Handmade Luxury Home follows up on one of its most popular posts: the prediction favourite colours for 2027. Three colours chosen by textile artist Marga van der Vet and fine artist Paula Kuitenbrouwer get their poetical name.
We predicted in -Pantone Colour for 2027 as predicted by HLH- three fresh colours: Naples Yellow, Matcha Green, and Ocean Blue to become dominant in 2027. These colours are known in the textile, fine arts world, and in matcha café's by many names. It is almost as if every trade has its own colour names.
Recently, I visited a ceramic workshop and on their colour chart I noticed that Jade or Matcha Green was named Lizard Green. Of course I liked that name. It reminded me at the emerald green lizards in Tuscany.
We have sat down and given our predicted colours for 2027 wonderful new names, recognisable for all and sundry. Enjoy our overview!
Naples Yellow becomes 'Cereal Swirl'
We’ve found a new name for Naples Yellow for 2027—one that can be adopted by all of us. We imagine this colour as vast, sun-drenched grain fields, where a soft breeze plays with the field's hues, creating a poetic gradient of yellow.
Why grain fields? Because since the war in Ukraine, we’ve watched their fields be destroyed. Because after the drought of summer 2026, we’ve heard farmers pleading for fresh water. These fields sustain our global population. We need them. We need water, sun, and earth. We need to see dark barren soil transform into this poetic yellow that keeps world hunger at bay. We simply love Cereal Swirl. But why the Swirl?
Cereal Swirl is a lovely alliteration with an active, dynamic quality—the swirl Van Gogh captured so beautifully in his paintings, the movement of the soft wind, and the playful shades of yellow that charm us so deeply.
Vincent Van Gogh, Wheatfield With a Reaper, September, 1889.
Matcha Green becomes 'Healthy Forest'
Matcha Green is a no-brainer for lovers of this refreshing, uplifting Japanese brew. True matcha enthusiasts can judge its quality by its colour: a deep, fresh green is most likely Premium Matcha. Matcha with a tint of yellow or beige is of a lesser quality. (Of course, there’s nothing wrong with more affordable matcha—just as with coffee and tea, one chooses a brand to suit one's budget.)
That said, matcha isn’t universally known. Many haven’t tried it yet, or have tried it and decided it’s not for them. Fair enough! Just as tea and coffee lovers often stick to their own.
For 2027, Matcha Green needs a more broader and active name, and therefore we propose Healthy Forest. Why? Because the devastating forest fires across Europe in the summer of 2026 broke our hearts. Forests provide us with oxygen, purify the air, offer shade, and serve as homes for countless insects, birds, and mammals. We need healthy forests for our health, recreation, and agro-forestry.
That urgent need for forests is reason enough to give one of the most recognisable colours a name like Healthy Forest. Healthy Forest evokes a sense of heaven—it sounds happy, active, and poetical. It captures all the elements you’d captured in a colour name.
Ocean Blue becomes 'Fresh Water'
For the name Ocean Blue, we didn't want to stray away too much from the link between blue and water.
Oceans are dynamic and invigorating, and we admire their ever-shifting hues of blue. While Sky Blue could be proposed, it would differ too little. An ocean has no inherent colour—it derives its appearance from the interplay of light, the sky, and the sea floor. Therefore, we have a new name: Fresh Water. Not desalinated water, not chlorinated water, no treated water, just fresh fresh water.
Fresh water will become an expensive commodity in the future. We all depend 100% on fresh water, for drinking, our hygiene, our production of food. It is our first and foremost human need. It deserves to be the name of a colour.
Most colour names originate from or refer to nature, the substances (often their ingredients, or the substances they are associated with), as well as their cultural, historical and artistic references.
Take Naples Yellow. It is a pigment historically produced in Naples. Take coffee brown: no explanation needed. Or take Lapis Lazuli from Afghanistan, which -in fact- has a deep ultramarine blue colour. Or Burnt Umber: which is a natural earth pigment composed of iron oxide and manganese oxide. The name umber comes from the Italian region Umbría, where it was historically mined. "Burnt" refers to the process of heating raw umber to deepen its colour.
There is more. We add a lot of emotions to the names of colour. Take Blush Pink. Or Baby Blue.
Food also provides an important inspiration: honey gold, or olive green.
We love thinking about new names for existing colours. Why not join our effort finding new names? Comment with your suggestions and we might integrate these into our post.
Marga van der Vet
Paula Kuitenbrouwer
~artisans at Handmade Luxury Home~
Disclaimer: We are not sure that the names we suggest in this post already exist. In that case...what a wonderful synchronicity. It shows the multiple aspects of thinking about colour that flood the mind. Language, feelings, culture, personal preferences, and environments, all these neural pathways collide like planets.
Add comment
Comments