Sherwin-Williams Color of the Year 2027 has officially been named, and we’re excited to introduce you to the big winner: Celery SW 6421.
This soft, airy herbal green feels fresh, elegant, and thoughtfully lived in. It reads more like a warm, livable, grounded green than the bright vegetable green its name may suggest. If you’re looking for a balanced tone and a calm, comforting feel, Celery delivers.
If you’re a Raleigh-area homeowner wondering how to bring this 2027 paint color trend into your home, read on for our take on how Celery will work in your house, where it will look good, and where you should think twice about using it. We’re going beyond what the color is and diving into how it works in Triangle homes, especially in our natural southern light.
If you read our blog post on last year’s color picks, you’ll notice the trends continue to move toward warmer, more nature-inspired colors. Just remember: you don’t need to repaint your entire house just because a paint company named a new Color of the Year.
Here’s what to know about Celery before you head to the store and start painting.
In This Post
What Sherwin-Williams Celery Paint Actually Is
When you read the name Celery, you might picture a bright, neon green. However, Celery SW 6421 is much softer and more muted than that. It’s a light, muted green with a noticeable yellow warmth to it. Sherwin-Williams describes it as a soft, muted green with subtle yellow undertones that brings a light and airy presence to a room.
On the wall, it sits somewhere between a soft green, a warm neutral, and a very light khaki. Celery doesn’t come across like a traditional statement green. It’s more like a tinted neutral, which means it behaves like a neutral in a room but carries enough color to keep walls from going flat.
Sherwin-Williams has positioned the color around the ideas of wellness, balance, connection, and creating a more restorative feel at home.
A few words to describe it:
- Soft
- Natural
- Warm
Not:
- Bold
- Jewel-toned
- Saturated
Those characteristics are what make it interesting for Raleigh homes.
We like to think of it like this: a Color of the Year is a forecast, not a rule. The fact that a manufacturer selected a color doesn’t mean it’s automatically right for your kitchen, living room, or entire house.
When choosing a color for your home, ask yourself: Does this color work with my home’s light, my fixed finishes, and the way I actually use the space?
How Celery SW 6421 Reads in Triangle Light
Our Light Is Different, and It Changes the Color
One of the biggest mistakes homeowners make with paint color is assuming the color they see on a sample will look exactly the same on their walls.
We can almost guarantee you it won’t.
Raleigh-area homes get a mix of strong southern natural light, filtered light, shade from mature trees, and artificial light. A room surrounded by tall pines can read completely differently from a room in a newer Apex or Holly Springs subdivision with fewer trees and more direct sun.
Celery is a color where that difference matters.
In a room with warm natural light, its yellow undertones can become more noticeable, making it feel warmer and almost creamy. In a room surrounded by greenery, the green can come forward.
That’s part of what makes it appealing, but it’s also why we wouldn’t recommend choosing it from a small paint chip without testing it first.
North-Facing vs. South-Facing Rooms
The direction your room faces can also change the balance.
North-facing rooms tend to have cooler, more consistent natural light, which can bring out the softer sage side of Celery.
South-facing rooms generally get warmer, stronger light, which can emphasize the butter-yellow side of the color and make Celery feel warmer and brighter.
In the wrong room, that shift can make a yellow-green look dingy or even slightly institutional. That’s not a reason to rule out Celery. Test it before committing so you’re not left with regrets halfway through coat number two.
How to Test Sherwin-Williams Celery Paint Properly
Celery is a color you definitely don’t want to judge from a phone screen, a Pinterest photo, or a tiny paint store chip.
Use a large sample in the actual room and look at it:
- In the morning
- Around midday
- In the evening
- Under your home’s artificial lighting
- Next to your existing floors, countertops, cabinets, trim, and furniture
Our guide on how to test paint colors without painting the wall walks through a simple way to do this before you commit. You can also read our guide on how to choose the best paint color for your house if you’re deciding between several options (or feel completely overwhelmed and don’t know where to start).
Where Celery Works in a Raleigh Home and Where It Doesn’t
Celery has plenty of potential, but we wouldn’t treat it like a universal neutral.
Rooms Where It Earns Its Place
Kitchens and kitchen cabinetry: This may be one of the strongest places to use Celery. The soft green works naturally with wood tones, stone, brass, and other finishes that are common in Triangle kitchens. If you want to bring color into the kitchen without making the whole space feel colorful, cabinetry or an island is a good place to start. See more ideas in our post on kitchen cabinet color inspiration.
Home offices and studies: If you like the wellness idea behind Sherwin-Williams’ pick, this is a natural place to use the color. Celery brings some personality to a workspace without the intensity of a much darker green. It’s lighter and airier, which is great for an office.
Powder rooms and smaller spaces: A powder room is a good place to experiment with a color like Celery. You can use more color in a small space without committing to it throughout the main living areas.
Sunrooms and covered porches: Celery’s connection to the outdoors makes sense in spaces with plenty of windows and views of landscaping. The natural colors outside will play off Celery’s warm hues.
