Brown is the new black: The color is trending red-hot in interior design

For decades, the little black dress has been a standard for women wanting to look effortlessly chic.

But for Atlanta interior designers, brown is the newest hot hue bringing all-season warmth and sophistication to home interiors.

If this year’s 8,750-square-foot Atlanta Homes & Lifestyles Southeastern Designer Showhouse in the Chastain Park neighborhood has a signature color, it is undeniably brown, from deep chocolates to silty clays to creamy cafe au laits.

We asked a group of Atlanta designers who used brown prominently in their showhouse rooms to break down what makes brown such a versatile hue. We also asked about potential pitfalls to avoid when using this color in your home. Many described the color as a “grounding force” in a room that can pair beautifully with lighter furniture, and a just-in-time remedy to the neutral-veering-toward-bland, institutional grays that reigned in home interiors for a good portion of the 2010s and beyond.

A study painted in Sherwin-Williams' Turkish Coffee by Chris Holt of Holt Interiors. (Courtesy of David Christensen)

Chris Holt of Holt Interiors designed two rooms for the showhouse: a light-filled vestibule off the garage and a warm, inviting study drenched in Sherwin-Williams’ Turkish Coffee.

“It’s pretty dramatic, but it creates, I think, a really cozy and warm, inviting room,” Holt said of that deep, rich shade. In that room, he included curtains, chairs, throw pillows and a couch in various shades of brown from sepia to terra-cotta to add depth.

Holt used words such as earthy, enveloping and calm to describe the feeling of brown, which makes a lot of sense considering the chaotic political moment we are living in, he said. “Sometimes you just want to have a warm hug. It sort of gives that to you.”

He’s enough of a fan of the color to have used a chocolatey brown in his own bedroom.

In addition to the brown paint, wallpaper, rugs and accessories that popped up with great frequency in this year’s showhouse, Holt said that another brown bit player is also poised for a leading role. “So, all that brown furniture that your grandmother had, or your mother had, and nobody wanted, I think that it’s kind of slowly starting to trend back in,” he said.

Holt’s paint picks: Prospect, Tea Leaf and Turkish Coffee by Sherwin-Williams

Wallpaper featuring brown flowers and an antique chest of drawers ground this bedroom from interior designer Lauren E. Lowe of Lauren Elaine Interiors in warmth and strikes a balance between masculine and feminine. (Courtesy of Emily Followill)

Lauren E. Lowe of Lauren Elaine Interiors said that as she was designing the primary bedroom on the home’s main level, she imagined a couple sharing the room.

As a result, Lowe tried to make it equally appealing to a man as it would be to a woman. The wallpaper she used includes a floral motif, but the fact that the flowers are brown against a white background keeps it from reading as too prissy.

“There’s that hint of femininity, but it’s not overly frilly,” Lowe said of a color that can be more gender-neutral than others.

And to Holt’s point about the return of “brown furniture,” Lowe continues the use of brown in the bedroom with the use of antiques that have the kind of patina and character that give rooms what designers refer to as “grounding.”

“Woods and stains and woodwork are a way that I almost always bring brown into a project,” she said of a tall antique dresser and nightstands with a marquetry inlay that add a pleasing array of brown shades to the room.

Lowe’s paint picks: Fine Paints of Europe Dutch Chocolate and Benjamin Moore Hearthstone Brown

The in-law suite created by Frederick Morelli takes advantage of how light plays with brown shades. "I think that brown is a more forgiving color than most others, and it has a depth to it that shifts with the light.” (Courtesy of UpCountry Home)

Frederick Morelli of UpCountry Home created the in-law suite on the home’s second level. Reached via a dramatic, moody staircase that opens up to a bar and sitting area, bathroom and bedroom, all those rooms incorporate shades of brown that give the spaces a rich, collected feel that never seems heavy or overbearing. The staircase walls were painted in Little Green Paint’s Light Bronze Green then hand-painted with a lyrical mural of botanicals.

Like the other designers, Morelli advises a light touch, or at least moderation, when working with brown. Of that brown staircase color, he said, “I didn’t carry it out throughout the entire top of the space because I thought that it would have overpowered that lofted area.”

Morelli doesn’t like to use the word “trending” to describe the prevalence of brown in textiles, paint, wallpaper, case goods and wood furniture at this year’s showhouse. But he just returned from the twice-yearly furniture industry trade show in High Point, North Carolina, “and the browns and the warm, earthy tones were all over the place,” he said. “So, it’s definitely having a moment.”