What are the interior colour trends for 2024?
Every year the major (and smaller) paint companies release their forecast of which colours will be capturing the home decorators’ imaginations for the year ahead. This is what they have to say are the interior colour trends for 2024…
Both the fashion and interior design industries predict colour trends well ahead of time, in order to ensure they have what they believe their shoppers are looking for. Because the development and production of new paint colours takes a considerable amount of time, these very same paint companies employ colour specialists to forecast what will be the colours everybody wants in the year ahead. These specialists spend their year evaluating past and current purchasing patterns, socio-cultural and economic factors (such as pandemics and cost of living spikes, or the opposite – optimism and a settling of living costs), fashion trends (and fashion brands have their own colour forecasters, too) and, of course, the forecaster’s intuition.
So, what colours have been predicted we will all be wanting in our homes in 2024?
In early December 2023 Pantone, the globally recognised creator of a standardised colour palette used by the majority of printers and designers around the world, announced the colour of the year for 2024 would be Peach Fuzz, a light, delicate shade that sits between pink and orange.
According to Leatrice Eiseman, Executive Director of Pantone Color Institute™, Peach Fuzz captures our desire to nurture ourselves and others. It’s a velvety gentle peach tone whose all-embracing spirit enriches mind, body, and soul. She says: “In seeking a hue that echoes our innate yearning for closeness and connection, we chose a colour radiant with warmth and modern elegance. A shade that resonates with compassion, offers a tactile embrace, and effortlessly bridges the youthful with the timeless.”
That’s all well and good, but how does this translate into interior design? The major paint companies have come up with their own ideas:
Dulux Colour of the Year 2024 is Sweet Embrace: “a gentle blossom pink that is welcoming and brings a sense of peace and softness to a space. It’s a delicate shade that changes tone with the light but that always brings warmth. As well as being a subtle and sophisticated stand-alone shade, Sweet Embrace provides a solid foundation for a wealth of other shades.’
In complete contrast, Valspar have selected a tone from the opposite side of the colour wheel,
Renew Blue. They say: “Inspired by fleeting elements like fog, mist, clouds, and glacier lakes, Renew Blue elevates the everyday mood, encourages self-expression, and evokes a feeling of balance and calm, with a twist of unique spontaneity.”
Cheshire-based Earthborn Paints, who create eco-friendly interior and exterior paints, have announced their colour of the year as Hopscotch, a warm, chalky, off-white that “acts as the perfect neutral and is incredibly adaptable.’
Manchester-based Little Greene Paints have selected their colour Masquerade as their colour of the year: “an alluring, natural undertone that is as ‘at-home’ in the bedroom as in the ballroom.” This sits beautifully with their latest new colour collection release, Sweet Treats, a collection of chocolate, caramel and vanilla tones offering a warmth and welcome perhaps missing from the shades of grey so popular in recent years.
So where does this leave us? Valspar aside, it seems the trend for 2024 is all about warm, earthy tones; neutrals with a twist. It seems in 2024 we’re all looking to feel wrapped up and warm in our homes; we need to feel safe and content as we step into our havens from the world outside.
If you’re planning a refresh of rooms in your home this year, don’t forget, however, that trends are ephemeral – this time next year we shall all be looking at a whole new set of ‘colour of the year’ predictions. Choose a colour you know you can live with for a long time – use the paint company’s ideas as inspiration, and find your own path. Each one presents imagery showing how you can use their colour to create your own room scheme, so take your time to browse all the sites and find something to fall in love with.
Eddie – Friday 12th January 2024. (Image used from Mount Grove, Gatley).
