Catwalk colour trends to brighten up our homes for 2026

Kya deLongchamps looks into fashion-forward colour-rich themes for the year ahead

A room styled with bohemian Dutch design flair from Gudrun Sjoden.

The next 12 months offer the chance to get off the greyscale because 2026 is the year to dive into curated colour. Here are just some of the most celebrated international brands to throw new tints, shades and flashy splashes indoors.

Fashion statement 

To explain the energy, joy, and artistic dynamism of the beloved Finnish brand Marimekko (75 in 2026), we have to go back to one groovy little-girl tunic. The Marimekko dress in super-scaled dashes of bright colour, designed in 1951 by entrepreneur designer Armi Ratia, was an international sensation. 

Seen on the catwalks and double-page spreads of influential couture and home magazines, Marimekko soon blew up into a “lifestyle universe” boasting over 3,500 textile prints created at its Helsinki print factory from the imaginings of a creative community of celebrated artists. Even Jackie Kennedy took notice of this hippy chic. 

Marimekko interior featuring Unikko wallpaper from €32 per metre, suppliers include Etoffe.

Today, the iconic brand’s playful “abstract designs, architectonic shapes and unapologetic colours” remains a fertile hunting ground for devoted fashionistas and interior decorators. 

Marimekko still speaks of an unrepeatable mid-century excitement, and lust for personal expression — post-war years when bright young things redefined what they wore and how they tailored their homes. To dive into the free spirit of Marimekko, I would suggest anything in its signature bohemian floral — Unikko, by Maija Isola (c.1964). This would include pop art wallpapers from €32 per metre. Suppliers include etoffe.com.

Tales of Paris 

We all need a break, especially in the dark, endless days of a weakling Spring. If you’re lucky enough to go to Paris, there’s one unmissable stop on the Rue Madam (VI arrondissement), Marin Montagut. Picture a sumptuous collector’s cabinet of charming, perfectly designed little things to throw colour and character over any surface. 

The son of two antique dealers, Marin Montagut was drawn to the magical qualities of fine and honest objects with an old artisan spirit of hand-made quality. He moved up to Paris from Toulouse in his teens, and his shop has become a divine destination for interiors junkies ever since. 

Storied cotton tea towels from a selection of Parisian-led vintage designs; €35, Marin Montagut.

Pop onto Instagram, which showcases not only Montagut’s gorgeous products but his philosophy and process. There’s a mesmerising array of finely decorated flatware, secret books, murals and matchboxes, hand-painted decanters, and diorama-style display cases — many of which can be personalised (great for that 2026 wedding). 

My choice would be an enamelled porcelain talking plate (or five) made in a traditional plaster mould in rich buttery yellow with Montagut’s black pen illustrations of various cultural distractions in the City of Love, €85 each and made to collect. His super pretty hand-towels with exquisitely detailed drawings are just €35 in 100% cotton, perfect to hide in your Ryanair-approved carry-on, Marinmontagut.com.

Beauties from Bisley 

Our adoration for retro design shows no sign of abating. With 90 years of design heritage behind them his year, the British brand Bisley is riding high with a range of classic pieces in stunning finishes, perfect for staging the bright, present colour, trending for 2026 without throwing it straight up the walls. If you have a home office that needs a spirit-saving dopamine hit, or a boring bedroom fading into its rain grey walls, look no further. 

Rowan Maxi double-storage cupboard (wardrobe or general storage); from €701, Bisley Shop.

Bisley Orange is something you may have seen on an office filing cabinet, and burnt orange choices are juicing up next year’s mood-boards. Built in its South Wales factory, precision-engineered filing cabinets are built to last a lifetime, and well-priced beside the shivering rubbish many of us haul home from the DIY home and garden hangars. 

Your adult children will definitely try to load them into the Fiat 500 as they flee the nest; five-drawer desktop A4 Bisley twelve-series from €132. In another citrus orange, Seville, the Rowan Maxi storage cupboard/wardrobe showcases the firm’s versatility in wood laminate in a pared-down Scandinavian style. Versatile storage pieces you can scatter all over the home offer a pleasing continuity for design for a tiny home (or dare I say it — garden cabin).

