The 2023 colour palettes to set you up for clear, calm spaces to soothe your soul and energise your mind

Anyone who has taken even a passing interest in interior colour trends in recent years will tell you that the tones and shades of nature have played a strong role. Whether it’s the deepest ocean blues, the softest greens or the earthiest golds and terracottas, we’re looking for a deeper connection to natural spaces and environments within our own four walls. That’s the strongest theme in interior colour choices moving into 2023. This perhaps should come as no surprise given the past couple of years when so many of us have turned to nature for solace and as a way to re-energise ourselves, body and soul.

Green leads the way in terms of colourways, almost always with warm undertones, from soft seafoam shades and eucalyptus green to deep shades of olive and forest green and tantalising mixes of teal green.

Australian paint company, Haymes, describes their ‘Carefully Nurtured’ palette as restorative and reinvigorating as we begin to power up after two years of uncertainty and, in many cases, separation.

Biophilic elements – the human desire to connect with nature – make this palette ideal for creating connection between indoor and outdoor spaces, especially when teamed with natural materials such as timber and stone, as well as fibres such as linen and wool.

Warm colour bases ensure that while the green palette speaks of open space, a sense of cosiness is retained.

Similarly, the Balance and Connect colour palettes from Dulux focus on creating an equilibrium. While mid tones of teal and green speak of the natural world,

the softness of these colours provides the perfect backdrop for contemporary or mid century furniture and abstract art.

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These are palettes that focus on harmony over contrast, with similar tones placed alongside each other for depth. Equally at home on cool winter nights or warm spring days, lighter colours are ideal for shared spaces, like open plan living areas, while deeper shades create a sense of comfort, intimacy and even drama in less frequented areas such as bedrooms, home offices or formal dining spaces.

Indeed, the beauty of these palettes is their versatility, able to make themselves at home in contemporary environments, as well as breathing new life into more traditional homes.

Whether the look is relaxed elegance or contemporary chic, the sense is one of calm and serenity.

As we continue to examine what life looks like in a post COVID world, the beauty of paint is that if you tire of it or your priorities change, it’s one of the least expensive and invasive options to change your space.

And that’s something we can all feel good about.

Connect

This warm palette from Dulux (above) doesn’t shout its appeal from the rooftops. Instead, they are the kinds of colours that improve on better acquaintance. Choose from deep earth tones such as Cinnamon Sand or Research for intimate spaces like bedrooms and separate dining, or opt for Whisper White in shared spaces such as living rooms.

Drawing energy

If there is one colour that has dominated interior palettes in recent years, it is green. A key element of the biophilic trend, where we seek out the nature to restore balance to our increasingly tech driven world, shades like Haymes Botanist Green (above) continue to delve deeper each season. Texture is key, as cut flowers or indoor plants.

Balance

This dreamy palette (above) from the Dulux range draws on the ocean for colour inspiration. Gleaned from visits to Milan design Week and Future Laboratory London, among others, this palette is about stripping back the superfluous to immerse yourself in colour. Team with luxurious textures like velvet and silk for a look that is both sophisticated and comforting.

Light play

This palette from Haymes Paints (above) plays with notions of light – what colours reflect it and what colours absorb it. Colours like Empress Blue (below) play surprisingly well with pastels like Haymes Faith and Aloe Green. Add texture with hand made ceramics and organic patterns.

For some vacationers, the ideal getaway involves $1,200 ozone therapy or an $1,800 early-detection cancer test.

Call it the longevity vacation. People who are fixated on optimising their personal health are pursuing travel activities that they hope will help them stay healthier for longer. It is part of a broader interest in longevity that often extends beyond traditional medicine . These costly trips and treatments are rising in popularity as money pours into the global wellness travel market.

At high-end resorts, guests can now find biological age testing, poolside vitamin IV drips, and stem-cell therapy. Prices can range from hundreds of dollars for shots and drips to tens of thousands for more invasive procedures, which go well beyond standard wellness offerings like yoga, massages or facials.

Some longevity-inspired trips focus on treatments, while others focus more on social and lifestyle changes. This includes programs that promise to teach travellers the secrets of centenarians .

Mark Blaskovich, 66 years old, spent $4,500 on a five-night trip last year centred on lessons from the world’s “Blue Zones,” places including Sardinia, Italy, and Okinawa, Japan, where a high number of people live for at least 100 years. Blaskovich says he wanted to get on a healthier path as he started to feel the effects of ageing.

