This Is the Most Versatile Color for Your Home, According to Top Designers

"Everyone has done a brown room," says New York–based Markham Roberts. The decorator and two-time author knows of what he speaks: His own mentor and former boss, Mark Hampton, was known for his love of the rich color—as were many other influential 20th-century designers such as David Hicks, Albert Hadley, and Billy Baldwin.

For Roberts, the fervor for the rich hue comes from the color's composite nature. "It has a bit of all colors in it, so every color looks beautiful against it." As Baldwin proved time and again, the warm neutral paint color is an ideal foil for artwork with bold colors (which is one of the 2021 color trends predicted by top interior designers).

Although brown may feel like an unexpected color for your home, the rich color remains a perennial favorite among top designers, particularly for dining rooms, home libraries, living rooms, and staircases ranging in style from formal and traditional to casual and contemporary. Here, discover our 10 best brown paint colors, inspired by rooms decorated by some of the design world's most legendary brown devotees.