Art Deco Interior Design
7 Popular Art Deco Paint Colors to Try at Home
Art Deco paint starts with saturated jewel tones. Emerald green, navy, deep teal and plum do most of the work, with black or charcoal underneath and warm cream or blush pink to soften it.
Exteriors went a different way. The pastel facades of Miami Beach are a restoration palette from designer Leonard Horowitz, and the 1934 Ocean Rescue Headquarters was white until the city repainted it in lavender and blue in 2025 (City of Miami Beach, 2025).
Which colors define the Art Deco palette?
Jewel tones carry the palette. Emerald green, sapphire or navy blue, deep teal and plum sit on top of black or charcoal, and warm creams and blush pinks take the edge off. Gold and brass handle the metallic side.
Saturation matters more than the exact hue. Benjamin Moore describes the style’s colors as rich and saturated, and Earthborn pairs its jewel tones with warm neutrals, charcoal and black to build depth.
Fabrics, metals and furniture fill out the broader Art Deco color scheme, but paint is the base everything else sits against.
Emerald green
Earthborn treats emerald as the one color a palette can’t skip, and suggests it for walls, panelling and furniture.
Its own version is Hobgoblin, a green with subtle blue undertones, so hold a sample next to brass before you commit. A green this deep sits well beside plenty of other shades, as this guide to what pairs with emerald green shows.
It does best in dining rooms, on panelling and on built-in furniture.
Navy and sapphire blue
Earthborn says navy works equally well on a whole room or on fitted cabinetry. Green or teal undertones keep dark blues from turning cold, which is worth checking on the swatch. Benjamin Moore coordinates Hale Navy with warm neutrals such as White Dove OC-17 and Lenox Tan HC-44.
Sapphire is the brighter option and navy is the safer start. Either one gives a room the cocooning, formal feel the 1930s favored.
Black and charcoal
Black defines edges. Livingetc calls it a grounding element of the style, often used for definition, so trim, doors and frames are its natural home.
Charcoal gives similar contrast with less harshness, and Earthborn recommends it for fireplaces, woodwork and panelling. If pure black feels too stark for the room, go with charcoal.
Burgundy and oxblood
Deep reds and plums work as feature colors, not whole-house colors.
Benjamin Moore shows Carter Plum CW-355 on powder room walls and a berry red inside a table drawer. Earthborn suggests a deep blue-purple for alcoves and built-in shelving, and for fireplaces too.
Teal and peacock blue
Earthborn lists deep teal first among the era’s jewel tones. Blue-greens suit brass fittings and geometric patterns. Aqua, a lighter relative, appears in Earthborn’s period palette graphic.
Blush pink
Pink is the soft counterpoint in the palette, and two brands include it. Benjamin Moore paints a bathroom in Pink Damask OC-72 with white wainscoting, while Earthborn offers a pink-tinged neutral called Ballet Shoe and a mauve-pink accent called Gosh Golly.
It suits bathrooms and bedrooms best, powder rooms too.
Warm whites and creams
These are the backdrop, there so the saturated shades and metals can carry the scheme. Earthborn builds its palette on a warm, chalky off-white called Hopscotch, and Benjamin Moore matches warm whites such as Swiss Coffee OC-45 and Linen White OC-146 with blacks.
Which Art Deco colors work together?
Pick one saturated base color and a warm neutral, then add metal in brass or gold. Black with warm white, emerald with gold, navy with cream and teal with brass all hold up.
| Pairing | Paint roles | Effect | Suits |
|---|---|---|---|
| Black and warm white | White walls, black trim and doors | Linear, symmetrical | Bathrooms, hallways |
| Emerald and gold | Emerald walls, gold in brass and frames | Lush, jewel-box | Dining and living rooms |
| Navy and cream | Navy walls, cream trim and ceiling | Formal, cocooning | Studies, bedrooms |
| Teal and brass | Teal wall or cabinet, brass fittings | Polished, pattern-friendly | Entryways, bathrooms |
You can’t skip the warm neutral. Earthborn calls the balance between statement shades and understated neutrals the key to an authentic scheme.
