Pantone's 2026 Color of the Year Is Out—Here's Why It's Turning Heads

Pantone’s Color of the Year for 2026 has arrived—and this special shade is a welcome surprise. The brand is returning to a calming, inspiring neutral that feels positively celestial; a unique hue developed to help create a place of grounding within your home. 

Pantone 11-4201 Cloud Dancer is an expansive, well-balanced shade of white. It’s meant to give you a place to reset—walls painted in the "lofty white" signify a room that’s brimming with endless design possibilities. It’s a shade that you can truly never grow tired of, and it's essential at a time when homeowners are looking to add more permanency to their lives.

“We are living in a transitional time where people are seeking truth, possibility, and a new way of living, says Laurie Pressman, Vice-President, Pantone Color Institute. “PANTONE 11-4201 Cloud Dancer is an airy white hue that exemplifies our search for balance between our digital future and our primal need for human connection, a liminal space that is a launchpad for creative expression, as individuals and communities are experimenting beyond traditional boundaries, opening the door to increased imagination and innovation.”

How to Make the Most of Cloud Dancer in Your Home

There’s nothing more versatile than a neutral hue, and you’re probably already imagining the possibilities of bringing Cloud Dancer into your own home. Make your office feel less hectic and spur your creativity with calming white walls, and your primary bedroom will become a place of total relaxation with the airy shade. Better yet, add all-white bedspreads, and you'll feel like you're lying in the clouds.

In the living room, Cloud Dancer is about creating a beautiful gathering space for the whole family to come together. It was essential to Pantone to create a shade that signifies togetherness, so that every space in your home feels complete. Using Cloud Dancer in the spaces you visit most is an excellent way to put this shade to work.

Let’s not forget the spa bathroom, either. Pantone had this trend in mind for its color of the year, and Cloud Dancer is the exact shade you need to evoke a feeling of zen and freshness into any bathroom. Have a small space in mind? This shade of white is designed to help your home feel larger and airier, no matter where you use it.

Best of all, there’s no shade that Cloud Dancer can’t go with. It will make your favorite textures, patterns, and accent colors shine; pair it with an earthy accent wall or layer it with bold patterns to turn it into a supportive shade that ties the whole room together. 

Where You'll See Cloud Dancer in 2026

For Pantone, Cloud Dancer means a blank slate—a chance to start anew, to refresh your spaces, to celebrate the possibilities the future brings. Pantone will be touting the uplifting message of Cloud Dancer all year long by spotlighting artists who will reimagine it in their own work. 

Pantone will be releasing surprise limited-edition designs from artists they’ve partnered with throughout 2026. The realm of possibilities that you might see with Cloud Dancer this year is just as broad as the shade itself; Pantone says that they have collaborations with fashion designers to graphic artists. 

Artist partnerships aren’t the only way that Pantone is celebrating the color of the year. Brands across industries have joined Pantone in creating products in this unique shade. Joybird will bring the Cloud Dancer color to two textured fabrics, while Post-It plans to release a Neutrality collection inspired by the ethereal Cloud Dancer hue. Even Spotify has gotten in on the fun for the very first time with an official playlist curated to make you feel the same emotions that Cloud Dancer evokes.