Dulux Colour Awards 2026
Commercial Interior – Workplace and Retail Winner
This category recognises excellence in the interior paint finishes of any commercial or industrial building such as offices, studios, factories, retail outlets, pop-up retail and shopping centres.
Commercial Interior – Workplace and Retail Winner
Pattern Studio
Above the Clouds
What the judges said
“This second store that Pattern Studio has designed for cult Australian streetwear retailer Above The Clouds could have dropped out of Stockholm or Tokyo; its pared back sensibility is stridently minimalistic thanks to the designers’ commitment to restraint. The striking two-storey street frontage allows views into a luminous, icy-blue interior and the wow-factor continues within where the palest candy-floss colours and soft neutrals provide an atmospheric backdrop for sparsely populated racks and shelves. Embodying the concept of the store’s moniker, this voluminous space evokes the light quality, vastness and perspective witnessed from ‘above the clouds’. In a genius twist, this tranquillity is momentarily broken by a streak of vivid red applied to a structural column to signal its presence in a gesture that is as practical, fresh and surprising as the whole. There’s no ambiguity about this brand’s dedication to providing a high-tech, intentionally constrained backdrop for its curated wares. It is so sophisticated in its austerity that it verges on dystopian – a total departure from the maximalism we are witnessing in residential interiors – and the discerning use of colour provides the foundation for the creative strategy, namely to empower this independent venture and offer the customer an elevated experience.”
Buster Caldwell, judge
Pattern Studio
Project: Above the Clouds, Victoria. Images: Tom Ross
The winning palette
Commended
Nickolas Gurtler Office
Lost Profile Gallery
What the judges said
“In this former warehouse, the blurring of retail gallery and studio parallels the owner’s multi-disciplinary practice – part designer, collector, retailer, curator. Thus, Lost Profile Gallery is an ambiguous entity within which the wares for sale are presented more as sculpture than product, to be experienced, enjoyed, rather than acquired and the services offered are done so in spaces conducive to collaboration rather than transaction. In striking this balance, principles of exhibiting are employed, with objects treated like sculpture, displayed sparingly and highlighted individually. Warm, muted neutrals paired with soft textures and fine finishes combine to exude a temple-like aura within which its high-end offerings shine and bespoke design consultations are genuinely undertaken. The showroom-studio was spatially planned as a ‘procession of portals’, titled Dawn, Day and Dusk, ‘framed as states of perception, where light, shadow and form are composed as substance’. Delineating these spaces required intentionally distinct, fearless yet subtle colour, as beautifully restrained in its application as Above The Clouds. Clean, intentional and unified, it presents a new archetype in the retail genre and consequently challenges the commercial norms of retail.”
Buster Caldwell, judge.
Nickolas Gurtler Office
Project: Lost Profile Gallery, Brunswick, Melbourne. Images: Timothy Kaye
Lost Profile Gallery palette
Dulux Colour Awards 2026 category winners
Explore how the winners brought to life the innovative use of colour in residential, commercial and public spaces.
Disclaimer
Image Credits: Hamish McIntosh Lynda Draper: Glimmer | Simon Wilson Waka Huia | Martina Gemmola The View | Felix Frost Nithsdale | Tom Ross Above The Clouds | Timothy Kaye Lost Profile Gallery | Anson Smart Billy’s, Ayrburn | Anson Smart Hannah St Hotel | Chad Peacock Linewide Graphic Trail | Dennis Radermacher Te Pākau Maru |
