12 Daring Paint Colors You Need to Try Right Now

"I'm looking at yellow now in a different way. To me, it's classic American decorating, but I'm rethinking it for a modern context. It looks great with blue and white, which is how it was traditionally used. But try it with a red-and-white toile, a black-and-white check, a tartan plaid, or a floral chintz, which I am seriously into again." —Anthony Baratta

"I used this bold lavender in a hip teenager's bedroom. It's both smart and sporty, and it sets off silver beanbag chairs, oversize white fur pillows, and big geometric Jonathan Adler bedding. It feels sophisticated and is a great transitional color for a girl who has outgrown pink." —Jean Larette

"I have a room with red velvet furniture and I put hot pink on the walls, breaking all the rules I was taught in school. Other rooms are purple, pea green, and Mykonos blue, creating this wonderful pathway of color through a dark interior. I see these colors in my head, and it's like having a mystical experience. I have to incorporate them into my world." —Hunt Slonem

"Think Frank Sinatra in the bar of the Fontainebleau in Miami Beach. This teal green has that kind of 1950s retro chic. And when you walk into a room saturated in color, it's stimulating. It would definitely give you a head start on a cocktail party. I'd pair it with rich gold metals, smoky black glass, and cardinal-red velvet for serious glamour." —John Bossard

"This is a cross between orange and red, very cheerful and exotic. It would be great fun in a guest room, with lots of patterned fabrics in blues and greens and violets. Guests will feel transported to some wonderful place far, far away." —Sara Bengur

"A guest room on the third floor of an 18th-century house needed a kick of color, and this orange is warm and invigorating. In the morning when the sun comes in, it glows. And the color is not so shocking when it's tempered by the dark sleigh beds and the orange and white stripes. People always feel cozy in this room." —Amelia T. Handegan

"This sock-it-to-you purple is not shy, and I would use it with humor, taking Lilly Pulitzer as my muse. She had an all-white kitchen except for the biggest, brightest purple refrigerator. It was such fun. Be inventive — you could paint that ball-and-claw bathtub." —Mimi McMakin

"This is what I like to call the money color. We selected it for a game room in a private club and then applied nine coats of lacquer to make it glow. It recalls the British racing green of a vintage Jaguar or the classic feel of the courts at Wimbledon. It's a true green without too much yellow or blue to knock it down." —Ken Fulk

"I just discovered this new color from Farrow & Ball. It's bright yellow with an acid undertone, a lightning bolt of color that could work on old plaster walls in a country house or as an accent in an apartment. Guaranteed to provide instant elation, no matter your state of mind." —Philip Gorrivan

"This reminds me of a summer sky just after sunset — that time of day when you're relieved the heat has passed. You wish this serene, quiet moment could last forever as you sit on the patio, enjoying the soft sound of locusts humming as the first stars make their appearance across the exhilaratingly beautiful blue-violet sky." —Mary Anne Smiley

"Teal is often misunderstood. It can go from extraordinary to just plain wrong, like a bad 1970s appliance. But it can also be rich, enveloping, and, most important, flattering. It's one of those colors the English have embraced — very Upstairs, Downstairs. Use it in a lacquer finish for a dining room or a library." —Todd Black