Trends Commentary "Building Tomorrow 2025-26"
Discover the key trends shaping the decorative paints industry in 2025-26
Key trends for decorative paints in 2025-26
- 1Trends and opportunities shaping the decorative paints industry in 2025-26
- 2Top formulation trends in decorative paints for 2025-26
- 3Green & Circular: Key raw materials to watch in decorative paints for 2025-26
- 4Healthy Future: Key raw materials to watch in decorative paints for 2025-26
- 5Smart Functionality: Key raw materials to watch in decorative paints for 2025-26
- 6Efficiency: Key raw materials to watch in decorative paints for 2025-26
Discover the formulation trends shaping the future of the decorative paints industry
According to our customers, these are the megatrends that will have the highest impact in 2025-26 based on different regions1
What formulation trends our customers think will be most important in 2025–261
- 74% of decorative paints customers agree that moving from solvent to water-based will be an important formulation trend.
- 85% of decorative paints customers selected reducing waste as an important formulation trend.
- 86% of decorative paints customers agree that eliminating indoor emissions will be an important formulation trend.
Our technical experts’ view on the formulation trends in decorative paints
Q. Which key product groups will be essential in formulating for the upcoming trends?
A. Both producers and customers are driving new formulations developments. Within the Green & Circular megatrend, binders and fillers will be two important product groups. Organic polymers can be built by using renewable resources, and we are just beginning to explore the field of fillers that are not coming from primary sources. We also see the impact of the Healthy Future megatrend. Regulations and the evaluation of harmful chemicals are the main drivers for safer formulations. Those chemicals are typically part of the additive package of a formulation, so they are low in concentration but crucial for performance.
Q. What opportunities and challenges do you anticipate?
A. For a lot of new products, formulating isn’t too complex, and experienced formulators are able to achieve good results. For some product groups, options are somewhat limited, such as when it comes to PFAS. But we see a big innovation push to reevaluate the way we think about formulations today. From a technical perspective, I believe there is an enormous potential for the decorative paints market to become more sustainable in just one or two decades.
Q. What specific hurdles might arise in developing sustainable formulations?
A. The biggest hurdle we see today is what we call the “lack of infrastructure”. The chemical industry is built on petrochemicals and relies on extensive use of energy. The transformation of these two pillars is crucial to enable the scale-up effect that will make sustainable formulations commercially attractive. Beyond that, there are cases where the sustainable alternative to a fossil-based raw material is not available in sufficient amounts, yet! The journey has just begun.
- IMCD Coatings & Construction Global Customer Trends Survey 2025-2026, Decorative Paints
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