It’s that exciting time of the year again when everyone in the interiors industry has their eyes peeled as paint brand Dulux announces its highly anticipated Colour of the Year. Drum roll, please…
We’re excited to reveal that Dulux has chosen True Joy, an energising yellow that radiates positivity, as its Colour of the Year 2025.
Brighter and way bolder than the brand’s Colour of the Year 2023 called Wild Wonder, which drew inspiration from nature and harvested crops, True Joy oozes optimism.
True Joy is ideal for infusing your space with cheer and charm. It can be used to decorate any room – in both small and big ways – and is easily complemented by a wide colour palette, including blues, greens and terracottas, as well as more neutral hues like warm greys and browns.
According to Google, searches for ‘sunny yellow paint’ have actually rocketed in the UK over the past year, and with the colour drenching technique’s influence showing no signs of waning, it’s clear renovators and interiors enthusiasts are keen to welcome more vibrant tones into their homes.
To discover more about this bright shade, we’ve asked Marianne Shillingford, creative director and colour expert at Dulux, about the process of coming up with the Colour of the Year 2025 and how you can use it in your own home…
What was the process of choosing the Dulux Colour of the Year 2025 like and where did you look for inspiration?
“The ColourFutures process starts every year in June with a global workshop where we invite a group of industry experts from the worlds of architecture, design, technology and journalism,” explains Marianne. “We ask them to present what will be the biggest influences on the way we will be living in the world in the future.
“The results are always fascinating and they provide us with the inspiration to create a collection of palettes that capture the essence of what we want and need from our homes in the year ahead. For 2025, we chose three beautiful colour stories: Human, Proud and Bold, and one Colour of the Year that captures the mood of the moment – that we need to ‘just leap’ joyfully out of our comfort zones and into the unknown.”
How did you come up with the name?
“This is the best bit of the process and for 2025, with such a vibrant positive yellow it was an easy task,” says Marianne. “The colour yellow encapsulates fun, positivity, happiness and joy. True Joy is exactly what this colour gives us when we see it and what we all need right now is a bit of exactly that – hence the name.”
How can you use True Joy in a kitchen, bedroom and bathroom?
“In a bedroom, try a little True Joy in a band around the top of the room so you can see it when you open your eyes in the morning. In the kitchen, this is a truly brilliant colour for a vibrant eating or cooking area by using on one wall as a feature and in the bathroom, on the ceiling and try matching towels and accessories,” she advises.
And how do you plan on using it in your own home?
“I’ve just painted my front door in True Joy and it instantly put a smile on the faces of my neighbours – as well as my house. The next room will probably be my bathroom as it’s the perfect colour to start any day on a positive note.”
Need more inspiration? Scroll down to discover creative ways of using bold yellow…