Soulful Sage™, sensory design and the changing mood of hospitality
Following our look at Dulux Colour of the Year 2027, Soulful Sage™, and how the ColourFutures™ trends could influence feel-good workplaces, we're turning our attention to an area particularly close to our hearts at HIGH Contract Interiors:
Hospitality.
Restaurants, pubs, bars, hotels and cafés are spaces we choose to spend time in. That makes the way they feel every bit as important as the way they look.
Dulux's ColourFutures™ 2027 research feels particularly relevant to hospitality because it isn't simply presenting us with another fashionable shade of green.
Instead, it's exploring our desire for environments that engage the senses, create emotional connection and make us feel good.
At the centre of it all is Soulful Sage™, described by Dulux as an incredibly versatile green that can either take centre stage or quietly support the rest of an interior.
For hospitality designers, that versatility creates some interesting possibilities.
Why it's got to be green
Green certainly isn't new to hospitality interiors.
We've been specifying greens in pubs, restaurants and hotels for years, but there's something different about the direction we're seeing now.
Rather than deep emeralds and dramatic jewel tones, Soulful Sage is softer, earthier and much easier to live with.
It connects naturally with timber, stone, planting, woven textures and tactile fabrics, materials already strongly associated with contemporary hospitality design.
Dulux talks about sage evoking the taste, scent and sight of a healing herb garden, describing it as a colour that “lights up the senses”.
And that idea of designing for the senses feels particularly important in hospitality.
Because we don't experience a restaurant through colour alone.
We experience the lighting, acoustics, seating, textures, smells, temperature and atmosphere, alongside the food, drink and company.
The best hospitality interiors bring all of those things together.
Three very different directions for hospitality
One of the most useful things about the ColourFutures™ 2027 collection is that Dulux hasn't dictated one particular aesthetic.
Instead, Soulful Sage sits at the heart of three colour stories:
Glow. Light. Lift.
And each could create a completely different hospitality experience.
GLOW: Warm, grounded and welcoming
“A touch of the real warms the heart.”
The Glow palette is probably the direction we'll see translating most naturally into pubs, restaurants and relaxed hospitality environments.
Dulux combines Soulful Sage with colours inspired by clay, terracotta and stone, alongside warm earth tones and touches of uplifting lilac.
There's something reassuringly familiar about it.
Think:
Soulful Sage walls + natural oak furniture + terracotta upholstery + warm lighting + tactile fabrics.
Or perhaps sage joinery with dark timber tables, tan seating and aged brass details.
For pubs in particular, this could provide an interesting alternative to the traditional darker greens and heritage reds while still retaining warmth and character.
Furniture we'd pair with Glow
Natural or medium oak
Warm walnut and darker timbers
Tan and cognac upholstery
Rust and terracotta fabrics
Textured neutral upholstery
Antique brass or bronze detailing
Natural cane and woven finishes
The result feels warm, grounded and contemporary without becoming overly trendy.
LIGHT: Calm, considered hospitality
“Offloading clutter is good for the soul.”
At the opposite end of the spectrum is Light.
Here, Dulux combines Soulful Sage with understated browns, greys and blues, mixing quiet pale tones with deeper accents to create spaces that feel calm and visually balanced.
We can see this working beautifully in hotels, spas, cafés, wellness spaces and more refined restaurant environments.
It's a quieter approach to hospitality.
Less visual noise. Fewer competing finishes. More emphasis on materials, proportion and texture.
Imagine a pale sage backdrop with light oak tables, upholstered dining chairs in warm grey, beautiful stone surfaces and soft blue-grey accents.
Nothing needs to shout.
Furniture we'd pair with Light
Pale oak
Soft grey upholstery
Stone and oatmeal fabrics
Muted blue-grey finishes
Natural linen textures
Black used sparingly for definition
Simple, beautifully proportioned furniture
This is where Soulful Sage almost becomes a neutral, allowing the furniture and materials around it to do the talking.