Benjamin Moore suggests black and white paint combinations on walls and trim to reflect the luxury and linearity of the style, which is also the simplest lesson in how contrast works in a room.
Gold turns up in fixtures, mirrors and frames far more often than on walls. The full range of what sits well beside it is covered in this look at colors that go with gold.
Pairings tend to go wrong in a few predictable ways.
- Two saturated colors with different undertones fight each other (JC Licht).
- Farrow & Ball brand ambassador Patrick O’Donnell advises against canary yellow with Hague Blue (Livingetc).
Too many hero walls cause trouble as well. One dominant color, one metallic and one neutral is the cleaner formula.
The exception is dark on dark. O’Donnell thinks Studio Green is an ideal partner for Hague Blue, and Livingetc describes Hague Blue on the walls with Studio Green on skirtings and architraves, a pairing that skips the neutral entirely.
What finish suits Art Deco paint?
Benjamin Moore recommends satin, pearl, semi-gloss and high gloss for the style. Gloss on a single wall or on trim reproduces the lacquered look most directly.
- High gloss is the closest match to lacquered 1920s furniture, and it works best on one wall, doors or cabinetry.
- Satin and pearl give a softer shine that holds up on larger walls.
- Semi-gloss is for trim, doors and panelling.
- Matte only works in monochrome rooms where shape does the talking.
Benjamin Moore’s own examples cover both ends. A powder room in Carter Plum CW-355 has satin-finished walls, while a monochrome sunroom in Tranquil Blue 2051-50 runs matte on walls and trim against a chevron tile floor.
Sheen is only half the effect. Livingetc notes that lacquered furniture and velvet upholstery gave period interiors their depth, so the way texture works alongside color should carry part of the load.
Gloss shows every flaw in a wall. Fill and sand first, then prime.
Skip gold paint on walls. Metallic effect belongs in brass, chrome, gold and mirrored surfaces, which Earthborn says reflected light beautifully across the period’s interiors.
Which paint colors match the Art Deco palette?
Benjamin Moore (Hale Navy HC-154, Amazon Green 2136-30, Showtime 293), Farrow & Ball (Hague Blue, Studio Green), Sherwin-Williams (Tricorn Black SW 6258) and Earthborn all sell colors that fit, and Earthborn has a ten-color Art Deco range. Everything below comes from each brand’s own product pages as of October 2026.
| Brand | Color and code | Role | Published detail |
|---|---|---|---|
| Benjamin Moore | Hale Navy HC-154 | Navy walls or trim | LRV 8.36 |
| Benjamin Moore | Amazon Green 2136-30 | Deep green walls | LRV 10.17, filed under blue |
| Farrow & Ball | Hague Blue No. 30 | Navy with green undertone | Complementary white: Wevet |
| Farrow & Ball | Studio Green No. 93 | Deep, near-black green | Appears almost black in low light |
| Sherwin-Williams | Tricorn Black SW 6258 | Trim, doors, accent walls | Neutral, interior and exterior |
| Earthborn | Hobgoblin, Toy Soldier, Hidey-Hole | Emerald, midnight blue, charcoal | Part of a 10-color Art Deco range |
Benjamin Moore names Hale Navy, Amazon Green and Showtime as part of its own Art Deco palette. Showtime is a marigold and the only mid-value color of the three, so it works as the single light accent.
Benjamin Moore files Amazon Green under blue, not green. That echoes the blue undertones in Earthborn’s Hobgoblin, so hold a sample next to brass before buying.
Dark colors lose their hue in dim rooms. Farrow & Ball says Studio Green appears almost black in low light and shows its green in brighter conditions, and it recommends its Dark Tones primer and undercoat under both Hague Blue and Studio Green.
Tricorn Black is the practical black. Sherwin-Williams lists it for interior and exterior projects, while Benjamin Moore marks Showtime as not recommended for exterior use. This guide to what goes well with a true black covers its pairings.
If you’re choosing by brand system, Farrow & Ball makes it easiest. It publishes a complementary white for each color, which removes the guesswork on the neutral.
How do you apply the palette to a room?
Start with one saturated color on the walls and bring metal in through fixtures and frames. Ceilings and trim get a warm neutral. After that, check the result against the room’s light, because aspect decides how dark jewel tones read.
