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Articles by Chris A. Paschke, CPF GCF

"Color & Art Trends 2025"

January 2025

Color, art and design all feature predictions every year, but it's the consumer that often proves movement towards a specific trend. Yet without predictions artists and designers would not have any commonality to create new cohesive looks. This year was huge for minimalism and 2025 continues to embrace warmer minimalism with its Biophilic design—minimalism using large windows bringing the outside in and live green plants—influencing color palettes, shapes, and textures continuing through trends with warmer tones of cream, beige and camel.

"2025 is all about merging elegance with storytelling", says Anita Peterson at Wild Apple, "each trend reflecting a deep desire for art to be both personal and timeless, whether through simplicity, bold color, or nostalgic themes. Bold colors like pink, yellow, blue and orange are being selected as accents, walls, and/or ceilings, called color drenching, and both wallpaper and stencils still remain design trends for ceilings. Soft shapes and rounded edges are still in vogue, as curves help break up sharp corners and straight lines to create an inviting and relaxing space, very feng shui. Mocha and espresso are warm and comforting while their lighter tones of beige and camel accent beautifully.

WGSN/Coloro

Setting the stage for global fashion and décor trends is WGSN and Coloro—a global color system that offers physical and digital solutions to ensure color accuracy for the design industry—choosing colors for worldwide forecasts. Future Dusk has been labelled color of the year as a dark, moody and intriguing hue, sitting between blue and purple, having a sense of mystery, escapism. The rest of the palette includes Transcendent Pink, a barely-there hue that feels more like an elevated neutral than a traditional pink, giving it a grounding and balancing appeal. Aquatic Awe is a transformative turquoise that celebrates the strange and wondrous aspects of nature. Sunset Coral, an energizing, feel good color that appeals to the pursuit of joy, and Ray Flower a radiant yellow with a warm and inviting quality, inspired by regenerative practices that protect biodiversity. (Photo 1)

Pantone

Designers and trends also look to Pantone for their annual trend palettes, both domestic and globally. They are not officially launching their single selection for color of the year 2025 until December, but this year's seven palettes in the Pantone View Home + Interiors 2025 Forecast have colors that fit into every trend including refreshing blues and greens; gentle pastels; earthy and eclectic retro 1970s bolds; smokey and sophisticated luxury; and vibrant tones for technology, so, a little bit of everything.

Paint Colors of the Year

Decorating colors evolve every year with trends. The stark whites, dated grays, and cool neutrals of the past few years have finally given way to rich warm neutrals. Earthy neutrals, like terracotta, ochre, and sage, bring a grounding, calming effect to interiors reflecting nature and promoting a sense of tranquility while also being versatile when used as base colors or accents, complementing a variety of styles and trends. (Photo 2)

Earth Tones

Brown is the new black this year. Softer browns taken from chocolate and coffee are shifting to caramel and toffee. Stainmaster Truffle is a saturated shade, a chocolate-meets-taupe color, creating luxury in interiors and darker designs. Other scrumptious edible browns include Little Greene (UK) Mochi a rich tinted brown with peachy pink undertones, more saturated than a traditional beige, and Dunn-Edwards Caramelized is a warm, neutral with earthy tones of a sunbaked landscape. It adapts well to both natural and artificial light, appearing lighter and golden in bright spaces or deeper and more muted in dim lighting. C2 Raku, a rich mahogany shade, is a burnt, brownish red color directly inspired by ancient Japanese tea ceremonies and the centuries-old pottery often used during them. Graham & Brown (UK) Elderton is a well-balanced neutral brown reminiscent of the deep brown leaves of a native shrub. Paula Taylor, G&B Trend Specialist, says, "Elderton is a chameleon color that can be sophisticated yet cozy depending on the mood of the space it is in."

Jewel Tones

Blues have been favored for a few years now, but deeper shades are in for 2025 with Valspar Encore a rich, saturated, sapphire jewel tone. Lighter shades of blue will also be popular, including Dutch Boy Mapped Blue a versatile medium blue has yellow undertones, allowing it to complement a wide range of colors and aesthetics. HGTV Sherwin-Williams Quietude feels it sets the stage for biophilic serenity. Reds and purples are also in the mix this year. Behr Rumors is a fresh take on a modern warm red based earthy tone; and Glidden Purple Basil is a high-impact hue for maximalists. Benjamin Moore Cinnamon Slate is a mauve plum with brown undertones; Minwax Violet is a purple hue that lives in the blue color family having red undertones, providing a balanced shade that feels both classic and contemporary. Then there's Dulux (UK) True Joy a yellow reflecting WGSN's Ray Flower, stimulating a sense of vibrance, positivity, and joy either as a statement wall or accent piece.

