Rumors
Behr's 2025 Color of the Year, reviewed honestly: the brown-based ruby that glows under lamps, goes nearly black in a dim room, and what to pick instead if you want the color, not the trend.
Jessica has spec'd whites and neutrals for more than 300 rooms and keeps a sample wall of painted drawdowns in her studio. Every color review is checked against real reader rooms in the comments and re-tested when a formula changes. About the testing process →
- 1Rookwood Dark Red3
- 2Rumors8
- 3Million Dollar Red13
- 4Cinnamon Slate19
The Fast Verdict
Rumors is Behr's official 2025 Color of the Year, and the marketing claim is actually accurate for once: a deep red built on a brown base instead of the blue-undertone cherry reds of the 90s, so it reads like oxblood leather rather than a stop sign. It was designed for small commitments — a wall, a door, a set of cabinets — not a whole house. At LRV 8 it needs real light to read as red at all; skip the light and you get a flat, nearly black-brown wall instead.
Home offices and foyers · kitchen or bath cabinetry as an alternative to navy · a bedroom accent wall lit by warm lamps · anyone who wants a red without the blue-based 90s cherry look
You want it to read bright red in every light · your room has no real daylight or lamps · your counters or floors are cool blue-grey stone · you're painting a whole open-concept space with it
- Genuinely grounded red — brown-based, not the blue-cherry of a 90s dining room
- Official Behr 2025 Color of the Year, so samples and matches are everywhere
- Small commitments (cabinets, doors, one wall) look custom and expensive
- Pairs beautifully with white oak floors, brass hardware and warm-veined marble
- Deep enough (LRV 8) to hold real color instead of washing out pastel
- Goes nearly black-brown in a room with no real light — the LRV predicts it
- Reads darker and browner on the wall than the marketing photos promise
- A named Color of the Year carries real repaint risk once the trend moment passes
- Clashes with cool grey-blue marble and stark white trim
What Color Is Rumors, Really?
Rumors is Behr's official 2025 Color of the Year — a deep, brown-based red the company built specifically to break from the blue-undertone cherry reds that defined the 1990s. That distinction is the whole story: the reds most people remember from a childhood dining room lean blue and read loud, almost fire-engine. Rumors leans brown instead, which is why Behr calls it 'grounded' and 'earthy' rather than 'bold' — the brown base mutes the red enough that it reads closer to an oxblood leather chair than a stop sign.
At LRV 8 it is one of the darkest colors in the Behr deck — genuinely close to black-brown, not merely 'deep red.' That LRV is also why Behr itself has warned that Rumors photographs darker than the swatch: on a screen or a fan deck under studio lighting it reads garnet-red, but the same paint on an actual wall in ordinary daylight often reads closer to dark chocolate-maroon until direct light hits it. Sample it on your actual wall before committing — this is the single most common surprise owners report.
Undertone in one line: red first, brown second, never the blue-based cherry of a 90s dining room. If your sample looks flat and nearly black, that is a dim room or cool light doing exactly what LRV 8 predicts — not a defect. If it looks warm and garnet, you found the light it was built for.
Where It Shines
Behr built this color for small, deliberate commitments, and that is where it earns the Color of the Year title. A home office wall under a desk lamp reads like the cozy, grounding nook Behr's own campaign promises. An entry foyer with applied moulding turns genuinely boutique-hotel. On kitchen or bath cabinetry it works as a real alternative to the now-ubiquitous navy, especially over white oak floors and warm-veined marble with brass hardware. In every one of these, the room supplies the light and the color supplies the drama — that partnership is the whole appeal.
Where It Fails
Almost every disappointed review of a Color of the Year follows the same arc: the marketing photo promised more red than the wall delivered. With Rumors that arc has three predictable versions, and none of them are the paint failing — they are the LRV and the undertone doing exactly what the numbers say they will.
Rumors is deliberately brown-based, not the blue-undertone cherry of a 90s red — that was the entire design brief Behr wrote for it. On the wall it reads closer to oxblood leather or dark brick than fire-engine red. If you want the color to actually read as red across the room, not just up close, look at Behr Sunset Orange instead — a brighter brick-red with more visible color at a distance.
At LRV 8, a Rumors wall with no daylight and no lamps on goes nearly black-brown — flat, and hard to recognize as the garnet-red from the paint chip. This is the most common regret, and it is entirely predictable from the LRV alone. Reserve it for a room with a window, keep a warm lamp on, or choose a lighter cousin like Cavern Clay.
Behr shows Rumors next to warm-veined marble and white oak for a reason — the color's whole personality is warmth. Put it against cool blue-grey stone or an icy trim white and the brown undertone reads muddy instead of grounded. Pair it with a warm white trim and warm-veined marble, or skip the marble entirely.