Rooms to Be Careful In
The biggest thing to watch with Celery is existing yellow undertones.
If your room already has honey oak floors, golden builder-grade trim, yellow-toned cabinets, or a lot of warm brass, adding a yellow-green to the walls can push the entire room warmer than you intended.
Low-light rooms are another consideration. Celery’s freshness is part of what makes it appealing, and a room without much natural light may not let that quality show.
We’d also be cautious about using it as a whole-house neutral. Celery can absolutely work across multiple spaces, but its personality becomes more apparent the more of it you use.
The Lower-Commitment Version
If you like Celery but aren’t ready to use it across large spaces, start small.
Try it on:
- A kitchen island
- Built-in cabinetry
- A powder room
- One accent wall
- A home office
- A single bedroom
An accent wall is a low-effort, low-risk way to experiment with a color like Celery. Our guide to painting accent walls has more ideas for using color without committing to an entire room.
One more thing to keep in mind: Color of the Year selections are trends. An accent wall or a run of cabinets is much easier to repaint a few years down the road than an entire first floor.
What to Pair With Celery
Sherwin-Williams’ curated palette for Celery gives homeowners plenty of options for building a color scheme. It pairs grounding neutrals with deeper purples, blues, and reds, while natural wood tones add another layer of warmth.
The palette includes:
- Potentially Purple SW 6821
- Artichoke SW 6179
- Cocoon SW 6173
- Kirsch Red SW 6313
- Cosmos SW 6528
- Georgian Bay SW 6509
- Plum Brown SW 6272
- White Flour SW 7102
- Woven Wicker SW 9104
- Pickled Oak MW 260 (a Minwax wood stain)
You can view the full palette on Sherwin-Williams’ Color of the Year page.
For Raleigh homes, wood may be one of the easiest places to start complementing Celery. Natural oak, medium wood stains, and other warm wood tones can keep Celery from feeling too pastel or overly sweet. Warm neutrals create a softer, more cohesive combination, while darker accents give the color more contrast.
Don’t forget about trim either. A stark, cool white isn’t the best partner for a warm yellow-green. Depending on the rest of your home, a softer warm white trim may create a more natural transition.
Lastly, consider the sheen. A muted color can look very different depending on the finish, and walls need a finish that balances appearance with the durability the space requires. If you’re unsure where to start, our guide to the best sheen for interior walls can help.
What About Gray?
If your home is still built around cool gray walls, Celery is an interesting color to consider alongside them.
For more than a decade, cool grays dominated a lot of interior palettes. Warmer neutrals and nature-inspired greens have gained ground since. That doesn’t mean you need to eliminate every gray in your house just to keep up.
Instead, look at the undertones. A cool blue-gray creates more contrast next to Celery, while a warmer greige makes a smoother transition. If you’re working with an existing gray palette, our guide to the best gray paint colors for your house can help you identify what you’re working with before introducing a new color.
Don’t Rule Out Benjamin Moore’s 2027 Color of the Year (Coming Soon)
At the time of writing, Benjamin Moore has not announced its 2027 Color of the Year. The company says its Color of the Year and Color Trends 2027 will be revealed in October 2026.
We’ll update this section once that announcement is made.
For now, Celery is the 2027 Color of the Year pick to know if you’re planning a paint project and want to see where paint color trends are headed.
Thinking About Celery for Your Own Paint Project?
Just like we don’t recommend going all in on Celery from a paint chip, we don’t want you to decide based on this blog post alone.
Check out the palette, put samples up in the actual room, and look at them at different times of day and under different light. Compare them with your existing finishes and furniture and pay attention to how the color changes through the day. You can also bring the color up during your painting walkthrough.
At Oak City Coatings, our color consultant can help you look at the color in the whole room: against your flooring, countertops, cabinets, trim, and furniture, and in your natural light. That helps you pin down the overall feel you’re after and whether Celery fits it.
Learn more about your color journey with Oak City Coatings.
Oak City Coatings is a local Wake County family business serving homeowners throughout Raleigh, Cary, Apex, Holly Springs, Fuquay-Varina, Morrisville, Garner, and surrounding communities.
Ready to Bring Celery Into Your Home?
Sherwin-Williams’ 2027 Color of the Year, Celery SW 6421, is more flexible than its name might suggest.
It’s a soft, warm yellow-green that brings color and personality to a space without the intensity of a traditional green. But because its undertones shift with natural light and surrounding finishes, testing it in your actual space is a must. Trust us, you don’t want to skip this step.
For many Raleigh-area homes, we’d look at Celery as a feature color first (cabinetry, a powder room, an office, an accent wall, or another defined space) rather than automatically treating it as a whole-house neutral.
If you’re considering Celery or another color for an upcoming interior repaint, we’d be happy to help you weigh the options and find a color that works for your home.
Visit our contact page to book an interior estimate or color consultation with our team.