Farrow & Ball’s guidance on aspect (as of October 2026) is worth reading before you pick a hero color.
- South-facing rooms get warm light for most of the day, which makes them the easiest aspect. Pale walls with bright white woodwork suit the blush and cream end of the palette.
- North-facing light is cooler and tends to bring out the green in all colors. One approach is to embrace it with deeply saturated tones, which Farrow & Ball says suit north-facing rooms, and let the room cocoon.
- West-facing rooms are cooler in the morning and brighter in the evening, so match the color to when the room is used. Cooler tones can neutralise the warm end-of-day light, so test blush pinks and soft neutrals there before committing.
- East-facing rooms are brighter in the morning and cooler in the evening. Farrow & Ball suggests soft, calming colors with an underlying warmth, so test deep blues and greens before using them in a room occupied mainly in the evening.
Here’s the order I’d build the scheme in.
- Pick the hero color from the aspect list above.
- Add one metal, such as brass, chrome or gold, in fixtures, frames and mirrors.
- Give the ceiling and trim the warm neutral.
- Put the loudest accent on a small element. Earthborn suggests a painted drinks cabinet, an interior door or shelving for its brightest shade, The Lido.
- Paint two large samples on different walls and watch them in morning, afternoon and evening light, under the bulbs you actually use.
- Work out the quantity from wall area, then apply each surface in the finish chosen for it.
Bulbs matter more than most people expect. Halogen and incandescent bulbs warm a wall color, cool white bulbs push it cooler, and a neutral white bulb comes closest to daylight, according to Farrow & Ball.
One accent wall is the lowest-commitment start, and this guide to accent wall colors for a living room covers the options.
A room paint calculator turns wall dimensions into a quantity, so the order matches the job.
In a north-facing room you have to choose first between fighting the cool light and committing to dark. The lighter half of the palette (blush, cream) belongs to the first approach, and the jewel tones to the second.
Where did the Art Deco palette come from?
The palette dates to the 1920s and 1930s, and the name comes from the 1925 Exposition Internationale des Arts Decoratifs et Industriels Modernes in Paris, which opened on April 28, 1925. Benjamin Moore traces the term “art deco” to that exposition, and Miami Beach marked the 100th anniversary in 2025 with events celebrating the exposition’s influence on its architecture.
The break with earlier styles was a turn toward modernity. Earthborn notes that Art Deco celebrated technology and travel where earlier periods looked to nature, and its interiors became more dramatic and more luxurious.
Interiors took saturated color on walls and joinery, backed by metals and polished surfaces. That is the palette brands sell today, and this explainer on what Art Deco interior design involves covers the rest of the look.
Exteriors varied by city. In New York the style leaned on metal and strong verticality, while Miami Beach developed a tropical variant, with rounded eyebrows over windows to shade the sun, portholes and ship-like lines (Art Deco Museum, Miami Beach).
The Chrysler Building shows the northern approach. Its crown is clad in approximately 4,500 plates of Nirosta stainless steel, according to the Art Deco Society of New York, so the color there is metal, not paint.
Other landmarks of the period are collected in this roundup of famous Art Deco buildings.
Why are Miami Beach Art Deco buildings pastel?
Designer Leonard Horowitz introduced the pastels in the early 1980s as a restoration palette, working with preservationist Barbara Baer Capitman to revive worn facades. Several sources describe the buildings as white, cream or beige when built, which makes the pastels a revival scheme.
Horowitz drew his colors from sunrise, sunset, the ocean in summer and winter, and the sand, according to the Miami Design Preservation League (MDPL).
He first tried them on Friedman’s Bakery, a plain white building at 7th and Washington. Its 1982 appearance on the cover of Progressive Architecture spread the look nationally.
The sources don’t fully agree on what the palette is.
- MDPL presents the palette as drawn from natural sources, while other accounts note the buildings were white, cream or beige when built, so the pastels are a 1980s revival.
- The city treats the Horowitz palette as the district’s historic scheme, and its 2025 grant program funds repainting contributing buildings in it.
- Horowitz himself said his source colors were natural ones that the original designers also used (MDPL).