Color & Style Impacting Art

Interior trends are somewhat familiar with Tactile Textures, Naturalism, Warm Minimalism, and Bold Maximalism all moving into 2025. Tactile Textures such as 3-D art, sculptures, sculptural wall art, layered materials, art collections that emphasize texture—replicate or enhance tactile qualities—like embossing or using mixed media, and woven fibers or recycled materials. (Photo 3)

Naturalism includes Biophilic as nature inspired themes with interiors that pull the outdoors in with earthy tones, organic shapes, and natural materials like reclaimed wood and stone. Wall decor that captures the essence of the natural world—botanical prints, landscapes, or abstract takes on nature's beauty.

Minimalism is all about balance, calm and cohesion. This year is about blending clean lines with warmth and comfort, using soft neutrals, natural materials, and decor that's carefully curated to feel personal and meaningful. Art should enhance a space without overpowering it with simple, yet impactful pieces—line drawings, minimalistic landscapes, and botanicals. Scandinavian design is here to stay, Japandi is still a relevant trend from years past. (Photo 4)

Maximalism is still here, featuring bold colors, eclectic patterns, and a touch of curated chaos, embracing self-expression. From bold abstract prints to eclectic gallery walls, the demand for unique, eye-catching art is on the rise. “Color trends are rather strange to predict for artworks as unlike fashion which changes seasonally, art color trends much less cyclical. Black and white are still a staple for both residential and commercial, but browns and cremes predominate residentially seeing more cinnamon and even burgundy as accents. Green continues to be strong on its own or combined with blacks,” says Larry Winn, CEO and Creative Director, Grand Image.

Color and Art Impacting Framing

A wide variety of nature-inspired art including botanicals, florals, landscapes and nature-inspired collections may be framed with materials that echo the theme, like light-colored wood or bamboo, to enhance the organic vibe. The textural push in décor will also impact new tactile and visual textures in moulding and matboard. And in the world of matboard Crescent Select Earthcores offers 6-ply matboard reflecting natural elements of earth, stone and plants, perfect for the Biophilic trend. And Peterboro matboards has also boarded the textile train launching its newest designer Fabrics collection featuring new suedes, fine linens and naturals to their existing line.

Sue Losco, Director of Product Management, Crescent Brands, LLC says, “At this year's home furnishing and design expos, we repeatedly saw curved outlines, carved textures and a celebration of natural wood graining, and colors from sandy pastels to jewel tones to bold primaries all have our creative juices flowing!”

Color is being promoted to work with current décor trends. International Moulding has their new Garden Rakes in eight colors, and Nielsen's new Pop Culture collection offering 10 new bold colors for sports, kids, and echoing the WGSN palette for 2025. (Photo 5)

New mouldings promise both tactile and visual textures enhancing earthy art. Gold, bronze, and copper tones remain popular, bringing luxury to interiors, while warm metallics pair beautifully with both neutral and bold color schemes. Silver tones are also coming back, providing a versatile option for different design styles. Textures for moulding are everywhere with new collections from Nurre Caxton with their Marrakesh line of floral embossing in soft metallic finishes. (Photo 6)

Arquati Marmo featuring four metallics, and Unagi in four profiles in subdued tactile metallics. Framerica offers Venetian Gold, as well as Pebble Beach Leather; and Omega Moulding has launched their Italian Arielle and Volta metallics that stack beautifully. Woodgrain remains strong with Décor Moulding & Supply has their Princeton full eight profile collection; and Studio Moulding is showing their tactile Ash collection.

Looking back

Tinted greens reigned supreme in 2022; primary colors grew stronger while greens remained a grounding color in 2023; and 2024 boasted blues, greens and the beginning of browns. Darker tones and shades are here for 2025 with greens remaining as a continuum supporting other colors in palettes and art, as well as browns with undertones of red and green. And never forget all the textures!

END
Copyright © 2024 Chris Paschke, CPF GCF

For more articles on mounting basics look under the mounting section in Articles by Subject.
Additional information on all types of mounting is found in:
The Mounting and Laminating Handbook, Second Edition, 2002,
The Mounting And Laminating Handbook, Third Edition, 2008 and
Creative Mounting, Wrapping, And Laminating, 2000 will teach you everything you need to know about getting the most from your dry mount equipment and materials as an innovative frame designer.

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Chris A Paschke, CPF GCF
Designs Ink
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