Colour of the Year

Welcome to the New Year, and a new colour! So I suppose you expected me to talk about the colour of the year 2019 (‘Living Coral’), which by the way is the most amazingly muted terracotta coral shade. But no, I am here to talk about the colour of 2020.

It is one of my favourites, I suppose it does help that it is my bedroom wall colour (is that too much information?!). ‘Neo Mint’. Pantone have looked at the trends that are coming our way well in advance, with so much happening. Olympic Games in Tokyo, the mission to Mars, driverless cars, AI in the home. Neo Mint feels like it represents the link between science, tech and the natural world. There is a real feel of change, of a new direction….to the moon and beyond! And it is exciting.

Now, back to my bedroom! Colour plays an incredibly important role in our lives. We are living at such a fast pace now, that our homes are key to helping to reduce the high energy levels we are at, slow us down and help to relax. Neo Mint is a great colour for that as it is a colour that represents healing and tranquillity, as well as embodying growth and new beginnings. We can see it in the growing trend of biophilic design, bringing natural textures and more plants indoors. It really feels like form and function are coming together with this trend.

Colour Pyschology is such an interesting area of study. We use it all the time in our lighting designs as the two (light & colour) go hand in hand. To really understand how a design is formed, we need to know what our client’s purpose is for an area, what colours they will be using and how they want to feel in the space. For example taking one of the latest colour trends, grey, we know that it is a colour which has no reflective qualities and soaks up light so lighting levels and the interior styling must work in the interior to bring it to life.

In contrast to the trending greys Pantone’s 2019 colour of the Year, ‘Living Coral’, will allow light to bounce off it with warm tones than reflect the light in a space. One of the reasons I love this colour is that it gives us such warmth. While while Neo Mint emerging as we get closer to 2020, artificial light will reflect close to its natural colour when it bounces off surfaces in this amazing colour, bathing a room in a more natural light.

Whether it’s sticking to the trends or picking your favourite colour (‘Neo Mint’ for me), combing it with the perfect lighting does wonderful things for us. Not only in how a room looks but also how it make us feel.

Here’s to 2020 (and 2019), must start getting my Neo Mint wardrobe at the ready!