Let's talk colour trends. Predictions for 2026

0:04Guy Stanley:Happy New Year and welcome to Space by Stansom's. This episode is interesting. It's a compilation of six designers that I've spoken to over the past few weeks, senior influencers in the design world, right through to like emerging talent, rising stars. I've been asking them all what they think their prediction is for the colour in the office that we'll see in 2026. It's really interesting how their ideas are individual, but they also do blend together and form a trend. So here we go. What is the colour trend? What is a new colour? Or what's the colour we're going to start seeing in 2026? Mustard.

0:46Guy Stanley:Oh, so with you. I literally love that yeah but i hope you're right anyway i know this is like yeah i think that neutral kind of earth type it feels like it's a trend that sort of kept on going you know with the that sagey greens and the sort of more natural terracottas and things like that and i think i'm putting it out there mustard love it is there a color that you think you're going to start to see more next year a color are you just going to say green for everything forever do you know i am loving i'm loving black cherry i don't know if anybody's seen it but it seems to be the color of the autumn oh my goodness isn't it beautiful i don't think it's black cherry yeah it's like a really dark plummy like parkly sort of color uh i i am loving that um i'm not sure if it's with lloyd's unfortunately um but i love the i love dark cherry at the river that would be my call thank you not terracotta i hate terracotta brilliant i'm glad you put that in sorry my favourite colour sorry can you come so blue thank you everyone's allowed to have their thought everyone is allowed to have their thought but yeah my team know that I am not not a fan of terracotta when they bring it out I'm going what's that I'm going we're a green brand we're a green or blue brand we have in us but yeah the terracotta doesn't work but black cherry I'm sure I could make it home the horse could just turn into black cherry couldn't it yes there's a thought now we're talking on the money talk to my friends and see what they think thank you you're well let's go Eleanor what do you think is a colour for 2026?

2:24so I think in terms of the colour profile there's been a lot of blues recently and I don't understand why that's been a thing who's you wearing? oh I'm done at oh no I mean in spaces more specifically I'm sick of the corporate blue office it's really boring and I think a colour I really love at the moment is Old Street by Coat Paints which is kind of like, I would describe it as like a slightly burnt, muted red wine. So it's like a burgundy, but slightly muted. And on the walls, it looks absolutely lovely. And it's just, it's got that sense of calm. It's got that sense of warmth. And it's just a complete contrast to that really old school office space.

3:06Guy Stanley:Sarah, what do you think is the colour of 2026? I'm really loving browns at the minute. Oh, yeah. I think they really can add a lot of depth to a space. yellow is having a moment in the fashion i think it's making its way a lot more over to interiors i think it's people are a bit scared of yellow because it can go quite wrong but i think yellow can add so much joy to a space and if you like work with it in like more warmer tones i think it's a really beautiful one to be and when you say yellow are you talking like daffodils or honeycombs oh more of a honeycomb like those umbers those more rich yellows i think whack that on a cushion and it adds so much to your space yeah we'll get like a whole whole like a whole chair in it i think it really get it on the walls get everywhere ellie mumford i've got two quick fire questions okay go one what color do you think would be the color of 2026 in the office 2026 so uh what i've been noticing lately especially kind of trending god i hate if i get this wrong I'm thinking really, really dark red, not Christmas red, not post-box red.

4:15I'm thinking like a Smith and the Devil coat paint red. It's really nice. And it's like a devil red. And I think it is really strong and it is quite striking.

4:27Guy Stanley:What is going to be the colouring offices in 2026? Well, yeah, I think it's always the interesting question. and you kind of, what happens, I think, is as a designer, you start using these colours, which you think are really cool and original, and then you start, then it's like you had a car syndrome where you start seeing them everywhere. And I remember for a long time, we did a project for Royal London, Henrietta Street in Covent Garden. We used this really beautiful British racing green ducts. It was actually a response to the nearby arches in Covent Garden and the London Transport Museum. so we took inspiration from there but kind of fell in love with that color but it was also turning out to be at that time a little bit of a trendy color but we're seeing a lot now this kind of red oxide and burgundy and okras and and uh there's more orange hues and orange and red hues that were mixing together so i think i think it's here to stay for a couple of years um but alongside those more it's almost like the the end of the 70s early 80s hues that you kind of like heart back to that old orange swell wallpapers and and browns and burgundies so i think it is here i think that's the color probably of next year yeah i can i always interest to try and see what's what's creeping up to to the next trend it's really hard to get yourself half a trend as a designer but we are all all similar what is gonna be the color of the year in 2026?

6:00That's really difficult to answer. I think like a burnt orange, that kind of really warm tone with a little bit of vibrancy, I think is where I want it to see it go.

6:11Guy Stanley:Is calling it a terracotta or more bright than that? I think along the lines of terracotta. Yeah. Yeah. Inspired by the iPhone 17, that kind of orange. In that shot? It's quite bright orange, isn't it? Oh, that's like a really orange. Yeah, man. No. No, more burnt. Yeah. yeah like a warm like autumn-y kind of color okay nice now well I love that color so I'm hoping you're right exactly what I think well there we go I do love color I do love color psychology how it impacts how everybody thinks feels and behaves and changes our whole disposition and our whole kind of mindset in the office so it's a very interesting topic I do love like the base colors of creams the grages the torques so those soft warm neutrals and I love hearing about all these different colors that are coming in how they're going to impact our time in the office and our productivity so thank you and please like and subscribe next week we're going to be dropping what we think the most used spaces in the office will be so we're going to be predicting which spaces in the workplace are going to be the busiest but that's all for now from Space by and we'll see you again.