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Temperature is a key part of design, but we’re not talking about the type you see on a thermometer. We mean the kind you can identify on a color wheel. Usually, when putting together a room, designers lean in to one side of the spectrum: cool or warm. But Benjamin Moore’s 2024 color of the year announcement reminds us that there is another way. The paint purveyor just revealed Blue Nova as its standout hue for the coming year, and it happens to be a dreamy mid-tone. 

Hannah Yeo, color marketing and development manager at Benjamin Moore, calls the winner the perfect blend of blue and violet. “It falls under the cool color family because it’s blue, but it has a red undertone,” she shares, “and that allows it to work with so many different warm hues.” Yeo also notes that it’s great for those who are straddling the line between wanting to be a risk taker and wanting to play it safe: It has the reassurance of a navy blue like Mysterious, but it carries the daring qualities of Starry Night Blue as well. “It pushes you just enough so that you can feel out of your comfort zone, but not so much that you’re like, ‘I don’t feel like I’m the person to do it,’” says Yeo. 

Courtesy of Benjamin Moore

Because of its not-too-dull, not-too-bright ways, Blue Nova lends itself to a paint application we like to call color drenching, where you essentially swathe all the walls, trim, millwork, and ceiling in the same shade. Yeo recommends using it in an office with lots of built-ins and cabinets—it’ll pep up a once serious-feeling workspace. 

Courtesy of Benjamin Moore

Blue Nova, Benjamin Moore

As for color pairings, Blue Nova looks best with darker, warmer tones like Topaz, a rich terracotta. It also works wonders alongside similarly ambiguous colors such as Antique Pewter, a green-gray, and Pristine, an off-white–meets–dusty pink. And if you’re more of a traditionalist at heart, you can’t go wrong with White Dove

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Blue Nova, Benjamin Moore