Staying up to date with colour trends in the market can be hard - especially when you’re not design-minded. Understanding what commercial building colour will work in what space and what impact they will have is a specific talent - whether you’re painting skyscrapers or warehouses.
The choice of commercial building colours is generally dependent on a tenant’s needs and property facility managers are likely to find themselves in the position to repaint or revamp a commercial building’s facade at some point in their career. When that time comes, and while the facilities manager may not be the final decision maker on the colour choice, it’s a great idea for proactive facility managers to understand colour considerations before embarking on a painting project.
We caught up with Dulux’s Colour Planning and Communications Manager, Andrea Lucena-Orr, who gave us the inside scoop on the popular colours to be on the lookout for in the commercial space this year and beyond.
The in colours for interiors
Earthy colours are in as the trend heads toward more greys and greens within the commercial space. Andrea says that, “people still view these colours as neutrals and we’re seeing more soft-warm combinations.” And as the love of millennial pink dies down, there’s a move to peach and apricot undertones, she says.
And say goodbye to medical whites or whites with grey undertones, whites are warming up overseas and it’s a trend likely to be seen in Australian commercial buildings in the coming seasons. But while waiting to see these trends trickle Downunder, Andrea says it’s important that the colours chosen work well and serve their purpose within the particular space.
“The key thing is that you should never be afraid of using colour in commercial buildings. Colour adds an emotional quality to any space that you cannot create from whites and greys. Whether you use stronger or lighter colours they can add impact and differentiate a specific area within a space.”
If you’re not restricted to a tenant’s branding colours, she recommends adding a splash of colour to foyers and doors to enable potentially personalising rooms, such as commercial offices, to become more inviting. “It doesn’t always have to be colour on the walls, there are other ways to get paint colour into spaces and work in with the other elements in those areas,” she says.
Trending colours for exteriors
When it comes to the exterior of a building, a lot of commercial buildings are restricted to brand colours. Take Bunnings, Officeworks and Super Amart as examples. Others can have specific requirements to adhere to, such as heritage listing, local council by-laws and greenbelts. However, Andrea notes that neutral and mid-to-light greys are popular choices right now. The Dulux team has fondly named these “Greiges”. She notes that there are a lot of considerations that need to go into exterior colour choices such as being aligned with a company’s logo and avoiding colours that are too bold (such a bright yellow for a high-rise) as it may create a strong reflectance directly into a neighbouring building’s window.
Andrea says it’s imperative for anyone considering a major paint change to take a paint sample card (larger size of A4 at least) to the location and hold it up against the wall. The light and surroundings will make the paint colour look different compared to how it looked at the store. You can find more tips and tricks to help you choose the best paint colour for commercial buildings by reading this blog.
Paint trends from 2020 onwards
Paint creators around the globe are preparing their colour palettes for 2020 and beyond right now and Andrea says the trends emerging from Western Europe are browns. “Browns are back, think the 1970s… it’s no surprise when you see the fashion trends emerging right now,” she says.
While a commercial building colour scheme is like the lighter side of a paint job, naturally, there is a serious side too. When it comes to painting projects on commercial buildings, big or small, workplace health and safety is, of course, a priority. You don’t want to find yourself working with a contractor whose workplace practices put their own workers at risk, your tenants at risk and your insurance premiums at risk.
We’ve created a handy checklist to help you understand your workplace health and safety responsibilities when working with a painting or maintenance contractor. A comprehensive risk assessment will help you identify, reduce or eliminate risks, protecting your workers from injury. Download our worksite risk assessment template and get started today.
Higgins Coatings is Australia’s premier commercial painting contractor with over 65 years of experience in providing a cost-effective painting service and tailored maintenance solution. As the preferred painting contractor for the Strata Community Association (SCA), we help strata managers plan their painting requirements and execute them with minimal disruption to residents. Contact us for a consultation.