Disappointment levels are high as Eric G takes a deep dive into the underwhelming colors of the year for 2026. Seriously, I mean, have these color trendsetters even tried? It’s like they all sat around a table, looked at each other, and decided to just throw darts at a color wheel. I’m all for creativity, but come on! Eric doesn’t hold back as he critiques these lackluster hues, giving us a rundown of the top offenders: Pantone's ‘Cloud Dancer’ gets a new name – ‘Rental White’ – because nothing screams bland like a color that looks like it belongs in every cookie-cutter apartment out there. And let’s not even get started on Sherwin Williams’ ‘Universal Khaki’, which Eric hilariously renames ‘Goodwill’ due to its resemblance to the khaki pants we all donated after realizing they went out of style. Each color gets a fresh, sarcastic twist, showcasing Eric’s knack for humor while lamenting the sad state of color choices for the upcoming year.

But it’s not just a roast of the color palette; Eric also takes a moment to reflect on the absurdities of the home improvement industry and the trends that come and go like bad fashion choices. He brings a playful irony to the discussion, poking fun at how these supposed ‘experts’ have collectively dropped the ball. It’s a delightful mix of sarcasm and genuine concern for the aesthetic direction of our homes. Alongside the color critiques, Eric dives into some recent home improvement news and recalls, ensuring we’re not just laughing but also informed about the latest happenings in the DIY world. So, buckle up for a rollercoaster of color commentary that’s as entertaining as it is enlightening!

In the latter part of the episode, Eric switches gears and offers up some holiday gift ideas for the home improvement aficionado in your life. From smart thermostats to robot vacuums that do all the cleaning while you binge-watch your favorite shows, he’s got the goods to make your shopping list a breeze. He even throws in some quirky suggestions, like a towel warmer, because who doesn’t want to wrap themselves in a warm towel post-shower? Overall, this episode is packed with humor, insight, and a whole lot of personality. It’s a perfect mid-week pick-me-up for anyone who enjoys a good laugh and a little home decor drama.

Takeaways:

• Eric G expresses his utter disappointment with the 2026 Color of the Year selections, calling them lackluster and uninspired.
• In a fit of creative fury, Eric decides to rename the 2026 colors, transforming them into hilariously relatable titles that reflect their true nature.
• With names like 'Rental White' and 'Goodwill Bear', Eric pokes fun at the absurdity of bland color choices in home decor.
• Amidst all the humor, Eric does laud one color, 'Hidden Gem', highlighting that not all hope is lost in this year's palette.
• The episode serves as a comedic critique of the color selection process, questioning whether it was decided by a game of bingo.
• As a bonus, Eric shares some of his favorite holiday gift ideas, showcasing his knack for finding practical yet quirky home improvement products.

Links referenced in this episode:

• cpsc.gov
• aroundthehouseonline.com
• youtube.com/aroundthehousewithericg

Companies mentioned in this episode:

• Sherwin Williams
• Valspar
• Earthborne
• Grizzly Industrial
• Amazon
• Klein Tools
• Toto

To get your questions answered by Eric G give us a call in the studio at 833-239-4144 24/7 and Eric G will get back to you and answer your question and you might end up in a future episode of Around the House.

Thanks for listening to Around the house if you want to hear more please subscribe so you get notified of the latest episode as it posts at https://around-the-house-with-e.captivate.fm/listen

If you want to join the Around the House Insider for access to the back catalog, Exclusive Content and a direct email to Eric G and access to the show early https://around-the-house-with-e.captivate.fm/support

We love comments and we would love reviews on how this information has helped you on your house! Thanks for listening! For more information about the show head to https://aroundthehouseonline.com/

Information given on the Around the House Show should not be considered construction or design advice for your specific project, nor is it intended to replace consulting at your home or jobsite by a building professional. The views and opinions expressed by those interviewed on the podcast are those of the guests and do not necessarily reflect the views and opinions of the Around the House Show.

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Foreign.

The House with Eric G. Your go to source for everything Home Improvement.

Whether you're a DIY enthusiast or just looking to make your space shine, Eric.

G. Is here to guide you through.

The latest tips, tricks and trends.

So grab your toolbox, put on your thinking cap, and let's get to work right here on around the House with.

