The number of colours that exist is pretty much limitless - to the point where the choice can be bewildering. That’s why there are ‘colour of the year’ announcements from experts including Dulux. These annual declarations can focus the mind, narrow down choice and help us engage with wider interior fashions.
The Dulux Colour of the Year 2025 is True Joy - a shade of yellow that evokes energy and optimism. It’s a colour that has many positive attributes that can directly affect how employees work and feel. For those reasons alone, businesses should consider incorporating Dulux True Joy into their workplace.
What is Dulux Colour of the Year?
Dulux Colour of the Year is an annual announcement where a singular colour is chosen as the most influential for the coming year. The paint specialist collaborates with leading trend experts from across the industry, with the pinnacle a Colour Futures Trend Forecast meeting.
The Dulux Colour of the Year 2025 was revealed to be True Joy, identified with help from the academics at the Global Aesthetic Centre in Amsterdam, to reflect where life is heading and how people are feeling. Sometimes the colour is selected to provide a balance to what’s happening in the wider world.
Speaking about the most recent choice, Dulux commented: ‘there’s a growing sense across the world that life must be better elsewhere. In times like these, there’s a desire to break free, press reset and welcome in the new.’ As such, True Joy was selected for its creativity, energy and optimistic note’.
The Colour "True Joy" Explained
Like a golden egg yolk or the contents of a Coleman’s English Mustard jar, Dulux True Joy is a warm, uplifting shade with soft golden undertones. Nothing short of upbeat, the shade symbolises renewal, optimism, creativity and an emotional connection.
True Joy can enhance a workplace’s atmosphere by creating a more vibrant, motivating and welcoming environment. The shade has a natural luminosity that brightens dull spaces and imparts a sense of positivity where it is applied.
Psychological Benefits of True Joy
Colour therapy, sometimes referred to as chromotherapy, harnesses how colour can help improve our physical, mental and even spiritual health. Not every colour’s benefits translate to the workplace but yellow is one of the best suited.
Yellow is a motivating, energising and stimulating colour – and True Joy is shade employees will want to see if they’re feeling sluggish or need a productivity pick-me-up. For the mind, yellow can bring clarity, focus and inspiration, and can combat feelings of anxiety and exhaustion.
For the more broad minded, yellow and its relationship with our chakras (energy points within our bodies) is fascinating. The yellow chakra (manipura or our solar plexus chakra) is the energy found just above our navel. It is reputed to be our source of power, self-confidence, sight and success, also enabling us to be cheerful, joyful and stimulating.
How to Incorporate True Joy in Office Design
Have you fallen in love with the sunny disposition of Dulux True Joy? If so, you may be wondering how you can introduce the colour into your workplace.
Our design team has created hundreds of commercial interior designs for offices, incorporating bold brand colours and interesting combinations. Check out our work for Loney Miller and Osborne Heath – both of which include yellow in their corporate colour palettes.
Here’s our advice for adding a splash of the Dulux Colour of the Year 2025 where you work.
Office Walls and Feature Areas
Dulux itself says True Joy can be used as a statement colour or as a striking accent due to its intensity. As such, balancing its use within the workplace is a skill and careful consideration should be given to using the colour in areas where people dwell for a long time. It may be better to confine the Dulux Colour of the Year 2025 to high traffic, transient spaces, such as meeting rooms, breakout areas and receptions.
The hue’s richness can be offset by pairing it with soft neutrals. Consider Dulux True Joy on one wall and a pale grey or light pebble on the others. An alternative is to paint decorative wall features, such as dado rails, skirting boards, door frames and coving, in True Joy for a restrained burst of yellow.
Furniture and Accessories
The Dulux Colour of the Year 2025 is such a cheery shade that it should appear frequently in a workplace and furniture is a good place to start. We can specify anything that’s upholstered – office chairs, sofas and occasional seating – to be colour matched to Dulux True Joy. Shelves, storage units and desks can also be spray painted for a real pop of colour.
If you are more fickle when it comes to colour fashions and can see yourself getting bored with a bold shade such as True Joy, accessories will be your friend. Our commercial office and retail design solutions acknowledge the devil is in the detail, with a full accessory pack specified and installed as part of a turn key, Cat B project. Additions such as artwork, cushions and rugs will make an impact but can easily be changed when required.
Lighting and Natural Elements
For such an intense shade, True Joy pairs well with a myriad of design elements and decorative finishes. The right lighting can really amplify the colour’s qualities, creating a welcoming area for people to gather and collaborate. Using warm white LED lights will complement the softness - add gold fittings for a modern luxe look.
Dulux True Joy is also an excellent choice if your office interior design incorporates lots of natural wood, with the colour’s flaxen tones harmonising with examples such as oak, ash, teak and birch. Another hit pairing is True Joy with a biophilic design – the deep shades of green and mellow yellow notes are earthy yet vibrant.
True Joy in Different Office Settings
While Dulux is synonymous with paint for the home, its colour forecasting can’t be ignored in commercial office and retail settings. Here’s our advice for using the Dulux Colour of the Year 2025 in three different styles of workplace.
Corporate Offices
Corporate offices that want to promote better cross-department collaboration and stave off stuffy interior design could use True Joy in communal areas. The mood will be lifted and creativity unlocked when applied to foyers, hallways and meeting rooms.
Small Businesses
Small businesses can still have big design ambitions, and choosing True Joy is one way of demonstrating the company is keeping pace with trends. Don’t forget, the colour impact can come in the form of low-cost accessories and mindful decoration, such as feature walls.
Start-Ups
Start-ups at the beginning of their brand identity journey may want to incorporate Dulux True Joy in their corporate DNA. Creating new brand identities is a service we offer at MPL, so please ask us for ideas.
Retail and Hospitality Offices
The inspiring tones of True Joy shouldn’t be confined to private offices. Companies in the retail and hospitality sectors can spread a little sunshine by incorporating yellow into their public-facing interior designs. A yellow feature wall, seating area or artwork display will have the feel-good factor, putting everyone in a positive mood.
Summary
True Joy, the Dulux Colour of the Year 2025, is definitely bold but it isn’t brash. Tonally, it can be used with pale neutrals, navy and even black, and it sits comfortably against all grains and types of wood.
A splash of True Joy is guaranteed to lift the spirits of your workplace, lighten dull areas and kickstart productivity. Go on, say yes to yellow where you work.
