Introducing Design of the Year 2025
Each autumn, our in house studio look at current and future trends to inform our design direction and colour palettes for the upcoming year.. After careful consideration and spending hours researching, predicting and playfully curating colour palettes and handcrafting new designs In our studio, we’ve concluded on our Design & Colour of the Year 2025.
Since completing his fashion marketing degree and spending a year working in luxury PR in London James has spent 8 years living and breathing wallpaper and interior design. Joining Graham & Brown in 2015 working through the marketing and product teams before spending time in field developing our Graham & Brown partner network. 2021 saw James’ return to his passion of delivering exceptional product and design into the market heading up the Graham & Brown lifestyle interior brand.
Working across all product categories James’ ambition is to deliver beautifully curated loving homes to our customers and inspiring them every day.
Each autumn, our in house studio look at current and future trends to inform our design direction and colour palettes for the upcoming year. After careful consideration and spending hours researching, predicting and playfully curating colour palettes and handcrafting new designs in our studio, we’ve concluded on our Design & Colour of the Year 2025. All designed to work harmoniously and perfectly partner with each other, meaning we’ve done all the hard work suggesting paint, fabric, and mural recommendations to help you recreate the look of 2025 and beyond in your home.
So without further a-do, Graham & Brown now proudly presents our Design & Colour of the year…
Design of the Year – Rivington Folly
The incredible landscape of Lancashire and its dramatic industrial heritage are the main influences in our unique Rivington Folly. After much deliberation, we felt that this design captures the spirit of our region, a proud testament to how man can live and work in harmony with the natural world.
Rivington Folly is inspired by the wonderfully evocative Liverpool Castle in Rivington Terraced Gardens, known locally as the Lost Garden. This Victorian folly is a replica of the 13th-century castle in Merseyside and is an iconic landmark in Lancashire. The contrast between the architectural structure and the natural elements in the form of bold trees reinforces our concept of man-made/natural combinations for this year’s design (and its perfect partner paint, Elderton).
The design was created by Victoria Davidson, who decided that the best way to capture the spirit of Rivington Folly was to emulate the line drawing style of Giovanni Battista Piranesi. This exceptionally talented 18th-century Italian printmaker was famous for his neoclassical etchings, and Vic felt that this style was the perfect way to capture the heritage, character, and ambience of Rivington Folly.
The result is a painstakingly detailed design that demonstrates Vic’s meticulous eye for composition and her exceptional draughtsmanship skills. The archways add visually striking elements, while the reclamation of the man-made folly by Nature tells a story in a single picture.
Rivington Folly is available as wallpaper, a striking custom wall mural, bespoke curtains, and Roman blinds. Add Elderton to the composition as the perfect colour partner and you have a truly striking interior design that creates a talking point in a living room or bedroom.
Colour of the Year – Elderton
The symbiosis of the man-made and the natural world is the inspiration for our Colour of the Year. Elderton represents the natural element of this perfect juxtaposition. This warm, rich and creamy brown takes its hue from the Elder tree, one of the few native species of tree in the UK.
The Elder has a deep-rooted place in the culture, mythology and even the medicinal history of the British Isles, and was a sacred tree to the Druids. Elderton captures the complexity, subtleness and warmth of an Elder tree’s structure, adding a softness and bold yet gentle ambience to any room.
Elderton is an incredibly versatile colour that brings delicacy to any space but is also robust enough to partner with more vibrant shades or as a stand-alone colour.
To make a luxurious statement, celebrate Elderton with a technique known as 'colour drenching'.
Colour drenching is when you draw the colour up the walls and onto the ceiling, literally 'drenching' the room in colour. It takes a particular tone to achieve this successfully – if a colour is too dark or too light, you immediately overwhelm the space. Elderton is subtle enough to work as a colour drench, removing visual barriers between the wall and ceiling and creating the sensation of ‘opening up’ the space.
What colours does Elderton work with?
Again, this is the beauty of this delightful neutral brown. As it sits in the centre of the neutral palette, it can perfectly pair with almost any colour on the spectrum. By including it with other neutrals, you can create a fresh, clean space that can embrace a minimalist décor or a more traditional scheme. If you want to balance Elderton, our top tip is a perfect partnership with a creamy neutral like Honey Pot. The result is a delightfully warm ambience that suits any size room.
However, Elderton’s versatility allows it to partner with all types of natural tones, from leafy inspired greens to punchy terracotta’s. It's a grounding shade with considerable depth and a chameleon-like ability to blend, adapt and transform a space depending on the colour combinations, furnishings, and lighting. A stable colour that allows contemporary hues to take centre stage, it’s the ideal neutral for 2025.
Elderton thrives in its element when you team it up with our Design of the Year, Rivington Folly. A striking architectural design, complimented by a gentle neutral like Elderton to balance it without competing. Elderton achieves this perfectly, harmonising with the subtleties within the Rivington Folly design, especially the Dusk version.
Elderton and Rivington Folly have rightfully earned their place in our collection of perfectly partnered Colour and Design of the Year paints and wallpapers.
A design and colour that celebrates our heritage
We decided to make Rivington Folly our Design of the Year 2025 and chose Elderton as our Colour of the Year 2025 because these two represent and celebrate Lancashire's heritage. This also fits in with our Craft Work principle, where one-off, bespoke designs that use old techniques breathe new life into interior concepts.
With Rivington Folly in particular, a picture really does represent a thousand words, telling the story of both the medieval castle and its Victorian sibling, as well as how the Lancashire landscape gradually reclaimed parts of the folly, demonstrating that you can never overcome Nature!
By contrast, Elderton embraces the 'minimaluxe' trend and the principle that 'less is more'. Harmony and balance can be achieved with mindful colour choices, and a colour can become a blank canvas that lets you explore your own creativity. This is at the heart of the Craft Work trend, which tips a nod to the Arts & Crafts movement and principles of the 19th and early 20th century.