He chose a retreat at Modern Elder Academy in Mexico, where he attended workshops detailing the power of supportive relationships, embracing a plant-based diet and incorporating natural movement into his daily life.

“I’ve been interested in longevity and trying to figure out how to live longer and live healthier,” says Blaskovich.

Vitamins and ozone

When Christy Menzies noticed nurses behind a curtained-off area at the Four Seasons Resort Maui in Hawaii on a family vacation in 2022, she assumed it might be Covid-19 testing. They were actually injecting guests with vitamin B12.

Menzies, 40, who runs a travel agency, escaped to the longevity clinic between trips to the beach, pool and kids’ club, where she reclined in a leather chair, and received a 30-minute vitamin IV infusion.

“You’re making investments in your wellness, your health, your body,” says Menzies, who adds that she felt more energised afterward.

The resort has been expanding its offerings since opening a longevity centre in 2021. A multi-day treatment package including ozone therapy, stem-cell therapy and a “fountain of youth” infusion, costs $44,000. Roughly half a dozen guests have shelled out for that package since it made its debut last year, according to Pat Makozak, the resort’s senior spa director. Guests can also opt for an early-detection cancer blood test for $1,800.

The ozone therapy, which involves withdrawing blood, dissolving ozone gas into it, and reintroducing it into the body through an IV, is particularly popular, says Makozak. The procedure is typically administered by a registered nurse, takes upward of an hour and costs $1,200.

Longevity vacationers are helping to fuel the global wellness tourism market, which is expected to surpass $1 trillion in 2024, up from $439 billion in 2012, according to the nonprofit Global Wellness Institute. About 13% of U.S. travellers took part in spa or wellness activities while traveling in the past 12 months, according to a 2023 survey from market-research group Phocuswright.

Canyon Ranch, which has multiple wellness resorts across the country, earlier this year introduced a five-night “Longevity Life” program, starting at $6,750, that includes health-span coaching, bone-density scans and longevity-focused sessions on spirituality and nutrition.

The idea is that people will return for an evaluation regularly to monitor progress, says Mark Kovacs, the vice president of health and performance.

What doctors say

Doctors preach caution, noting many of these treatments are unlikely to have been approved by the Food and Drug Administration, producing a placebo effect at best and carrying the potential for harm at worst. Procedures that involve puncturing the skin, such as ozone therapy or an IV drip, risk possible infection, contamination and drug interactions.

“Right now there isn’t a single proven treatment that would prolong the life of someone who’s already healthy,” says Dr. Mark Loafman, a family-medicine doctor in Chicago. “If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.”

Some studies on certain noninvasive wellness treatments, like saunas or cold plunges , do suggest they may help people feel less stressed, or provide some temporary pain relief or sleep improvement.

Linda True, a policy analyst in San Francisco, spent a day at RAKxa, a wellness retreat on a visit to family in Thailand in February. True, 46, declined the more medical-sounding offerings, like an IV drip, and opted for a traditional style of Thai massage that involved fire and is touted as a “detoxification therapy.”

“People want to spend money on things that they feel might be doing good,” says Dr. Tamsin Lewis, medical adviser at RoseBar Longevity at Six Senses Ibiza, a longevity club that opened last year, whose menu includes offerings such as cryotherapy, infrared sauna and a “Longevity Boost” IV.

RoseBar says there is good evidence that reducing stress contributes to longevity, and Lewis says she doesn’t offer false promises about treatments’ efficacy . Kovacs says Canyon Ranch uses the latest science and personal data to help make evidence-based recommendations.

Jaclyn Sienna India owns a membership-based, ultra luxury travel company that serves people whose net worth exceeds $100 million, many of whom give priority to longevity, she says. She has planned trips for clients to Blue Zones, where there are a large number of centenarians. On one in February, her company arranged a $250,000 weeklong stay for a family of three to Okinawa that included daily meditation, therapeutic massages and cooking classes, she says.

India says keeping up with a longevity-focused lifestyle requires more than one treatment and is cost-prohibitive for most people.

Doctors say travellers may be more likely to glean health benefits from focusing on a common vacation goal : just relaxing.

Dr. Karen Studer, a physician and assistant professor of preventive medicine at Loma Linda University Health says lowering your stress levels is linked to myriad short- and long-term health benefits.

“It may be what you’re getting from these expensive treatments is just a natural effect of going on vacation, decreasing stress, eating better and exercising more.”