Color expert Ellen O'Neill, Creative Director of Benjamin Moore & Co., shares her colorful perspective.

Ellen O?Neill surrounds herself with color everyday as the Creative Director of Benjamin Moore & Co., which is one of the most well-known paint brands in America, if not the most known. Her position has her leading the Creative and Color teams at the company which are the ones to spark color inspiration for consumers and designers with the help of the vast array of colors the brand offers (nearly 3,500 at present!). With stints at Polo Ralph Lauren Home Design, where she served as Global Vice President, and the St. Regis Hotel and Resorts, as the Vice President of Design, O’Neill honed her keen eye to become a leader in the interior design world, which naturally involved color and paint as well. Over the years, her expertise has been called up to appear in magazines, newspapers, and design books, and she’s also a regular Contributing Editor at House Beautiful magazine. We hear she’s also the one who gets to pick Benjamin Moore’s Color of the Year every year, which is no surprise with her extensive background! For her Friday Five, we’re happy to see that her picks pertain to color as it’s a really cool perspective we haven’t really seen. Take a look.
1. The tawny tobacco brown of my 25-year-old waxed canvas shopping bag. Patina and color softens with age and shows lots of character?it has been my escort on m...