Room by Room
Behr's own case study: one accent wall behind a desk, a warm lamp on, and it reads like a coffee-shop nook rather than a corporate red. Small footprint, real personality, easy to live with daily.
Paired with applied moulding and a warm white trim, Rumors turns a foyer into something that reads boutique-hotel rather than "red room." Semi-gloss on the moulding keeps the detail crisp against the matte wall.
One wall behind the headboard, warm 2700K lamps, cream bedding: cozy and deliberate. All four walls in a room without much natural light is where owners report it going flat and cave-like.
Satin cabinet enamel over white oak floors and brass hardware is the pairing Behr itself shows. It reads warmer and more unusual than the now-common navy cabinet, without going as loud as a bright red.
Red dining rooms are a design cliché for a reason — it flatters food and faces under warm light. Rumors does the job with less 90s-cherry baggage, but keep the light warm; dining rooms often run on evening lamplight, exactly where this color performs.
This is a small-commitment color by design, not a whole-house or exterior neutral. Behr markets it for accent walls, cabinets, doors and trim — not for four walls in every room, and not for siding.
Your Light Is the Risk
2700K bulbs are the light Behr built this color for — the brown lifts into garnet and the wall reads like the marketing photos. Non-negotiable for the ruby read.
At LRV 8, no daylight and no lamps means a flat, nearly black-brown wall — the single most common regret with this color.
The brightest, truest read of the actual red — midday sun is where it looks most like the paint chip. It cools back toward brown by evening if nothing else is lit.
Cool white LEDs flatten the red and leave a muddy brown; swap to warm 2700K bulbs before blaming the paint.
Most complaints about Rumors are a light mismatch. Upload a photo of your actual room and see it on your walls — then ask for the same wall in north light or evening lamps before you buy a single sample.
Need It From Another Brand?
Any paint counter can custom-tint Behr MQ1-15 directly. If you would rather stay in one brand's own deck, these are the closest stock matches, measured as ΔE2000. Under 2 is a difference you will not see on the wall.
| Brand | Closest color | ΔE | LRV | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sherwin-Williams | Carriage DoorSW 7594 · Sherwin-Williams | 3.8 | 8 | Color page → |
| Benjamin Moore | Barn RedES-22 · Benjamin Moore | 2.9 | 0 | Color page → |
| Valspar | Stoic1010-6 · Valspar | 2.9 | 7.2 | Color page → |
| PPG / Glidden | Red Red WinePPG1049-7 · PPG / Glidden | 2.4 | 8 | Color page → |
| Glidden | Red Red WinePPG1049-7 · Glidden | 1.9 | 8 | Color page → |
| Dutch Boy | Holiday Berry303-7DB · Dutch Boy | 0.8 | 8 | Color page → |
Similar Behr Colors
The nearest shades to Rumors within Behr's own range, ranked by perceptual color distance — useful when you want the same look a touch lighter, darker, or warmer.
WCAG 2.1: AA is 4.5 : 1 for normal text, 3 : 1 for large text, AAA is 7 : 1.
Rumors vs the Colors You're Also Considering
Every Rumors sample board has the same rivals on it. The numbers show the real lightness gap — then it comes down to which risk you would rather live with.
Pick this for the grounded, brown-based version — Sunset Orange is louder and more clearly warm-toned.
Behr BXC-39 · LRV 17Sunset OrangePick this if you want the color to actually read as red across the room, not just up close — it's brighter and more visibly red despite the orange name.
Pick this for the deep, dramatic, small-room version — Redend Point is a daytime color, Rumors is an evening one.
Sherwin-Williams SW 9081 · LRV 27Redend PointPick this for a lighter daytime version of the same warm clay-red family — Redend Point sits at LRV 27, more than three times as reflective.
Tile Red PPF-01 at #774242 and LRV 8 is the closest Behr neighbor and pushes slightly more orange, so it reads more like brick and less like wine. Velvety Merlot PMD-43 at #794143 and LRV 8 is a touch brighter and more saturated. Formal Maroon PPU1-14 at #70474C and LRV 8 goes the other way toward plum. Spiced Wine PPU1-13 and Fired Brick PPF-50, both at LRV 9, are a shade lighter and easier to read in a dim room.
Across brands, Dutch Boy Holiday Berry 303-7DB at deltaE 0.77 is a true match. Farrow and Ball Preference Red No. 297 at deltaE 1.79 and Glidden Red Red Wine PPG1049-7 at deltaE 1.95 are visually identical in normal room light. Valspar Stoic 1010-6 at LRV 7.2 and deltaE 2.85 is very close, sample first. Sherwin-Williams Carriage Door SW 7594 at deltaE 3.81 and Dunn-Edwards Rocky Mountain Red DET442 at deltaE 4.48 are close but visibly different side by side.
