Sikkens Colour Wall

The previous Colour Wall was four metres wide and held 224 colours. For the new one, AkzoNobel asked for a lighter, slimmer, more modern wall, with 192 colours at most and a worktop running the full length of the wall.

The new one is three metres wide, 220 cm tall and 40 cm deep. There are three modules, one metre each, and each one arrives in three pre-assembled blocks: the base with the worktop, the colour panel and the crowner with the lettering.

The colours are arranged in 24 columns of hues and 8 rows of intensity, from the deepest to the lightest. Each sample is a 7.5 cm MDF square painted in its own colour from the Sikkens 5051 fan deck, with the name underneath: Delicate Peony, Mild Sky, Real Red Terra. The brief wanted the names because they mean more to people painting their own homes.

Below the worktop, behind sliding doors in sandblasted acrylic, there’s a pocket for every colour, holding A4 sheets to take away. There are 192 of them, and you can make out the sheets through the acrylic even with the doors closed.

The sample panels are tilted at 5° and the light comes from above, from an LED strip with adjustable colour temperature in Kelvin: you can look at the same colour under warmer or cooler light.

The structure is in anthracite grey melamine board, the backing behind the samples in Sikkens light grey and the worktop in oak.

At the top, the COLOUR WALL lettering and the Sikkens logo are in backlit acrylic. On the worktop sits the finishing table, a detachable magnetic tray with finishes you can touch: three enamels and three wall finishes.

1. 01Samples192 MDF squares, 7.5 cm each, painted in the colours of the 5051 fan deck.
2. 02NamesUnder each sample, in Sikkens’ Colour Sans typeface.
3. 03LightLEDs adjustable in Kelvin, angled at 20° onto the samples.
4. 04CrownerThe COLOUR WALL lettering and the logo in backlit acrylic.
5. 05WorktopOak, with the magnetic finishing table.
6. 06DoorsSandblasted acrylic, sliding, with the logo in the centre.
7. 07PocketsShelves in 3 mm black Dibond, with a label for every colour.

I designed the wall together with the design team at Pac Team Europa, who design and build retail displays. I built the 3D model and produced the renders for Pac Team Europa’s bid in AkzoNobel’s tender, which it won.

Then I saw the project through to production: I updated the technical drawings, designed the templates for fixing the samples to the panel and prepared the print-ready artwork for the trays and the names.

Twenty Colour Walls have been produced. In the shop, the three blocks of a module are stacked one on top of the other. For shipping, each module fits on one pallet, so a complete wall goes out on three.

The images on this page are a new series, from 2026: the shop, the exploded view, the assembly of a module and the three pallets ready to leave.