Get inspired with wheat design templates.
The color wheat isn’t quite brown, or yellow, or orange, but it borrows from each to create a soft and warm hue that can enrich any project.
Inspiration in the color wheat.
Learn the history and meaning of the color wheat, a light yellow-orange named after the stalk of the cereal crop.
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How to use the color wheat.
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Other wheat color inspiration from the natural world.
Other than its namesake cereal, wheat color appears in many other places in nature. Usually, the color wheat is one of several shades of brown together, like in the wings of a month or the fur of a ring-tailed cat. An elk’s coat is largely wheat color, too, as is the soft body of some snails.
The color wheat versus buff and bisque.
Wheat color sits between buff and bisque, and all three are colors that ambiguously mix beige with something warmer. The color wheat is paler and slightly yellower than buff. Compared with bisque, though, wheat color is just a little bit darker.
Combine wheat with other colors.
The color wheat combines with nearly every color palette because of its near-neutral quality. It’s especially appealing next to other nature-inspired hues like citron, eggplant, and mulberry. Used with bright shades like raspberry and turquoise, wheat color acts as a neutralizing base. The color wheat also combines beautifully with pastels.
The enriching psychology of the color wheat.
The color wheat shares its psychology with pale browns like beige and taupe, and to a lesser extent, with orange. Light brown is a symbol of neutrality, nature, and modesty. Orange is a color of warmth that is known to stir appetite. Together, these qualities give wheat color a warm and inviting profile that inspires instant comfort.
Information about wheat color.
The wheat HEX code picker is #F5DEB3. This is the yellow-orange-brown whose hue is the color of the ripe stalks of wheat.
Wheat color can be achieved in a RGB space with 245 red, 222 green, and 179 blue. The color wheat can be achieved in a CMYK color space with 0% cyan, 9% magenta, 27% yellow, and 4% black.
What is the meaning of the color wheat?
Wheat color is a yellow-orange with a wisp of soft brown. Named after the hue of a ripe wheat stalk, this natural, near-neutral hue is pleasing to the eye and can be used in almost any color palette.
Wheat is one of the most important cereal crops in human history, and the color wheat has been a color term for hundreds of years.
The history of wheat color.
10,000 years of wheat crop led to a universal color.
Wheat is a cereal crop that was first domesticated in the Fertile Crescent around 10,000 years ago. It then spread across the world, and now it’s one of the most important worldwide crops. Its distinctive wheat color (of both the stalk and the kernel) comes from carotenoids, wheat’s natural pigment.
300 years of wheat color.
As languages develop and change, how we describe the world changes, too. The word “wheat” first came into Old English as hwæte, meaning “that which is white,” in the early 1500s. The name might have come from wheat meal, which is off-white. The first record of “wheat color” (as the yellow-orange hue of a ripe wheat stalk) was in 1711.
The color wheat in popular use.
Wheat color isn’t an everyday way to describe pale yellow-orange today, even though the color of wheat is something everyone can recognize. There’s never been a Crayola crayon called “wheat color,” for example, but the color wheat is a color on the X Windows System color name list, meaning most computer and device displays will show it accurately.
The color wheat across different cultures.
The practicality of wheat color in interior design.
Unlike fashion statements, which can be as bold as someone dares to wear, interior design is based on building select statement pieces onto a neutral base. If a room has too many loud colors, striking selections, and layered textures, it impacts how we feel in that environment (usually by overwhelming us). The near-neutral color wheat is useful to designers because it can be applied in abundance. It’s soft, versatile, and doesn’t clash with the chosen statement colors.
The color wheat in fashion.
Near-neutrals like wheat color are useful in fashion, too. Even with its warmth, this pale-but-bright yellow-orange can be found in every season—from a winter puffer jacket to a summer dress. The warmth of wheat color is fitting for sunny days, but its subtlety means wheat can be used as a base for outfits with other details in attention-grabbing colors.
Brand use of the color wheat.
The color wheat is an understated color, and its use in branding usually goes unnoticed. Use this color as a base for brand resources, and it can convey sincerity, approachability, practicality, and wellness. Brands in the health and beauty industries benefit particularly well from using the color wheat in their palettes, as do companies with a palette of understated luxury.