A Surprisingly Versatile Blue

Rust-Oleum's 2025 Color of the Year was a warm hue that highlighted cozy shades found in nature, but Lagoon emphasizes bold, modern colors with a vintage feel. "While 2025 embraced biophilic design and the beauty of nature indoors, 2026 ushers in an exciting evolution," Katdare says.

Lagoon elevates other colors to create an uplifting and grounded space. It fits into nearly any design style, adding a bit of color to bohemian charm, functional minimalism, or modern sophistication. It's also ideal for any DIY project thanks to its spray format, whether used indoors or out.

Rust-Oleum's Color Watch 2026

Lagoon anchors Rust-Oleum's Color Watch 2026: Balanced Optimism Palette, which blends vibrant hues and soft neutrals to foster creativity and harmony. Katdare says the Balanced Optimism Palette "blends serene, soft hues that evoke calm and comfort with bold, expressive accents."

The palette showcases the versatility of Lagoon, revealing its effortless cohesion into already established spaces. The shade complements both bold colors and calming neutrals, creating a palette that inspires and uplifts. The colors featured with Lagoon include navy blue, gold, bright red, gray blue, pale pink, cool beige, terra-cotta, and dark brown.

The Balanced Optimism palette provides colors to mix and match all year long. In winter, Rust-Oleum recommends spray-painting candleholders or decorative trays in its Poppy Red, anchoring the vibrant color with Day Dreaming on a piece of furniture for a blue-gray, serene effect. Match Lagoon with Poppy Red for a fun, coastal twist in the summer, or pair Lagoon with vintage gold accents to create a cozy and elegant space in the fall.

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Driving Influences

Color experts across the brand explore influences in fashion, design, and nature to select one color to represent each year. This past year, they saw variations of Lagoon across all these influences and designed the rest of their 2026 palette around it. "Lagoon was selected for its brilliance and its remarkable emotional range," Katdare says.

The goal of Rust-Oleum's Color Watch program is to inspire the incorporation of modern color trends into spaces that are already decorated and complete. The program recommends updating existing items rather than replacing them to keep up with fleeting trends. It, of course, spotlights the color of the year, along with shades that complement it best, designed to either harmonize the palette or stand out.

Rust-Oleum offers this year's color of the year in its popular spray paint, Painter's Touch 2X Ultra Cover Satin Lagoon, to add a spirited touch to rooms by painting wood, metal, wicker, or plastic decor items. However, this year's palette also includes cabinet and wall paints, as well as wood stains.