Suite secret 

Coloured bathroom suites are having a bit of a personal moment. Yes, tourmaline blue, browns, avocado, and more washroom runaways are out from behind closed doors and rudely showing off all over Instagram. 

If you thought this was just an eccentric whim, The Bold Bathroom Company has proved that colour-matched to classic lines still sells. Together with supplying props for vintage movies and TV series, its buyers cannot get enough of the wide array of reconditioned and new stock in Lemon Sorbet, Flamingo Pink, Powder Blue, and Coral. 

Classic pedestal sink in Tourmaline, with toilet as a set; €3906, The Bold Bathroom Company.

Amazingly, we’re not just talking about a single element either. Entire one colour and even multicoloured suites are on the rise, encompassing Victorian, art deco and the vintage shades you may have perched over in your youth. Whether you’re thinking of renovating a salvaged suite or buying new, consider a character glaze. 

Freshened up on modern colourways for walls and tiling, they can really rock. Retro basin/toilet combos with close-coupled loos, pillar taps, basin waste, and bottle traps are priced from €1482 excluding delivery, see Boldbathroom.co.uk.

Metal magic 

No one else does daring detachment in a metal kitchen like Frame Kitchens supplied by Fantin and designed by Salvatore Indriolo. It’s a gorgeous array of top-shelf kitchen characters and whole-house storage built in Italy. 

Frame is particularly noted for its bold approach to colour in a division of our homes that tends to feature fragile creams, innocent whites, and variations of polite navy blue and dark green. Fantin offers bold choices that can be used in single moments or deployed as an entire set of units — in harlequin colourways. 

Frame kitchens from Fantin, shown in Melon Yellow, triple-plumbed metal units with counter and induction hob from €13,480; Mohd.

Frame kitchens can be located inside or outside, depending on the weather conditions or sheltered under a rainproofed overhang. Prices start from €2,200 for a two-door Frame cabinet. Look for remarkably close dupes; Ikea's dark green Idasen cabinet is priced from €135 for a two-door. Mustard Made also does a fascinating range of powder-coated steel cabinetry. 

We love its sweet kit wall cabinet with fluted glass doors in Lilac (other colours available), a steal at just €255 that would redefine a bathroom with its cheeky, vintage allure. The Shorty is its locker-style answer to the traditional night-stand at just €149 a piece (fabulous in poppy red); available through Hark.ie and Eu.mustardmade.com.

Neverland from the Netherlands 

Apart from downing Bitterballen with beer in Amsterdam, I’ve never really shopped in the Netherlands. Well, that’s about to change, having discovered the fashion and lifestyle designs of Gudrun Sjoden. When it comes to throwing down some new individuality in a dull space, she has some wonderful lightweight pieces. 

A room styled with bohemian Dutch design flair from Gudrun Sjoden.

Bling up a bathroom with comfortingly folksy bath-sheets from €54, assemble a sofa mountain of woven, yarn-dyed banded, floral and cheque cushion covers from just €29, and reintroduce your dining table with a 100% cotton Joy tablecloth in relaxed, waggly stripes at €59, teamed with her Play placements from €14. 

Of course, we should be loyal to our own homegrown talent, but take your search for unusual showy objects a little further when you go online and look out for the increasing influence of the Dutch Design movement.

Dopamine drench from Denmark 

Finishing our whistlestop tour in Denmark, Hay of Copenhagen has just released a highly unusual tableware collection, and I cannot stop thinking about it. I collect what I call nightclass pottery, and these casual, delightful pieces really remind me of the naïve appeal of community-hall ceramics. 

I’m not sure how to describe these. Let’s let the Hay marketing crew whip up a hymn of praise. “La Pittura is a tableware collection rooted in the shared belief of artist Emma Kohlmann (@meiow_mix) and Hay co-founder Mette Hay: Kohlmann’s expressive motifs, brought to life by hand on ceramic forms, imbue familiar objects with feeling — breathing art into the everyday. 

La Pittura ware from the Danish design house Hay; from €29.

Each piece — be it a plate, a mug, or a jug — transforms function into expression, bringing beauty into daily routines and the spaces we inhabit.” What does that all mean? Beats me. Still, the work with its simple motifs (La Pittura means the painting in Italian) is both arty and accessible. I’m going to stick my neck out here and say these are collectables of the future. Prices start at €29, Hay.com.