The split comes down to the word “historic”. The city means the 1980s restoration, while the other sources mean the paint of the 1930s.
The first project under the 2025 program, the 1934 Ocean Rescue Headquarters at 1001 Ocean Drive, went from white to lavender and blue under designer Barbara Hulanicki’s supervision (City of Miami Beach, 2025).
A few figures help pin it down.
- The Horowitz palette has about 40 colors, developed in the early 1980s (Miami Today, reporting a city memo).
- The Miami Beach Architectural District was listed on the National Register on May 14, 1979 (National Park Service).
- The Art Deco District has more than 800 contributing buildings (City of Miami Beach, 2025).
- The painting grant covers up to 50% of eligible costs, capped at $20,000 per property (City of Miami Beach, 2025).
A facade anywhere else follows different rules. Daylight and distance change how exterior colors read, so test samples outdoors and treat masonry, frames, doors and metalwork as one scheme, as in this guide to exterior house color combinations.
When do Art Deco paint colors not work?
Dark walls fail in rooms without enough light, and saturated color struggles where nothing geometric sits beside it. Overdoing gloss and gold causes its own trouble.
- Large black walls in a room without ample daylight, according to designer Neha Garg of Studio Jane Designs (Livingetc, 2025)
- Glossy gold surfaces, which Garg says tip a refined room into overdone, so she keeps gold matte or satin
- Saturated colors with nothing geometric beside them, since Benjamin Moore pairs its palette with zigzag, chevron and checkerboard patterns
- Pastels pushed too far, which Josh Rose of Citizen Artist says lands a room under the big top
Low light is where the sources split. Farrow & Ball says deeply saturated colors suit north-facing rooms, while Garg keeps black off large walls unless daylight is ample.
The likely explanation is the scheme. Garg’s black sits inside a high-contrast room of cream and brushed gold, while Farrow & Ball’s dark walls carry the whole room.
Both positions turn on how a room receives light, which light in interior design covers in more depth.
If a dark scheme is out, the best colors for small rooms offer lighter routes to similar warmth.
Most homes no longer use textbook palettes anyway. Livingetc reports the style surviving in slimmed-down “New Deco” forms, where Rose says the colors stay lush while the shapes get simpler.
Facades in a designated district are a separate case. Miami Beach’s grant covers only the Horowitz palette on contributing buildings, so a darker or bolder scheme falls outside it, and local rules on exterior paint vary by city.
Art Deco Paint Colors FAQ
Can you mix Art Deco and mid-century modern colors?
Yes, so long as one period leads. Benjamin Moore’s page for Showtime, a marigold from its Art Deco palette, shows the color behind a midcentury dining table.
This look at how Art Deco and mid-century modern interiors compare shows where the two styles overlap.
How do Art Deco colors differ from Art Nouveau colors?
Art Deco colors are saturated and high in contrast, with black and metallics sitting next to the jewel tones. Earthborn notes that Art Deco celebrated technology and travel where earlier periods looked to nature, and geometry replaced curves.
The earlier style gets its own treatment in this overview of Art Nouveau interior design.
Can you use Art Deco colors outside a historic district?
Yes. Earthborn describes its Art Deco range as equally at home in 1930s restorations and contemporary interiors, so a period building isn’t required.
Do Art Deco colors work in a modern home?
Yes, in a disciplined form. Designers quoted by Livingetc (2025) build modern versions on a cream or ivory base with black and brushed gold, and bring rust in through velvet, suede or wood rather than paint.
How Many Art Deco Colors Does a Room Need?
One committed jewel tone per room is enough, and it should go on first where a mistake costs the least.
Try it on a door, shelving unit or cabinet first. Then move to one accent wall, sampled at three times of day, and paint the full walls only after both pass.
Small surfaces reveal a shade’s shift before the largest cost is committed. The trade-off is daylight, since saturated walls reflect less of it, so lamp placement and brass fixtures carry more of the brightness.
Product codes and Miami Beach’s 2025 grant terms were verified in October 2026 and can change, so confirm both with the brand and the city before ordering.
A room color scheme generator can test the base, metal and neutral together before a single sample pot is bought.
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