Formulators, chemists, and designers have been busy developing new products and new color designs and schemes for 2016. Color trends have changed and new formulas have been developed that are both more environmentally friendly and easier to apply.
The major paint manufacturers have refined their single application paints for wider use in 2016. A single application paint is a primer and a paint in a single package. The idea is to enable you to do less work painting a bare wall and have fewer problems covering an existing color in one coat.
One of the most dramatic changes in paint that will be seen in 2016 is 100 percent solids paint. This means there are no solvents that escape into the atmosphere with the possible exception of water. The solvents in the paint become a part of the polymer structure as the paint dries. An added bonus of this environmentally friendly paint is that it lasts longer than older paints. No bad smell is an added bonus.
New formulations have made paint application easier for the professional and the so-it-yourself painter. Many of the newer formulations have been specifically adapted to address the more common use of spray applicators by the nonprofessional. The paints spray easier, sag less, and produce fewer drips than any paint made before.
Color has become more vivid and more durable thanks to new developments in colorants and the increasing use of computerized technology to formulate paint in the research and development stage. The trend produces a much higher consistency in color between cans and batches of paint.
However, for those thinking of selling their homes neutrals are still the most effective colors to showcase a home and increase its salability. In fact, Sherwin Williams has declared their 2016 Color of the Year to be Alabaster (SW 7008). Here’s a link to their Color of the Year article.
Most of the large paint companies are promoting white and the use of white to produce dramatic effects. White is really in the eye of the beholder. The varieties of white paints range from high glossy bright white to a soft matte white.
Home decorators and designers are promoting the use of white in some parts of a room surface to highlight and accentuate the color of the rest of the room. The effect can be startlingly dramatic or can be a soft understatement. The variety of colors that can be had off the shelf or ordered specially made has increased almost exponentially with color matching equipment that makes the paint while you wait.
Much more color variety, using white to make a statement, extreme environmental friendliness, ease of application, and higher levels of durability are expected in paint for 2016.