Eric G. Welcome to the around the House show, your trusted source for everything home improvement.

Happy midweek special.

This is the episode we put out in the middle of the week that talks about the stuff that we didn't get to last weekend and of course, the stuff we're not getting to next weekend.

Boy, it has been a rainy one here in the Pacific Northwest where I'm located.

We've had five or six inches of rain in the last couple days and happy that the people out there, not too much damage in the flooding, it looks like.

I'm sure there'll be some houses, but not nearly as bad as what it could have been here in Oregon.

All of our friends up in Washington state, you guys are still getting nailed today and thoughts are with you guys.

Stay safe out there and don't get on the news.

Don't go driving through those flooded streets.

Never goes well.

You don't want to be breaking news on everybody's television for being foolish out there.

So be careful driving through those flooded roads.

Well, today I've been watching all the final kind of colors of the year come out and I got to be honest, this is not a good year.

Usually we have, oh, that's gorgeous.

Oh, that's beautiful.

Oh, that's groundbreaking.

And you can really see where colors are going for next year.

And this year it looks like everybody phoned it in.

Did people lay off the color selection committee and they just went the lottery number and picked a ball.

I don't know, but very disappointed in this year's numbers.

But I thought, let's have some fun.

Let's have some fun, guys.

I thought let's do something different here.

Because some of these colors are so horrible.

I thought I'm best to just come up with my own names for them.

So here's what I did.

These are the first thing that came to mind.

And this first one, Pantone's color of the year, really made me think about, okay, we need to rename these Pantones Color of the year is Cloud Dancer.

My name for that one rental White.

It looks like every apartment, rental house, everything else, it's that same.

If we're going to take you back into the 70s and 80s let's call Navajo White plus, but it's rental white now.

Sherwin Williams came out with their color of the year, Universal khaki.

They call it a ground, a grounding mid tone tan with yellow undertones embodying practicality and comfort.

My name for that one is Goodwill.

Looks like the racks of khaki jean pants and jeans or whatever you want to call them that are running up and down the aisle as everybody gave those away.

So I'm going to call that one Goodwill Bear Hidden Gem.

This is actually one I'm not going to make fun of.

I love this color.

It's a great rich smoky jade color.

It's a hot color right now.

I got to give it to Bear and I don't even use bear paint, but got to give it to them to come up with a good color.

They're the one that didn't phone it in.

Next up here, Valspar.

Their color, Warm Eucalyptus, a naturally restorative and serene green promoting warmth and calm.

The time where we all started getting into walls of greens and clays and stuff looking like those Starbucks chains that were going across the US at the time.

Now.

Dutch boy, which in my area I haven't seen Dutch Boy in forever.

I don't know if it was sold at Sears or something and I can't remember but anyway, can't find but Dutch Boy in my area but must be in your area because it's on the list.

They have Mellitus Ivory, a creamy classic beige.

Supports slow living and handcrafted ascetics.

I'm going to call this Smoker's Den.

Looks like somebody spent four or five years smoking in that den without the windows open and no one has wiped down the walls.

So Dutch Boy changing that one to Smoker's Den.

Now the next one is a company that I didn't even know existed.

And that's cool.

And for you people out there that are into this stuff, awesome.

It's a paint company out of UK called Earthborne.

It's a clay based paint really meant to go over like lime wash walls, things like that.

But their color is Freckle, a soft, earthy, peachy orange chosen for its visual warmth and sustainable simplicity.

So funny how they throw their.

They throw their company what their company goals are in the color names here in the descriptions.

But okay, that's cool.

I'm going to call this Cover Up.

It looks like my mom's Cover up makeup that she used to wear back in the day.

So not going freckle.

I'm going to call it cover up.

And then the last one on this list, ppg, they have a collection of them but really their main one is called warm mahogany, emphasizing earthy, classic tones.

I'm going to call it Mavish.

Yeah, it's kind of like a dark mauve.

Let's go with that.

And bear.

Great job of pulling something together.

That looks like you gave it a good shot.

I like that color.

The other guys.

That's a tough one.

That's a tough one.

Hey, on our recalls today, you can find out more of these about these@cpsc.gov there's really only.

There's a lot of little things here.

Hydro Jug recalls children's.

