration, but the best homes are not built by copying a forecast. They are built by noticing what makes you feel at ease, awake, happy, glamorous, nostalgic, or calm. If pink and green make you smile every time you walk into the room, that matters. If navy feels like a deep breath, use it. If warm white gives you peace, layer it beautifully. The real magic of the 2023 Color Stars is not that they all use the same palette. It is that each designer uses color with conviction. That is the lesson worth stealing.
Conclusion: Color Is the Shortcut to Personality
The 2023 Color Stars prove that decorating with color is not about choosing between safe neutrals and fearless brights. The best interiors often use both. A bold ceiling can live with quiet walls. A neutral room can feel rich with texture. A historic blue can sit beside a modern print. A citrus accent can wake up a traditional breakfast room. Color works best when it has a purpose, a rhythm, and a little breathing room.
If you want to decorate with color like a designer, start small but think big. Test paint in real light. Repeat hues for flow. Balance bold shades with grounding materials. Use trim, doors, ceilings, and accessories as creative opportunities. Above all, choose colors that make your home feel more like you. Because a beautiful room is nice, but a beautiful room with personality? That is the one everyone remembers.
Note: This article synthesizes real 2023 interior color trends, designer color strategies, and widely reported paint-color guidance into an original, publication-ready SEO article.