2020 not only marks the beginning of a new decade but for many, it will mark the rebirth of their personal space. Interior design is important in our book, home is not only where the heart is, but it is for many where most time is spent and therefore precious memories created. Nobody wants to live in surroundings that don’t either relax or stimulate, depending on your style and preference. Dull shall be done away with, we reckon! Yep, interior planning and execution are wholly significant in our estimation and for many, the beginning of a new decade is a turning point or moment for getting around to doing that long overdue interior décor touch-up, revamp or outright overhaul.
Helping shape the shade of things to come are modern trends, and whether you choose to take heed of them or not, they inevitably distil into the wider interior design conversation, propelling the industry forwards. The yearly changing of palettes is something to help inform any decorating project, consciously or not. Wholesale decorating changes may not be needed, but there’s nearly always something valuable to take away from a little delve into what’s being shouted about as the newest interior design colour trends. So, we’re here to give you our take on what we’ve noticed being talked about as the newest and hottest colours for the home in 2020.
Pantone & Dulux Colour of The Year
Each year the fabled design colour powerhouse, Pantone, shares with the world its tip-off on what colour will shape the year ahead. They’re without a doubt the industry standard authority on colour referencing and cataloguing, so what Pantone advises usually tends to stick. We see it time and again across interior design colour trends, with colour trends of years past showing up in modern farmhouse-style products, wooden furniture ranges and rattan furniture collections. 2015’s Marsala – a burnt reddish-brown shade, and 2016’s Rose Quartz – a tone of dusty pink echoed in the years following within rustic interior furniture, especially with soft furnishings that accompany the rural interior design.
This year Pantone has unveiled ‘Classic Blue’ as 2020’s hue to swoon over. As you’ll see in the accompanying image it’s a rich dusky ultramarine. Keeping entirely in-theme of a new decade with new beginnings, Pantone describes their pick as:
‘Instilling calm, confidence, and connection, this enduring blue hue highlights desire for a dependable and stable foundation on which to build as we cross the threshold into a new era.’
Lofty aspirations indeed, and we think this colour, as is usually the case, will crop up time and again in the coming years. You can’t argue with the fact it’s certainly calming and pleasingly rich. Truth be told, we’re really liking this years’ choice. So, when it comes to our own range we have some wonderful options in the realms of this shade, pieces that can help spruce your interior design for 2020. We’ve found this colour palette applies especially well to velvet upholstery, we specifically love the Electric Blue Tub Chair and the BB Armchair.
Whilst dining room décor is represented in the beautifully refined Victoria Dining Chair in Blue Velvet. It’s not just seating that benefits either, the show-stopping Blue Agate Side Table is all too easy to clamour over with rich blues and golds to excite. We shall see what lays ahead for this bountiful colour!
Dulux is, of course, another household name that actively influences interior design colour trends. The renowned and established paint producer also announces a colour of the year, helping to inspire and guide colour combinations for the home and beyond. Together with Pantone, it’s not uncommon to see their colour spring up in following years in interior design, it’s as much a forecast as a guiding hand. This year’s colour is ‘Tranquil Dawn’ a beautiful shade of pale light green, that almost constitutes a grey. Dulux call it a:
‘colour inspired by the morning sky, to help give homes the human touch. This versatile shade of green can be used to create spaces for care or for play, to find meaning or for creativity.’
They not only prescribe this one shade but handily provide four palettes of colours best suited to match. We’re very into this colour too, perhaps a tad more than Classic Blue in fact, because (as we’ve covered before) the Inside Out Living team has a borderline obsession with grey-tone interior design due to its incredible versatility. We especially enjoy the warming and ecological tone of Tranquil Dawn, it’s a shade that translates really well into modern farmhouse styled furnishings such as our wooden furniture collection the; White and Grey range. It simply has an undeniable aura of the outdoors associated with it, also seen with the Cotswold table, which is not too far removed in tone, at all.