A lot of children's stuff in here.

From Crayola stuff to everything else but.

Grizzly Industrial recalls heavy duty planers.

Due to impact and laceration hazards, the chip breaker can contact the cutter head blades during use.

That would be a really bad thing or which can cause debris to be ejected from the planer posing impact and laceration hazards to the user and bystanders.

So there are about 2,300 of these.

Don't use it.

Get a hold of Grizzly and they'll send you a free repair kit and installation instructions.

The repair kit consists of an upgraded chip breaker, adjustment rod spacer set, screws, lock washers and lock nuts.

Be careful with those out there.

If you get that.

Grizzly industrial heavy duty planner 1 I'm jealous too.

Be careful of that out there.

And that's really the rest of it.

A lot of kids stuff that we would see on here.

Again, real common from helmets to chest crib stuff.

It seems like everybody was selling stuff on Amazon and other places for that.

It's pretty crazy.

Speaking of Amazon, I came up with a new holiday list that I just put up this morning that we just got up on the website.

And these are some ones that I found that at the time we put them up this morning they had some great prices.

Amazon Smart Thermostat, which works really.

Air purifiers that are on a budget.

HEPA really smart for your home.

Bedroom, office, living room.

85 bucks at the time that we put this up today.

Pretty good Amazon Smart air quality monitor to get you going and watching your air.

A really cool vacuum robot vacuum that does the mopping and everything else for under 500 bucks.

And another one on here too that I really liked was the Mysa Smart thermostat.

This is a digital thermostat for all you electric baseboard heaters or cadet heater people out there that has that 240 power source and thermostat so you can actually get into do in a WI fi programmable use it like a regular system.

That's a good one.

Another one here a great deal.

Toto Washlet electronic bidet toilet seat.

It's wintertime guys.

This is something you will never regret getting another piece of luxury for under 100 bucks.

A towel warmer.

Luxury towel warmer bucket that you put your towels in.

Go jump in the shower.

Three pack interconnected smoke detectors and carbon monoxide alarm with test silence button.

What I like about these they actually give you how much CO is in the room so it tells you on the digital display so you can see how big a problem you have.

And then there is a really cool reverse osmosis water filtration system that is really cool countertop model that really gets you clean water that way.

And these new Klein Tools Elite Bluetooth job site earbuds that give you a 25 decibel NPR rated heating hearing protection, 24 hour playtime.

Anyway, good stuff right there from your friends at Klein.

So a lot of cool stuff over there.

If you're thinking about a gift idea, take a look over there.

That's just around the house online.com and then at the very top you'll see a thing that says holiday ideas.

It'll be under there.

I'll be coming up with some new ones here as well in the next week or so to give you some last minute ones and of course some gifts for dad and things like that.

Mom, husband, wife, significant other, whoever will come up with that.

So tell you what, that's pretty cool.

And man we've been adding a bunch of radio stations.

We'll be coming up making some announce pro mount announcements pretty soon.

We are running up the list of tell you what of grab a new stations out there.

It's been a great December for us and we will be jamming on new stations at the end of the year here which jesus weeks away.

All right everybody, we got a great show coming up this weekend.

It is going to be a lot of fun.

Can't wait to share it with you tomorrow night or Friday morning.

And you'll get to see a little tease there.

But some great stuff, great information for you.

Can't wait to share more about it with you.

All right, I'm gonna get going.

I got a busy Wednesday ahead here.

I got a lot to get done.

Been working on some great projects here with my buddy Cam Anderson, Blacktail Studios.

If you're following him on social media, we're doing a great collaboration.

Can't wait to share more with you one of these days.

And he's that guy that builds those absolutely stunning furniture, tables and all the cool stuff he does with black walnut and epoxy and just beautifully crafted stuff.

Guy's a master craftsman and always fun doing stuff.

And we've got a great new project coming up soon that I can't wait to share with you.

All right, guys, I'm Eric G. Thanks for tuning in to around the House.

Have a great rest of the week and better get that Christmas shopping done it right around the corner.

Make sure to follow us on social media.

Just head to aroundthehouseonline.com for all the links.

Make sure you check out our new YouTube channel.

Just type in at around the House with Eric G. And click subscribe and ring the bell for updates.

We will see you next time.