Photo: AkzoNobel
AkzoNobel’s Colour of the Year for 2025 is True Joy, a sunny yellow shade that brings optimism, pride and a splash of vibrant colour to furniture, flooring, cabinets and building products.
Supported by three complementary colour palettes to inspire designers and woodworkers, True Joy is the result of extensive research into the colour, design, cultural, economic and social trends. These identified a desire to embrace the unknown, celebrate craftsmanship and accept who we are.
“In this rapidly changing world, it’s easy to feel uncertain about our next steps,” explains Heleen van Gent, creative director of AkzoNobel’s Global Aesthetic Center. “But change creates an opportunity for imagination; a chance to create something even better. With our new Colour of the Year and supporting palettes, we want to inspire customers to celebrate their roots and creativity and embrace the optimism of moving forward in their homes and spaces.”
AkzoNobel’s Global Aesthetic Center has been translating trends into desirable colours for our homes for more than 30 years, drawing on the expertise of in-house experts, international architects, designers and journalists in its annual ColourFutures trend forecast. Junior designers and interns were also included in the Colour of the Year decision-making process, to ensure consumers from the widest possible age range were represented.
Three paints and coatings colour stories were also created around the themes of True Joy. These are designed to help furniture designers and joinery manufacturers find on-trend wood coatings to differentiate their projects, while making it easier for customers to choose colours and combinations that match their design preferences.
The three-colour stories are:
- Bold - leave your comfort zone and inject adventure into your home with bright and uplifting colours.
- Human - bring creativity into your home by filling it with unique handmade pieces.
- Proud - embrace your identity and have the confidence to create a home that’s just as unique as you are.
“Our Colour of the Year 2025, True Joy, and its three complementary colour stories provide inspiration for woodworkers and designers to create stylish products and great colour combinations that reflect a variety of different moods. They enable us to personalize our environments to fit the times we live in, while bringing sunshine, colour and positivity to our living spaces,” says Henri Bijsterbosch, colour marketing manager for AkzoNobel’s Industrial Coatings business.
