Modern Desert
Select naturally occurring earthy colors and sunset hues to create the desert aesthetic in your home.
✔️Paint interior walls white focusing on color in your artwork and textiles. A black statement wall can achieve a very dramatic backdrop to the neutral desert color scheme.
✔️Layer textures using throw blankets and pillows. Longer shag neutral rugs tie the space together and help anchor your large furniture.
✔️Keep wall and shelf decor simplified but with high interest, handcrafted pieces.
✔️ Decorate with cacti or succulents
Modern Desert Living/Dining
Southwest Inspired Bedrooms
Sources: 1/2/3/4/5/6/7/8
Sources: 1/ 2/ 3/ 4/ 5/ 6/ 7/ 8/ 9
Find more Modern Desert inspiration on my Pinterest board to easily start transforming your own space with a few key items.
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Southwest Color by Region
Earthy Southwestern colors pair beautifully with handcrafted textures, adobe, wood beams and other majestic regional influences to evoke a serene, sunbaked warmth.
Infuse your home with the grounded energy of a Southwestern color palette including ochre, sand, muted greens and other terrestrial hues.
Create your own Southwest color scheme with these popular paint colors inspired by the region.
Create a Southwest Interior Color Palette
From the deserts of New Mexico and Arizona to the mountains of Colorado and the southern tip of California, the Southwest color palette offers radiant, invigorating colors as well as organic and calming ones.
Traditional Southwestern style reflects Native American, Spanish and agricultural influences. If you’re looking to refresh a southwestern look, add a few modern design elements into your room. Here, walls in soft and airy Palladian Blue HC-144, an Eames-style rocking chair, and a sleek pendant light add a dash of energy to the southwestern motifs and handwoven textiles.
Stronger Southwest-inspired colors like Garrison Red HC-66, York Harbor Yellow 2154-40 and Driftwood 2107-40 are great options for an accent wall to set off art and treasured objects.
The Easy Elegance of Southwestern Style
Whether you have a spectacular view of the Sierra Nevada or a more modest backyard adorned with your favorite flowers and shrubs, off-white is always a popular color choice for home exteriors, including stucco.
Given the region’s sun exposure, whites like Evening White OC-81 and Atrium White OC-145 are smart choices since they don’t absorb as much heat as darker colors do. A white painted exterior is also a go-to backdrop for accents like terra cotta pots full of flowering succulents, teak furniture, or the classic hammock. If you want a hint of color outside, consider Shaker Beige HC-45 or Louisburg Green HC-113, paint colors that harmonize beautifully with a Southwestern landscape.
Regional Color Palettes
Get expertly curated regional color palettes and design inspiration.
Color Families
See our most popular paint colors from each color family, get design tips and more.
Sherwin-Williams’ 2019 Color of the Year Is Inspired by the Southwest
Carefree bohemian. Modern cowgirl. Unbridled adventure. Southwestern twist.
This is how Sherwin-Williams describes the inspiration behind its 2019 color of the year, Cavern Clay, which aims to help you bring the breathtaking desert landscape and its warmth indoors.
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“Envision beaches, canyons and deserts, and sun-washed late summer afternoons — all of this embodied in one color,” said Sue Wadden, director of color marketing for Sherwin-Williams, in a press release.
Cavern Clay is described as “where soul meets earth” in a promotional video as well as a “nod to mid-century modern style, but with the soul of the American Southwest.”
Think Sedona, Antelope Canyon and really anywhere in Arizona and the rest of the Southwest where you’re met with glittering red rocks, blue skies and sherbet sunsets.
According to the Sherwin-Williams press release, the color is also inspired by the “renaissance of the ‘70s,” but with a twist.
“In the coming year, we will embrace our pioneering spirits and artisan ingenuity,” said Wadden. “Our 2019 Color of the Year, Cavern Clay, embodies renewal, simplicity and free-spirited, bohemian flair.”
According to Sherwin-Williams, Cavern Clay fits in well in environments that boast exposed floors, wood furniture, leather upholstery and worldly textiles. To take things one step further and fully embrace the color, they suggest embracing furniture with patina, adding a Southwestern rug and integrating greenery, like indoor houseplants and cacti outdoors.
“Cavern Clay is an ideal color for flattering and design-forward aesthetics — it plays well with many types of lighting and brings this visual of the expansive and free outside world to interiors, resulting in open and versatile public spaces,” Wadden says.
As part of the Wanderer color journal in Sherwin-Williams’ 2019 Colormix Color Forecast, Cavern Clay’s complementary colors include four other shades: Origami White (a very light-gray color), Distance (a soft blue), Moth Wing (a lighter brown color) and Dark Clove (brown).
The other color journals include Shapeshifter, comprised of dark blues and inspired by the rings of Saturn, artificial intelligence, spiritualism and healing energy.
Aficionado is comprised of copper, gold, merlot and dark gray and inspired by reading nooks, British accents, tweedy menswear and ‘60s nostalgia.
Enthusiast is a much bolder and vivid collection, inspired by “coxy chaos” and opulence.
Naturalist’s palette has pink, green and other nature- and floral-inspired hues.
Lastly, Raconteur is inspired by “luxury safaris” and spice markets.