Japandi Calms The Soul With Precision & Nous
Not only is this a truly playful word, (a merging of ‘Japan’ and ‘Scandinavia’), but it also represents the fusion of two of the greatest modern interior design obsessions. Firstly, we’re going to come straight out and say it – we love Nordic style. Clean lines, muted tones and softwood finishes. It’s everything right about how a home should look and feel and has been a mainstay within modern interior design for some years now. Similarly, we have unbound affection for Japanese decor, a style we’re continually trying to build up and that is really not worlds apart from Nordic design in form and function. The Japanese style in particular interestingly takes function and the idea of human interaction with interiors and puts this centre stage. A kind of reciprocal relationship of respect with one’s surroundings. This is key to Japandi style, a cultural hybrid which harnesses the visual prowess of both appealing aesthetic styles and plays into the idea of human wellness and wellbeing at its core. The central idea that the indoor environment can directly affect wellness.
With colour trends like this, we generally see natural tones and cooling muted shades; browns and greys as well as rich charcoals. These echo across textures common in both Nordic and Japanese culture such as wooden furniture and especially indoor rattan furniture. Japanese open-air designs such as the Rattan Chair come in natural brown and give an undeniable Nordic iron slimline base. Wooden furniture tends to feature heavily in both culture’s designs, the interesting and visually soothing Chunky Coffee Table is a good illustration of the merging of the two, with mango wood and natural tones taking centre stage.
Industrial Grey From Faux-Concrete
‘Industrial’, ‘warehouse’ and ‘minimalism’ have been staples in the interior design colour trend cycle for a little while, and we’re seeing tangents and offshoots relating to these – sub-trends if you like. The stripped-back allure of a bare brick wall or an untreated concrete surface has, at this point, become altogether commonplace interior design feature – see any modern coffee house as an example. Don’t get us wrong we wholly enjoy sleek and sparsely well-executed interiors, it’s just important in our book to keep things fresh! So, we’re noticing slight tangents to this style – the warming and more delicate use of grey concrete with wood-centric styles such as modern farmhouse and even rattan furniture is looking like it is now taking a footing.
The idea of applying the industrial hues of grey but without using actual concrete is also seeing a rise in popularity. Large swathes of untreated smooth concrete wall or floor are being replaced by smaller flashes, and is instead being favoured by faux resin substitutes – often looking and feeling very close to the original. Often sourced from recyclable materials. What’s not to like! Through Inside Out Living you’re well served with some sumptuous cool-grey faux-concrete options, we specifically love the use of this with wooden furniture. There is something incredibly visually appealing with seeing this integrally industrial styled surface cast upon a Nordic wood frame, modern farmhouse piece or Cotswold table. The Concrete Dining Table showcases an excellent example of Scandinavian-style furniture adopting this style. Similarly, the Tate Oval Coffee Table also benefits from this grey faux-concrete recipe.
Vibrant Greens & Florals – Living Inside & Out
It’s not so much an emerging colour trend as an ongoing theme and appreciation of the merging of two realms of the home. It’s inevitable that the indoor interior design and outdoors garden design blur and meet more and more as new and innovative products flood the home market. Synthetic rattan furniture is one such example that has enabled the popularisation of placing a sofa outdoors, all year round. Also, innovations in tech, fire-pits for outdoor garden dining and cocoons – our outdoor spaces are beginning to take shape in the vision and influence of our indoor spaces. Interestingly we see this role reversed, too.
Increasingly plantlife and exterior elements are appearing inside the home. Take the ever-popular ‘modern farmhouse’-style, for example. This is essentially furniture inspired by extending barn house and pantry into the kitchen, many wooden furniture options can be perceived as taking hold based on these beginnings. The same holds true of the Cotswold table style. However, there is an ongoing movement of injecting chlorophyll-rich vibrant green into interior design.
Whether that be literally with potted plants, succulents or faux-succulents, or through prints and block colour shade that represents the deep and earthy vert-green of the natural world. The thinking behind the use of natural world evoking tones harks back to the idea that at its very core the natural world calms the soul and brain. Bringing this into the home is only a good thing for wellness.
A Happy 2020 In The Home
There are seemingly an endless stream of ideas and colour concepts to apply and play with for interior design this year, each appearing valuable and worthy of a look-in. However, the ones we have explored today seem to us the most prevalent trends for 2020. Whether your home is going to receive the complete redecorating overhaul or freshening spruce up, it’s always valuable to take a peek at emerging interior design colour trends for the indoors and outdoors.
