After a gruelling couple of years and a dreary, winter, we’re ready to swing open the doors and welcome in a little joy this summer.
Dulux colour forecasters predict energising bright hues and graphic patterns will come to the fore in the warmer months, combined with a playful disregard for the so-called decorating ‘rules.’
“As our world opens up and we adapt to new ways of doing things, we’re looking for lightness and joy in our surroundings,” Dulux colour and communications manager Andrea Lucena-Orr says.
“This is a time for reconnecting with the ones we love, and we want guests to walk into our homes and feel a sense of happiness and celebration. At the same time, after two years of restrictions, many of us are yearning for fun, freedom and the chance to try new things.”
To fuel your design thinking, Dulux colour forecaster and stylist Bree Leech used Dulux’s new Revive palette to breathe new life into a predominantly white lounge room and a tween bedroom in a family home.
The Revive palette, which is one of three palettes identified in the Dulux Colour Forecast 2023, perfectly captures summer’s bright and bold mood. Revive features vibrant hues, such as Dulux Integra (a rich blue), Dulux Diorite (a lively green) and Dulux Perplexed (a whimsical lilac) paired with over-scaled patterns, voluptuous furniture and bold, abstract artworks to bring an anything-is-possible optimism into our homes.
“If you’ve never swayed from whites and neutrals before, using saturated colours like these can feel daunting, but there’s really nothing to fear,” Leech says.
“If you’re keen to try something a little different in your home and bring in some fun, the Revive palette is a great place to start. Whilst the palette offers up plenty of bold and bright colours, there are
grounding hues in there too that balance them out beautifully, such as Dulux Paper Brown, a warm brown-orange, and the ever-popular white, Dulux Lexicon Quarter.
“With huge steel-framed windows and sliding exterior doors that connect to the garden and fill the space with natural light, this family living room gave us a great canvas to work with. But with all-white walls
and ceilings, and little in the way of texture or colour, it lacked depth and didn’t feel particularly inviting.”
Lucena-Orr says she and Leech started by painting the walls in Dulux Paper Brown to instantly add warmth and character.
“To make the ceiling appear higher, we gave it a couple of coats of Breezy Half – a lovely, soft blue that’s perfect for brightening up open-plan rooms like this one. Taking the ceiling colour part-way down onto the wall, as we’ve done here, is a design trick to make the ceiling feel higher,” Lucena-Orr says.
Leech describes the Revive palette asa fabulous mash-up of futuristic and retro influences, which she really wanted to bring out in the room.
“We added curvy, statement seating with a distinctly ‘80s feel in electric blue, paired with a highly textural feature chair and footstool in mustard for a hint of ‘70s cool. The existing light fixtures and touches of high-shine steel in the coffee table legs further add to the retro-meets-contemporary vibe,” Leech says.
“Design trends today are heavily influenced by the idea of ‘creating a moment’, whether it’s the perfect Instagrammable photo or a great Zoom backdrop. We’ve brought that idea in here with a simple but eyecatching vignette – a powder blue sideboard topped with a bright green vessel filled with summer blooms that pop against the warm walls, complemented by the bold, abstract artworks casually propped on the
surface – it’s a little moment that instantly brings a smile to your face.”
In the tween bedroom, Leech balanced calm with a sense of fun.
“Revive is a surprisingly versatile palette – depending on where you use the colours and in what amounts, you can create totally different moods. As a sleep space, we wanted this bedroom to feel restful, so we painted the walls in soothing and immersive Dulux Integra.
For something a little unexpected, we used Dulux Diorite on the skirting boards, window trims and door, rather than traditional white.
“The existing colourful, upholstered headboard helped inspire the bedrooms palette – drawing on the oranges, yellows and blues in new, brightly coloured graphic bedlinen. The rich blue walls worked as a backdrop to show off the sweet shape of the steel shelving featured in a similar hue to Dulux Perplexed. Finally, to ground the space and bring in some warmth, we added a rug that referenced Dulux Paper Brown, in a funky chequerboard pattern,” she says.
BREAKOUT
Summer styling tips
• Add colour in unexpected spots: The element of surprise can be a powerful decorating tool; consider adding colour to your ceiling, timber window frames, door edges or the back of shelves.
• Exaggerated curves: Whether it’s a curvaceous sofa, a chubby accent chair or rounded coffee table, this look calls for curves.
• Be bold with pattern: Forget the so-called rules on mixing patterns – have fun combining thick or thin stripes, geometrics, over-sized floral prints and more, all in the one space.
• Keep artworks casual: Think unframed, abstracts and digital artworks casually propped, even overlapping, on a shelf or sideboard.
• Textural contrast: Add depth and interest to your rooms décor by mixing different textures, such as boucle armchairs, thick woven rugs, imperfect ceramics, matt finish joinery and touches of high-shine metallics in furniture legs.
• Draw nature inside: Ground your Revive room scheme by emphasising its natural connections; keep window furnishings light to let in light and views, splash out on fresh flowers, and dress your bed with bright, botanical inspired bedlinen.
• Highlight interesting furniture shapes: Having a backdrop in a contrasting colour allows pieces like curvy, statement seating to shine.
• Scheming: The Dulux curated palettes are designed to be used as schemes for paint, as well as soft furnishings, artwork and décor – to ensure all colour references work cohesively.
• For colour surety: Order A4 Colour Stickers or Sample Pots from dulux.com.au in your chosen colour(s) for your space – view these colours in your home’s natural lighting
conditions. Alternatively, Dulux has an online colour advice team and a Colour Design Service if you want a design professional to assist in curating your space.
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