The coveted Dulux Colour Awards are celebrating 40 years and the 2026 winners have been announced.
A select number of extraordinary projects across 10 distinct categories were recognised by a panel of leaders in the design world.
Dulux colour and design manager Lauren Treloar said colour took centre stage across the winning projects.
For forty years, we have highlighted the potential of colour to transform architecture and design, and applauded those who most masterfully employ it to enhance our user experience.
"Our long-running awards are regarded as a design industry vanguard, unique for their recognition of colour as an integral design tool," Treloar says.
"For forty years, we have highlighted the potential of colour to transform architecture and design, and applauded those who most masterfully employ it to enhance our user experience.
"In all these winning projects, the architects, designers and students confidently step away from traditional or stereotypical palettes and applications to show us what is possible when colour is prioritised as a foundational design tool," Treloar says.
In the residential categories, the winners' use of colour-drenching and nods to modern nostalgia elicited strong emotional responses from the judging panel, with many projects featuring bold, warm shades to achieve visual saturation.
Winner of the residential interior category is The View by Studio Shields.
"The View is a seven-year reimagining of a home poised in the treetops of the Yarra Valley, where colour forms both the emotional and architectural framework of the interiors," designer Ruby Shields says.
"Developed in close dialogue with the surrounding landscape, the palette draws from oxidised earth, eucalyptus canopy, dry grasses and shifting skies, allowing the interior to feel inseparable from the landscape."
Shields says chartreuse and olives heighten the natural green of the bushland that is beyond the windows.
While the use of burgundy and earthy reds ground intimate zones, echoing the soil as well as the unique beauty of aged timber.
"Powdered electric blues temper warmth and introduce clarity," Shields says.
"These subtle shifts build a tonal narrative, so movement through the home unfolds as a considered journey."