Rumors Coordinating Colors
The rule for coordinating with Rumors: warm whites, warm woods, and near-blacks — and keep it away from cool grey-blue stone. It pairs with brass and white oak far better than with chrome or cool marble, and layers well with plainer deep browns that don't compete for the red's attention. These are the partners that keep showing up in the rooms Behr itself photographs:
The Color of the Year Story: Why Behr Chose a Brown-Based Red
Behr named Rumors its 2025 Color of the Year after years of the industry's blue and green trend colors, calling it a deliberate turn toward warmer, spicier tones. The design brief was specific: build a red that riffs on the 90s cherry-red moment without repeating it. Those older reds carried a blue undertone and read bright, almost primary; Rumors was engineered with a brown undertone instead, which is what makes it read as 'grounded' and 'livable' rather than loud.
That engineering choice is also the honest answer to the repaint-risk question. A Color of the Year built on a saturated, blue-leaning hue tends to date the moment the marketing push ends. A Color of the Year built on a muted, brown-based hue behaves more like the classic oxbloods and burgundies that have quietly stayed in professional decks for decades — the trend gave it a launch, but the color itself is not really a trend color underneath.
Rumors With Wood Tones and Floors
White oak is the floor Behr photographs it with, and the reasoning holds up: white oak's pale, cool-neutral grain gives the deep red-brown wall somewhere to land without competing for warmth, and it keeps a small room from feeling like a single dark box. Warm-veined marble and unlacquered brass follow the same logic — warmth meeting warmth.
Where it gets harder is darker or more orange-leaning wood. Espresso and other near-black stains can flatten into the wall in low light, losing the contrast that makes the pairing work; very orange honey-oak floors and Rumors both pull toward warm-red territory and can read busy together rather than layered. Cool grey-washed or grey LVP floors are the other honest no — they push the wall toward muddy rather than grounded, echoing the same clash cool marble creates.
Three Ready Palettes Built on Rumors
A color is never alone on the wall. These are complete combinations in the 60-30-10 pattern, with the reason each one holds together. Every one opens in the visualizer.
Polar Bear keeps the trim bright and honest so the deep red reads intentional, not cave-like; Wenge's near-black brown on the shelving does not compete with the red for attention the way a second red — or plain black — would.
Try this palette in your roomWhisper White keeps the kitchen bright while the cabinets carry all the color; Wheat Bread on the island is a warm greige stepping stone between the two, and all three live in Behr's own deck so undertones are guaranteed to match.
Try this palette in your roomWhite Dove on the other three walls keeps the room from going cave-like while the accent wall does the work; the Taupe furniture piece is a tonal echo — same depth, no red — that reads deliberate instead of matchy.
Try this palette in your roomRumors FAQ
Is Rumors red or brown?
Both, deliberately — Behr built it as a brown-based red specifically to avoid the blue-undertone cherry reds of the 90s. On the wall it reads as a deep oxblood or garnet rather than a bright, blue-leaning red. If you want a color that reads unmistakably red from across the room, it will look more brown-red than fire-engine.
Is Rumors too dark for a whole room?
For most rooms, yes. At LRV 8 it needs real daylight or warm lamps to read as red at all; without them it goes nearly black-brown. Behr markets it for accent walls, doors, cabinets and small rooms like foyers and powder rooms — not as a whole-house or whole-room-in-every-light color.
Will Rumors look dated once it's no longer the Color of the Year?
It carries more repaint risk than a greige, simply from being a named trend color with a launch date attached. But because it's grayed and browned down rather than a saturated trend-red, it should age more like a genuine oxblood than a fad — the same logic that keeps burgundies and browns in rotation long after their trend moment passes.
What white trim goes with Rumors?
A warm white — Behr Polar Bear or Whisper White, or Benjamin Moore White Dove if you're mixing brands. A stark, cool white trim fights the brown undertone and makes the wall read muddier than it should. Semi-gloss on the trim, eggshell on the wall.
Does Rumors work on kitchen cabinets?
Yes — Behr positions it as a direct alternative to navy cabinetry. It works best over white oak floors with brass hardware and warm-veined or no marble; cool blue-grey stone counters fight the warmth. Use a satin, cabinet-grade enamel.
What's the best light for Rumors?
Warm 2700K lamplight is the light it was designed for — that's where the brown lifts into garnet. South or west daylight gives the truest read of the actual red at midday. Avoid rooms with no direct light and cool white LEDs; both flatten it toward a dull, muddy brown.
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