Pantone has announced that its colour of the year for 2026 is ‘Cloud Dancer‘, a simple shade of dreamy white. In a step away from the status quo, this year Pantone has chosen a colour that is intended to take a back seat in designs.
Cloud Dancer is a foundational colour, one that’s not intended to stand alone but instead to be used as structure for other colours in a design.
Cloud Dancer offers interiors a lightness, an airy and serene shade to run throughout. It compliments and offers contrast to your own personal favourite colours so that your individual style can shine.
Images from Pantone
Pantone Colour of the Year 2026 Palettes
Below you will find just a few of Pantone’s fabulous Cloud Dancer palettes. You can explore the full set of palettes on Pantone.
Powdered Pastels
Pastel colours are the perfect partner to Cloud Dancer, shifting effortlessly from one another while maintaining lightness and floaty feels.
Take a Break
This palette captures the warmth of the sunny Sonoran Desert and the laid-back interiors of Arizona and Southern California. It’s a playful mix of colour, featuring Pantone hues such as Pink Lemonade, Papaya and Tea.
Light & Shadow
Light & Shadow traverses from soft and light hues through to shades of shadow. Each step offers dreamy contrast to Cloud Dancer.
Where to use Cloud Dancer?
Explore just some of the areas of our range that can help you deliver a look and feel that is akin to those created with Cloud Dancer. Try clean, soft and delicate pieces that add a lightness and tranquility to a design and that can work with other hues to deliver a calming space.
Furniture, Accessories & Soft Furnishings
In keeping with the dreamlike palettes that utilise Cloud Dancer, find white furniture pieces, accessories and soft furnishings that offer natural finishes and soft lines for a serene and relaxing feel.
PANTONE 11-4201 Cloud Dancer brings a feeling of airy lightness to all product applications and environments, whether used on its own or combined with other hues.
Laurie Pressman, Vice President, Pantone Color Institute™
Flowers and Foliage
Pantone describe Cloud Dancer as having a ‘quiet sophistication‘ and giving us ‘feelings of freshness‘. It’s considered as being a ‘natural white‘ and one that ‘evokes gentle pleasure‘.
Let this shade inspire you to explore our incredible range of artificial flowers and plants. Keep your display serene with pure white hues, or introduce sprays of colour to create mixed and contrasting displays.
Just like Cloud Dancer, some floral sprays naturally play a supporting role, enhancing and elevating the coloured blooms around them. Take Gypsophila, for example: its airy texture and cloud-like clusters of tiny white flowers make it an ideal filler, adding lightness and depth to any arrangement.
Pantone Colour of The Year 2025