Trend Experts Love Colour: 2021 Combinations from Pantone and Shutterstock

Explore the colour forecasts for 2021 from two world-renowned authorities, in detail.

Not everyone follows the same style in interiors. Many very different aesthetics, with little or no connection to one another, have millions of enthusiasts. Yet there is one subject that captures the attention of everyone interested in this world: the colour trends of the future.

The announcement of 2021’s colour trends, attracting almost as much attention as major sporting rivalries or international fashion shows and holding design professionals and enthusiasts alike in its orbit, once again came from the field’s leading decision-makers. Recognised as authorities on colour, the Pantone Color Institute and global image library Shutterstock revealed which colours and combinations would be popular in 2021. With that announcement, designers, brands, decorators and architects all set to work.

The Pantone Color Institute announced the pairing of neutral grey, an achromatic shade, and illuminating yellow as 2021’s leading trend colours. The institute’s vice president, Laurie Pressman, explains: “This combination is about resetting, renewal, redesigning and rediscovery. What we need is resilience, optimism, hope and positivity.” Bringing these two entirely independent colours together shows how different elements can unite for a shared purpose.

Answering a longing for everyday life free from turmoil and exhaustion, this combination also has a therapeutic effect. Described as soothing, calming and revitalising, the duo represents a metaphor: choosing two colours rather than one reminds societies facing a difficult period that nothing can be resolved alone and that everyone needs one another.

World-renowned image library Shutterstock highlights two different colours for interior trends in 2021. The first is Fortuna Gold. Inspired by Fortuna, the Roman goddess of good fortune and happy coincidences, the agency uses this warm, rich gold to highlight the value of life’s fleeting moments of happiness. Another of Shutterstock’s trend colours for 2021 is Tidewater Green. Inspired by ocean tides, this shade draws attention to the beauty of change. Combined with blue tones, the deep sea green also emphasises the perfection of nature in motion.

If you want to give your bathroom a trendsetting identity and express the colours of 2021 like a professional, introduce them through your bathroom tiles. Moonlight, part of the Çanakkale Seramik family, offers a deep shade of the Tidewater Green suggested by Shutterstock. Çanakkale Seramik’s Fabric series, meanwhile, includes the grey-and-yellow combination championed by Pantone. Sometimes the future is closer than we think, is it not?