Garden Media's color of the year: Cyber Lime, will energize your home.

Choosing colors for home decor can quickly become overwhelming, so it’s beneficial to turn to experts touting the latest trends.

Garden Media Group’s 2024 Garden Trends report named Cyber Lime its Color of the Year. Overall, the report highlighted eco-optimism, which encompasses sustainability, climate change solutions, the future of horticulture and colors that echo nature.

Garden Media Group calls its mission instilling a passion for nature and love of gardening to all generations to improve environmental health and support human well-being. It describes Cyber Lime as vivid, punchy and powerful as it exemplifies the intersection of nature and technology during this moment in history.

We asked Garden Media Group president Katie Dubow and Happy Place Interiors owner and home stylist Melanie Zaelich why Cyber Lime was chosen, and how you can successfully incorporate it into your home.

Why Is the Color of the Year Significant?

Every year, design experts announce the new trends. Zaelich turns to the Color of the Year for guidance because it typically represents our current cultural state and our hopes for the future. “It’s a visual representation of where we are and where we want to go,” she says.

The Garden Media Group has picked Colors of the Year for 22 years. Besides being fun, Dubow says it helps her team stay innovative and inspires creativity throughout the industry.

Incorporating an annual trendy color into marketing campaigns, packaging and product design can effectively capture consumer attention while conveying a strong sense of modernity and in-the-moment relevance, she says.

“The annual announcement of the color has become a cherished tradition,” she says, “both within the design world and our garden world, infusing excitement and anticipation into the creative process, eagerly awaited by professionals and enthusiasts alike.”

It also gets DIYers excited about new projects to tackle.

Why Cyber Lime for 2024?

Zaelich turns to her color psychology and design background to assess why this color, and why now.

“I believe Cyber Lime was selected because it is bright, fresh and lively,” she says. “Green is the color of nature, of life and wellness. After the past few years, and all the current issues our world is facing, this bold color adds a splash of fun and vibrancy we all need. It’s truly the most optimistic color.”

Dubow says designers, inspired by the environment, are increasingly using colors that echo nature in a movement called greenterior. “More than color, greenterior mixes sustainability and environmental awareness with harmony in nature,” she says.

She also notes how Cyber Lime relates to technology. “As we veer more into a tech-forward world, this hyper-bright green signifies the powerful connection between nature and technology,” Dubow says. “The body and mind are stimulated and energized by this zesty, near-neon color.”

What Colors Go Best With Cyber Lime?

Despite its vivid appearance, Dubow says Cyber Lime can be used with many colors. Garden Media Group’s top pairings include:

• Black: The sharp contrast between Cyber Lime and black creates a sleek and high-impact look that conveys modernity and sophistication.
• Electric blue: Create a vibrant and energetic color scheme perfect for futuristic projects.
• Purple: This creates a visually striking contrast with Cyber Lime.
• Fuchsia: Combined with a bright green, fuchsia creates a bold, attention-grabbing color palette.
• White and tan: Cyber Lime also matches well with these neutrals.

However, Zaelich says the colors coordinated with Cyber Lime offer similar vibrancy and intensity. “It needs to be a crisp, clean, bright color,” she says. “Be careful putting Cyber Lime next to a color that is muted, earthy or dusty because they will clash.”

She recommends Cyber Lime with a rich navy blue, black, or charcoal gray. For a more colorful look, try it with fuchsia, vibrant teal or bright orange.

Ideas for Using Cyber Lime in Home Decor

According to Zaelich, Cyber Lime is an excellent color for decorating. “The vibe you want to create will dictate how much of this great color is enough and how committed you want to be with this color,” she says.

Though this color is bold, it has been around in various forms for decades. Here are a few tips for adding a punch of Cyber Lime to your home.

Decorative accents

Bring in a fresh pop of Cyber Lime without a permanent commitment.

Zaelich recommends adding the color to your living room, kitchen or home office with fun geometric artwork, table lamps, throw pillows and other non-permanent accents. Even a Cyber Lime accent chair would look powerful in a modern room or home office.

Plants

Neon lime houseplants are trending because they make the dramatic statement people are looking for, Dubow says.

“With their bright, eye-catching color, they shine equally in a corner of a room as on social media,” she says. “Most are also relatively easy to care for, making them a good choice for beginner plant parents.”

Examples include philodendron lemon meringue, golden violin and lemon lime; neon pothos; dracaena limelight; and limelight coleus.

Paint

This is a fantastic color to use for an accent wall or in a nook for a lively playroom, gym or entertainment zone.

Fixed features

If you really want to make a statement, Zaelich suggests using this color as a modern, stunning front door for a navy blue, charcoal or black house. In a mid-modern home, Cyber Lime would work well for a vertical backsplash tile in the kitchen.