LIFT: Hospitality with personality
“Having space to dream lifts the spirits.”
And then there's Lift.
This is where things get much more playful.
Dulux combines Soulful Sage with yellow ochres and soft pinks, creating a palette designed to bring creativity, energy and moments of delight to a space.
For hospitality, this opens up some really exciting possibilities.
Think independent cafés, casual dining, boutique hotels, bars and venues that want their interior to become part of their identity.
Rather than covering an entire restaurant in colour, we could use those stronger shades through furniture.
An ochre upholstered chair.
A soft pink banquette.
A sage wall.
Natural timber tables.
Perhaps a playful patterned fabric bringing several colours together.
Suddenly, the furniture isn't simply filling the space. It's helping create the personality of the venue.
Hospitality is becoming more sensory
One of the things we find particularly interesting about the Dulux 2027 direction is the emphasis on the senses.
Hospitality design has always been sensory, whether we've consciously described it that way or not.
Consider the difference between sitting on a hard chair beneath bright white lighting and sitting in an upholstered booth beneath a warm pendant.
You're technically doing the same thing.
But the experience is completely different.
Colour is part of that experience, but so are:
Texture. Lighting. Acoustics. Comfort. Materials. Temperature. Scent. Space.
We're seeing hospitality interiors become increasingly tactile as a result.
Timber where you can see and feel the grain.
Bouclé and textured fabrics.
Cane and woven materials.
Stone.
Leather and leather-look finishes.
Planting.
Layered lighting rather than one uniform source.
Soulful Sage sits particularly comfortably amongst these materials because it references the natural world without requiring an interior to become overtly botanical.
Furniture is an easy way to introduce colour
You don't necessarily need to repaint an entire restaurant every time colour trends change.
Furniture and upholstery can be a much more flexible way to introduce colour.
A neutral restaurant could introduce Soulful Sage through upholstered dining chairs.
A pub might combine existing timber tables with new sage, tan and rust seating.
A hotel lounge could introduce the Lift palette through occasional chairs and cushions.
Banquette seating gives designers an even bigger opportunity to introduce colour, texture and pattern.
This also allows hospitality operators to evolve an interior without necessarily undertaking a complete refurbishment.
And no, everything doesn't need to match
This is something we're particularly passionate about at HIGH.
Some of the most interesting hospitality spaces don't contain 80 identical chairs.
They create a family of furniture.
Perhaps one chair design appears in several finishes.
Armchairs sit alongside side chairs.
Upholstered seating is mixed with timber.
Bar stools relate to the dining furniture without being identical.
The colours might come from the same palette, but they're allowed to vary.
The Glow, Light and Lift concept lends itself perfectly to this way of specifying.
Rather than asking, “What colour should the chairs be?”, we can ask:
“What combination of colours, materials and textures will create the atmosphere we're trying to achieve?”
That's a much more interesting conversation.
Our hospitality prediction for 2027
If the Dulux ColourFutures™ research is an indication of where interiors are heading, we think hospitality in 2027 will continue moving towards spaces that feel:
Natural. Tactile. Layered. Comfortable. Individual. Sensory.
And importantly, perhaps a little less perfect.
Natural timber grain.
Visible texture.
Earthy colours.
Furniture that feels collected rather than simply ordered as one matching set.
Spaces with personality.
Soulful Sage may be the headline colour, but the bigger trend behind it is much more interesting.
It's a move towards hospitality interiors that make us feel something.
And ultimately, isn't that exactly what a great restaurant, pub, café or hotel should do?
Bringing the 2027 colour trends into your hospitality project?
At HIGH Contract Interiors, we supply contract furniture for restaurants, pubs, bars, cafés, hotels and leisure environments.
From dining chairs, bar stools and tables to bespoke banquette seating and complete furniture packages, we can help translate a design concept or colour palette into furniture that's beautiful, practical and built for commercial use.
Planning a hospitality project? Talk to HIGH Contract Interiors →
