Colour trends for 2013

Dulux Colour Futures™ from AkzoNobel have gathered trends from all sorts of industries such as design, interiors, and fashion as well as social trends, economic trends and have come up with the upcoming trends for the coming year, through their international research they have selected a range of colours they think will be in trend throughout 2013.

Colour palettes and colour moods for 2013

The colour theme is being called ‘Connections’ as this is the

“one dominant influence or idea which inspired us to create the five colour trends”

Quote from ColourFutures™

The theme consists of the following five colour palettes and colour moods:

• Collective Passion
• Switching Off
• The Art Of Understanding
• Home Factory
• Visual Solace

What is to colour for 2013

The colour of the year 2013 is……. 90BB 09/186 (also known as Indigo Blue).

“Like the dreamy ocean landscapes hidden from everyone but deep sea divers, this colour gives us a sense of tranquillity and stability which is very restful. It’s a big and benevolent colour which combines the trustworthy nature and evocative elegance of robust blue.”

Quote from ColourFutures™

You can see more of this years colour schemes here:
Dulux Trade website or here:
http://www.colourfutures.com and download the Colour Futures book(PDF).

Paint Calculator

If you would like to use the colour of the year (90BB 09/186) or any other colour you need to buy and need to work out how much you need to buy, use our FREE Paint Calculator.

A review of Dulux Trade Ecosure Undercoat and Gloss

Following on from my last review for TradeXpress, I am doing one this time for Dulux’s Ecosure range. Specifically I am reviewing the Ecosure water-based undercoat and water-based Gloss. Ecosure is Dulux Trade paint that reduces the impact on the environment even further than their standard paints by 30%. This means even lower VOC‘s.

I have never been a big fan of water-based topcoats and have not got on well with them in the past, so was interested to see how things have changed and improved.

Dulux Ecosure Water-Based Undercoat

I have been using water-based undercoat for many years now and I love it and I use it all the time so wasn’t too surprised to see this in the Ecosure range. Preparation is the same as for any other undercoat, i.e. abrade the surface, make sure the surface is sound, clean and dry. I applied the undercoat using a synthetic brush as recommended for this type of paint, and I was pleased with the results, I was using white undercoat and going over a cream colour. Coverage was good, with good opacity, for a strong colour change a second coat is advised.

I was slightly disappointed with the drying time of 6 hours, this obviously depends on the situation you are working in but the undercoat I am use to using only takes 1-2 hours to dry, so I had to leave the undercoat to dry fully overnight. Coming back in the morning the undercoat had dried leaving a good surface to apply the Gloss too.

The coverage is around 16m² which is only slightly under the standard undercoat coverage. The smell, well being a low VOC and water-based paint the smell was low. I know a lot of people hate the smell of oil-based undercoats and Gloss so will be pleasantly surprised by this paint.

Ecosure Water-Based undercoat comes in pure brilliant white but can be colour mixed, it comes in 2.5L and 5L tins, prices are around £27 and £47 respectively and a colour mixing starts at around £30.
The datasheet for Ecosure Undercoat is 528.

Dulux Ecosure Water-Based Gloss

Like I said in my introduction, I’ve never been a big fan of water-based topcoats so was a little dubious about what this Gloss could do. I applied the Gloss over my previously prepared and Ecosure water-based undercoated surface that I had left to dry overnight.

Continue reading Dulux Trade Ecosure

What’s the colour of the year?

ICI paints and AkzoNobel have come up with the upcoming trends for the coming year, through their international research they have come up with a range of colours they think will be in trend throughout 2012.

The colour of the year 2012 is……. 10YR 21/436 (also known as Firecracker 4).

“The Colour of the year is a blushing, lively, juicy red

Red is held in high regard around the world for its many symbolic purposes.

The colour red offers many possibilities: contrasting one colour, bringing out a certain depth or cool quality in the next, allowing a third to recede. Like the jester in a deck of cards, it can change the game in an instant and brighten your outlook in unpredictable ways.”

Quote from Dulux Trade website

You can see more of this years colour schemes here:
Dulux Trade website or here:
http://www.colourfutures.com and download the Colour Futures book.

If you would like to work out how much of the colour of the year (10YR 21/436) or any other colour you need to buy, use our FREE Paint Calculator.