Home decor colour trends

Bright Skies - Colour of the Year 2022

February 09,2022

The Colour
Dulux Colour of the Year 2022, Bright Skies, is the perfect departure from the past into a forward-looking future, bringing new hope, optimism and peace.
A versatile, uplifting shade that’s easy on the eye, this blue entices us with the promise of something bright and beautiful.
The paint shade has been designed as a breath of fresh air for your home, a shot of sky-blue optimism. The light and airy blue is a departure from the subtle green colour trends that have dominated 2021 and has been paired with 37 other shades making it a joy to use along with a variety of materials in different spaces across your home.

Inspiration Behind the Colour
Bright Skies was selected by a team at Dulux, made up of leaders in design, fashion, colour, and the built environment.

This blue shade has been created in response to almost two years of multiple lockdowns and the frustration and fear caused by them. It has been designed to represent a change of gear and thought process as we move into 2022 craving stability, hope and freedom.

Nature has long been known to bring joy to us, enhancing our well-being and making us feel happier. While all of us sat at home, many gained a lot of solace and peace in the bright blue untethered sky above them. So whether we are working, relaxing or exercising, it is essential to have a space that reflects the optimism and desire for a fresh, new start that is top of the agenda for the year ahead - and Bright Skies provides that space.

After being shut down for so long, people now want to feel energised and revitalised, enjoy new freedoms that are returning to them, look outwards and get inspired. They crave a return to the great outdoors and according to Marianne Shillingford, Creative Director of Dulux UK, the open, endless skies around us are the epitome of the outdoors - the best source of inspiration that there can be, leading to the creation of Bright Skies - a vat of optimism in a paint jar.

Designed to bring any living space to life with a breath of fresh air, this colour is about actualising dreams and tapping into an eternal source of optimism for the future.

Uses for the Colour of the Year
Bright Skies is the ultimate paint colour for small spaces. Each colour has a specific wavelength and since this is a colour with a short wavelength, it looks further away from us than warmer colours which have longer wavelengths. Called a receding colour, it actually makes a small space seem bigger. Making a smaller bedroom or blocked-in spaces look bigger is an incredible design advantage that Bright Skies brings with it especially as we spend more and more time working from home.

The past year was all about bringing nature into our homes through greenery, adding life and freshness to our spaces. This time, we can do it by bringing the infinite skies into our homes, especially by using them on the ceilings. Marianne reveals that ‘if you use this colour on the ceiling you don't have to commit to the walls, but it just makes that ceiling melt away,' says Marianne. 'It just fills a room with a breath of fresh air. The ceiling is a great way to use it, the most fantastic use.'

Bright Skies also pairs beautifully with natural materials like wood and stone to help designers assimilate it seamlessly into a variety of spaces and designs.

Colours that work well with it
As well as the Colour of the Year, the experts at Dulux have also identified four complementary colour palettes, comprised of 37 colours, to make it easy to bring the colour into different spaces at home. These colour palettes are - Greenhouse, Salon, Studio and Workshop.

The Greenhouse palette is perfect if you're looking to introduce Bright Skies into your living room or semi-outdoor areas. The palette is full of fresh greens and blues and features former Dulux Colour of the Year Tranquil Dawn, a subdued green hue.

The Salon is a softer colour palette, which demonstrates how beautifully Bright Skies can be used as an accent colour against a fresh neutral backdrop. It embraces chocolatey browns and beautiful stone greys. This combination would work beautifully in a master bedroom, guest room or even a stylish children’s room.

A surprising but stunning colour pairing for Bright Skies is red and orange. In the Studio and Workshop palettes, the blue hue has been paired with a mix of soothing pinks, yellows, and even lilacs; with coral or blood orange accents adding a shock of colour. 'It's like having chilli in food,' explains Marianne about the surprise colour combination. 'You don't need much of it, but it's like a lightbulb moment. It becomes like a seasoning of the palette. Everything starts to shine.' Used with restraint in a foyer, lounge. study or playroom, this colour palette would soothe as well as enthuse, creating that perfect balance.

Why we love it!
Bright Skies is the perfect Colour of the Year for 2022 capturing the essence of freedom we’ve all been craving for the past months. After so long trapped indoors, we desperately want the connection to nature to empower and revitalise us, lifting us out of this slump we’ve got into. Bringing the promise of a clear blue summer’s day sky into our homes is possibly the simplest and most powerful way to do this.

Melting away walls and ceilings, literally expanding our spaces before our eyes, Bright Skies is the perfect colour for anywhere in the house that needs a much-needed injection of light and positivity.

Everything we want to say about the colour has been encapsulated in one thought by the team at Dulux, “Who doesn’t smile and feel good when they see a beautiful sunset or clear blue summer sky? We aim to choose a Colour of the Year that captures what we all need in our homes for the year ahead, and Bright Skies is a colour-saturated with pure joy.”

We’d love to know how you would incorporate the Colour of the Year, Bright Skies into your home. Tag us @DiscernLiving on Instagram and share your ideas with us!

If you’re not too sure yourself, you can always get in touch with our team of design experts who would work with you to bring alive your vision of your new dream home while being in trend by using this versatile shade effectively.