AkzoNobel’s Color of the Year for 2025 is True Joy, a sunny yellow shade that brings a splash of vibrant color to furniture, flooring, cabinets, and building products. Supported by three complementary color palettes to inspire designers and woodworkers, True Joy is the result of extensive research into the color, design, cultural, economic, and social trends that shape our society. These identified a desire to embrace the unknown, celebrate craftsmanship, and accept who we are.   
 
“In this rapidly changing world, it’s easy to feel uncertain about our next steps,” explains Heleen van Gent, creative director of AkzoNobel’s Global Aesthetic Center. “But change creates an opportunity for imagination; a chance to create something even better. With our new Color of the Year and supporting palettes, we want to inspire customers to celebrate their roots and creativity and embrace the optimism of moving forward in their homes and spaces.”  
 
AkzoNobel’s Global Aesthetic Center has been translating trends into desirable colors for homes for more than thirty years, drawing on the expertise of in-house experts, international architects, designers, and journalists in its annual ColourFutures trend forecast. Junior designers and interns were also included in the Color of the Year decision-making process, to ensure consumers from the widest possible age range were represented. 

Three paints and coatings color stories were also created around the themes of True Joy. These are designed to help furniture designers and joinery manufacturers find on-trend wood coatings to differentiate their projects while making it easier for customers to choose colors and combinations that match their design preferences. 

The three-color stories are:  
•    Bold - leave your comfort zone and inject adventure into your home with bright and uplifting colors. 
•    Human - bring creativity into your home by filling it with unique handmade pieces.  
•    Proud - embrace your identity and have the confidence to create a home that’s just as unique as you are.   

“Our Color of the Year 2025, True Joy, and its three complementary color stories provide inspiration for woodworkers and designers to create stylish products and great color combinations that reflect a variety of different moods. They enable us to personalize our environments to fit the times we live in, while bringing sunshine, color and positivity to our living spaces,” says Henri Bijsterbosch, color marketing manager for AkzoNobel’s Industrial Coatings business. 

Specially crafted finishes are required for different products, as wood coatings are often applied to highlight the natural beauty of the wooden substrate. “We help customers combine the trend colors with natural wood finishes, be it on smooth or distressed surfaces, from matt to high gloss and from translucent to solid colors with avariation of possible finish effects,” says Bijsterbosch. 

AkzoNobel’s highly trained technical service team works closely with the Wood Design team to ensure finishes are robust and can be industrialized for customers around the world.