Soulful Sage™ pairs soft green with natural wood tones and textured finishes, offering furniture and cabinet manufacturers inspiration for new collections

The soft, silvery green Soulful Sage™ brings a gentle lift to any space, making it feel lighter, calmer and more inviting. Sitting at the heart of three carefully curated colour stories, Soulful Sage™ captures the mood for 2027, according to the results of the company’s annual trend research.

“Our 2027 Colour of the Year is all about creating lighter spaces for a lighter life,” said Heleen van Gent, Creative Director of AkzoNobel’s Global Aesthetic Center. “Many people are feeling weighed down by world events and overloaded with information. We want to offer a way to create a lighter environment so people can feel that weight lifted off their shoulders.”

Việt Nam is one of the world’s leading exporters of wood and furniture products, with export turnover of US$9.46 billion in 2025. As buyers in the US, EU, Japan and South Korea place growing emphasis on design, colour and consistent quality, many manufacturers are moving from pure contract manufacturing towards design-led original design manufacturing (ODM) offers. A trend-led palette such as Soulful Sage™ gives them a starting point for new collections to present to international buyers.

For manufacturers, Soulful Sage™ offers a versatile starting point for new product and finish development. The supporting colour stories – Glow, Light and Lift – provide additional routes for building coordinated palettes across indoor and outdoor furniture, kitchen cabinets, bathroom vanities, flooring, windows, doors, siding, cladding and other wood products.

Glow focuses on earth tones to create a warm look. Light combines quiet, pale tones and darker shades to create a healing mood, while Lift features positive tones that evoke the joy of an inspiring space. Together, the three stories provide a trend-led colour palette for creating distinctive combinations for customers.

The 2027 colours and finishes can stand alone or be combined with others in the collection, giving manufacturers flexibility to create coordinated looks across a product range. They also work well alongside wood substrates with natural or stained finishes, allowing manufacturers to bring coloured surfaces together with the warmth and character of wood in the same product or collection.

Colour development for industrial wood products is closely linked to the coating system, application method, sheen and opacity. AkzoNobel Wood Coatings’ technical services and design experts are therefore ready to support customers in achieving the right finish efficiently on their production lines. From colour matching and coating-system selection to application guidance and finish development, they help customers move from a design concept to a practical, repeatable result.

In Việt Nam, AkzoNobel combines local manufacturing capabilities and technical services from its site in Amata Industrial Park, Long Bình, Đồng Nai province, with global expertise in research and development, colour development and matching, product testing and coating technologies. Its dedicated colour laboratory and technical service teams provide colour matching, sample-panel preparation and on-site support at customers’ production lines, covering testing, surface preparation and coating applications.

This enables manufacturers to shorten sampling lead times for overseas buyers, maintain colour consistency across batches and production lines, and select high-performance coating systems that deliver the durability and finish quality their export customers expect.

“Manufacturers need to balance changing design expectations with the practical demands of production,” said Henri Bijsterbosch, Color Product Marketing Manager for AkzoNobel’s Industrial Coatings business. “Soulful Sage™ and the three supporting colour palettes give our OEM customers a clear creative direction, while our coatings expertise helps them develop finishes that can be applied consistently and integrated into their production processes.”

“Vietnamese manufacturers are increasingly asked by their overseas customers not only to produce, but also to propose new designs and colours,” said Prakash Kumar, Regional Product Marketing Manager, AkzoNobel Wood Finishes Asia.

“With Soulful Sage™ and the 2027 palettes, backed by our local technical team, we help them respond faster to buyer briefs and deliver the same finish quality from the first sample to full-scale production.”

AkzoNobel’s Global Aesthetic Center has been translating trends into desirable colours for many years. Its annual ColourFutures™ trend forecast meeting brings together in-house experts, international architects, designers and journalists to share insights into how reactions to the world around us influence colour choices.

For more information, visit the dedicated Colour of the Year 2027 page:

AkzoNobel Colour of the Year 2027.

Manufacturers interested in Soulful Sage™ sample panels, colour cards or a finish-development consultation can contact an AkzoNobel Wood Coatings sales or technical service representative.

About AkzoNobel

Since 1792, we’ve been supplying the innovative paints and coatings that help to colour people’s lives and protect what matters most. Our world-class portfolio of brands, including Dulux, International, Sikkens and Interpon, is trusted by customers around the globe. We’re active in more than 150 countries and use our expertise to sustain and enhance everyday life.

Because we believe every surface is an opportunity. It’s what you’d expect from a pioneering and long-established paints company that’s dedicated to providing more sustainable solutions and preserving the best of what we have today – while creating an even better tomorrow. Let’s paint the future together.

AkzoNobel has been present in Việt Nam for more than 30 years and operates several manufacturing sites across the country. Its wood coatings site in Amata Industrial Park, Long Bình, Đồng Nai, supplies finishes and adhesives to furniture, cabinet and wood-product manufacturers in Việt Nam and across Southeast Asia, supported by local colour and technical service teams.