Chartreuse makes an unexpected return for fall 2025

Pantone may have dubbed Peach Fuzz the official Color of the Year, but 2024 belonged – culturally, if not chromatically – to Brat Green. The acid-sick, highlighter-adjacent yellow-green was popularized by Charli XCX’s Brat era and, much like the album, delivered maximalist club-kid chaos to the power of 12. But if you loved it for its confidence – or even if you didn’t – chartreuse, its calmer, arguably more design-literate cousin, is back. And this time, the electric color trend isn’t peaking for summer. It’s cozying up for fall.

‘As the weather turns colder and we lose the green outdoors, chartreuse can keep things feeling fresh and alive, even when it’s dismal out the window,’ says New York–based interior designer Tara McCauley (and self-proclaimed Charli XCX fan). ‘I loved seeing bold Brat Green everywhere last year, but that was really more of a lime, less chartreuse – chartreuse skews more yellow.’

Chelcie Eastman and Gray Benko of Magnolia Network’s Happy to Be Home – and the lifestyle brand Gray Benko Home – are equally bullish on the interior design trend’s return. ‘Chartreuse has this instant energy to it,’ says Gray. ‘After the last few years of softer palettes, people are craving something that feels alive and optimistic. For fall, when homes tend to lean darker and cozier, chartreuse brings that unexpected spark. It wakes up a room and keeps it from feeling heavy.’

‘Chartreuse is not shy. It needs to be used intentionally,’ adds Chelcie. ‘We think of it as a rockstar accent color. A patterned wallpaper, a single chair in velvet, or even a stripe can completely transform a space.’

And while it’s having a moment for fall color trends 2025, like Brat Green did last summer, chartreuse is nothing new. ‘When I think of chartreuse, I think of Andy Warhol’s Marilyn Diptych, Emilio Pucci’s bold fashion of the 60s, or its presence in pop culture during the 90s and 2000s, from The Fresh Prince to Britney Spears’ iconic VMA performance with an albino python,’ says Houston-based designer Sherrell Neal. ‘For me, it is very much nostalgic.’

Still, she’s particularly interested in how the room color is being used today. ‘When used as draperies, it reads as confident and collected, never accidental,’ Sherrell explains. She’s already eyeing green paints like Benjamin Moore’s Citrus Burst in high-gloss lacquer behind built-ins, or Farrow & Ball’s Green Ground paired with floral chintz. ‘To cozy it up during winter, I’d balance it with inky navy, deep espresso, or even chalky mauve.’