It’s official: the Behr 2023 Color of the Year is Blank Canvas.
As its name suggests, this warm, just off-white shade pays homage to the open possibilities of the present. The Behr team—who picked the shade on the heels of a relatively quiet time, when life for many remained at home or in the virtual realm—knew that the announcement of the Behr 2023 Color of the Year would happen in a period comparatively teeming with activity. Blank Canvas celebrates that restoration of life and acknowledges that the future of home will look different from its past.
For Erika Woelfel, the paint brand’s vice president of color and creative services, at least some of those differences have to do with color. “As we think about 2023, it’s really about a fresh start,” she tells AD PRO. “How are you living in a space now that you’re not confined to it? What are the most reliable colors you can use to get this project done while still creating a beautiful statement that expresses your personality and the mood you want to convey in your home?”
A warm-toned white, the newly crowned Behr 2023 Color of the Year is more creative than clinical, more artisanal than sterile. Blank Canvas is incredibly versatile, seamlessly assimilating to any style of design, and it also exudes meaningful qualities on its own. “It’s the starting point building the rest of your decor elements and your colors, and it brings a peaceful, serene, harmonious mood into any space,” Woelfel says. “It’s that perfect artistic color for people to start expressing their creativity.”
Even though there are few colors that wouldn’t work with Blank Canvas if approached the right way, Blank Canvas’s ability to complement other shades in Behr’s latest Designer Collection underscore its adaptability. Using Blank Canvas alongside a fellow white—such as Behr’s Whipped Cream—as a trim can serve to spotlight interesting architectural elements while tapping into what Woelfel sees as a trend toward white-on-white arrangements. Decidedly warm neutrals, like Even Better Beige or the near-earthy brown of Basketry, also fit the bill.
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For those who took last year’s trend towards natural colors to heart (exemplified in part by Breezeway, Behr’s 2022 Color of the Year), Blank Canvas can tame the vivid Vine Leaf or sit comfortably alongside Adirondack Blue. And even at the polar opposite end of the spectrum, Black and Blank Canvas can find common ground. Woelfel also cites the resurgence of textured wall treatments as an opportunity for Blank Canvas to serve as more of a star feature than a simple backdrop.
Much like a freshly stretched canvas perched on an easel, Blank Canvas has complexities from every angle. Woelfel notes how it can “create that open, atmospheric, spacious feeling,” even in cramped quarters. It can also add a useful dash of warmth compared to cooler whites, an especially appealing quality in more northern homes with longer winters and shorter days. “It’s a color that just envelops you in warmth,” Woelfel says. “Where the natural daylight is cooler, [Blank Canvas] helps a home still feel welcoming and engaging.”
For maximalists who may feel that Behr’s color fan decks may have more thrilling options, don't be so quick to dismiss white: Color is all about context. Blank Canvas is all about an openness to the possibilities of the present and the flexibility to thrive no matter what the future has in store. That’s something that not every pigment can do—unless it’s the color designed to make room for anything one can envision.
