Brave Ground is the Dulux colour of the year for 2021. It is a warm and neutral brown shade said to be adaptable to its surroundings and that changes tone depending on the time of day, setting and the colours it is paired with.
Dulux believes that this shade is a grounding colour and will enable people to draw strength from nature as a way to help deal with the future.
A panel of designers, trend forecasters, design specialists, architects and editors came together at AkzoNobel Global Aesthetic Centre to create Brave Ground as a colour that encapsulates this current year.
Heleen van Gent, head of AkzoNobel’s Global Aesthetic Centre, said: “It’s been challenging this year to transform the key global trends into inspiring colour palettes. We’ve seen unprecedented global change, with all of us facing experiences that feel out of kilter with the modern world.
“At the same time, we’ve rediscovered more positive things: solidarity in communities, strangers’ generosity, and the realisation that together we can do extraordinary things. We’re finding the courage to pick ourselves up and move forward.
“Our homes provide a sanctuary: a place to restore, repair and recalibrate ourselves on the road to recovery.”
The colour is a neutral shade and Dulux has already identified several colour palettes that could work for it.
The Earth palette has a mix of blues and greens, while Timeless is on the other side of the colour wheel with a mix of orange and yellow. Expressive is bold with several pink and coral shades and the Trust palette is the opposite, with more neutral tones.
Marianne Shillingford, creative director at Dulux UK, said: “The colours on our walls are the backdrop to how we live our life. For many of us, lockdown has served to emphasise how important our home environment has become, it has been the place where we work, learn, relax. It can lift us up, nurture us, comfort us.
“We continue to live through uncertain times. In 2021, the warm and grounding tones of Brave Ground will allow us to find certainty in the strength from the very ground beneath our feet, emboldening us to go forward and begin to live again and giving us the flex to adapt to the ever-changing circumstances we face.”
