Sheerline’s year in colour: How grey was 2024 really?

By Eddy Webb, Sheerline’s production director.

It’s that time of year when we’re looking ahead and thinking about upcoming trends. Last year, there was some discussion around anthracite grey finally loosing its ubiquitous status, which made us wonder how our customer’s ordering behaviour had changed over the last 12 months.

For the past few years, anthracite has been the grey of choice for 90% of homeowners, but what about in 2024?

Here’s what we discovered.

Over the past few years there’s been a marked increase in demand for different coloured aluminium windows and doors, and 2024 was no different. In fact, at Sheerline, our in-house powder-coating facility sprayed 115 different colours throughout the year.

This figure is up 155% on 2023, which suggests the trend for unique colours is growing. Homeowners want to express their individuality, and this is likely to continue as social media enables individuals to showcase their unique, beautiful homes.

But it’s not just the number of colours that has increased. While matt remains the preferred finish for many, gloss, anodised, and metallic finishes grew in popularity compared to the previous year.

Shades of grey

Anthracite has been the grey of choice for homeowners and developers alike for the past few years. While it remained a firm favourite for 2024 – accounting for almost a third of all paint orders – it was less popular than in 2023.

In 2024, we supplied 54 shades of grey compared to 26 in 2023. Anthracite was still our most popular, but agate, squirrel, pebble, slate, and black grey grew in popularity. Over the year, greys accounted for just over 41% of all colour orders.

But will this trend continue? While we expect grey to remain a favourite, the number of options available – grey or otherwise – may give other colours a chance to shine.

Green with envy

Towards the end of last year, we also saw an increase in the number of greens that were requested through the Sheerline paint line. Two of the most popular during 2024 were pale green and pastel green.

Over the course of the year, 17 different shades and combinations of green were requested, with olive and moss variations gaining popularity. Matt is the preferred finish, but satin was popular too.

While greens aren’t anywhere near as popular as greys, we’re expecting demand to increase in line with a predicted interior design trend for 2025 that suggests green may become the kitchen colour of choice over blue.

The future’s bright…

Greys look likely to continue to dominate the aluminium window and door landscape, but not without competition. Aside from greens, shades of black will gain traction in 2025 because of heritage-style products – a key trend for this year.

While shades of white and cream are having a resurgence in the PVC-U market, our figures have been consistent over the past two years. And we expect this to continue as they offer a timeless, traditional look.

Consumers will continue to put their stamp on their projects – whether it’s a new build or renovation. As a result, we expect the number of colours through our paint line to increase again this year.

Sheerline offers an agile service thanks to its in-house Qualicoat ‘Seaside’ approved powder-coating facility. As a result, we offer five-day lead times on all standard colour combinations, an additional 64 colour combinations in ten days, and bespoke colours in 15 days.

Looking for a brighter 2025? It’s time to call Sheerline.