By John Park-Davies, group managing director, Vertik-Al.

Our annual powder audit has revealed monotones dominated 2025. For the very first time our entire top 20 features only grey, black and white shades. To put this into context, we applied over 1,055 colours last year.

Anthracite grey in a matt finish continues to be our most popular powder, which has been the case for around six years.  However, variants of black and white were used most commonly during 2025 with 13 entries – 14, if you include black grey, inside the top 20. The remainder are grey tones.

Once again, jet black and hipca white sit behind anthracite grey as our second and third most used powders, respectively.  Unlike the number one powder, both colours feature several times inside the top 20, with powders provided by different suppliers.

In terms of volume, the top 20 accounts for almost 50% of all colours applied, with our overall tonnage equivalent to 12 large excavators or perhaps we should say 43 African elephants because they too are grey!

Matt finishes prevailed with only one entry each for gloss and satin in the top 20.  A welcome addition, and testament to the quality of our coatings, was white aluminium, a matt metallic colour ranked 10^th.

Polarising neutrals

Although the palette remains black, white and grey, 2025 shows a clear shift away from the popular mid-tones of 2024, such as khaki grey, moss grey, silk grey and pebble grey, toward extreme colours – purer whites, deeper blacks and near-black greys such as anthracite grey.

There may be several reasons for this. The first: mid-tones are perceived as dated. Mid greys, warm greys and soft whites are associated with 2010s commercial design and standard residential developments. More extreme tones suggest intentional, confident and more importantly, contemporary design.

Secondly, modern facades rely heavily on contrast, especially aluminium frames against masonry, stone, timber or render.  Extreme blacks and whites allow window systems and doors to be sharp feature elements, for example. Anthracite grey survives as an alternative to black.

Pantone 2026

This shift is reinforced by Pantone Colour of the Year 2026 – Cloud Dancer. It is the first time that Pantone Colour Institute has chosen a white shade for its colour of the year since the initiative began in 1999. There have been neutral shades, such as sand dollar in 2006, which was more of a beige, but none were strictly white.

Cloud Dancer ‘is a key structural colour whose versatility provides scaffolding for the colour spectrum’.

This choice speaks of a reset. White is the clearest possible neutral. It mirrors what’s going on at the other end of the spectrum with black and anthracite grey.

White = quality

White is the colour that exposes everything. We can use white confidently in architectural powder coating because of our commitment to quality. We are a Qualicoat approved coating applicator, an accolade we have held for more than 26 consecutive years.

We are also one of a handful of approved members to offer Qualicoat Seaside class powder coating, suitable for exposed sites. To cement our unrivalled commitment to quality, we are also the only architectural aluminium applicator in the UK and Ireland to hold the GSB International Master Seal for Approved Coater Aluminium. All this, plus the fastest lead times in the sector and the best quality at a competitive price.

If you want to be relevant and maximise opportunities in 2026, contact the UK’s largest independent powder coater now.