Paint brand Benjamin Moore has announced Webster Green HC-130 – ‘a quintessential green’ – as its colour of the year for 2027. It continues this year’s trend towards earthy and nature-inspired trends.

Webster Green is a confident take on green as an ultimately elegant shade, and comes hot on the heels of the shades other brands have recently named as their year-defining colour selections, including Dulux’s Soulful Sage, Little Greene’s Marle and Graham & Brown’s Rose Earth.

I’m struck by how well these different Colours of the Year complement each other, all offering a classic approach to colour that feels effortless and timeless. ‘Webster Green reflects this appeal by pairing reassuring stability with optimistic energy,’ says Helen Shaw, Director of Marketing (International) at Benjamin Moore.

To me, green feels like a truly British colour – one that’s woven into the history of home decorating, from the botanical greens of William Morris and the Arts & Crafts movement through to rich olive greens of mid-century modern. And sage green has long been a go-to in any well-designed modern country home. Green is a colour that’s proven itself to be reassuringly trend-proof time and time again.

Psychologically speaking, green has an immediate connection to nature that makes it feel calming and restorative. It’s a safe shade, and I definitely don’t mean that in a negative way! It can sit very comfortably in any home, whether it’s period or modern, small or large – it brings colour confidence and adds character to make any room feel supremely liveable.

Science backs up our love affair with green. Green’s the easiest colour for the human eye to process, and our eyes have evolved to make us able to see a broader range of greens than any other colour. We’re comfortable and feel at home immersed in green, and that’s why it works so brilliantly in our homes.

What I like about Webster Green specifically is that it’s got an intensity to it. It still offers the relaxing qualities green is so renowned for, but it has an added element of drama because it’s more richly pigmented than a classic soft sage. Pick Webster Green, and it’s going to bring energy and make a statement – something I’m always on the hunt for when choosing colours for my own home. Even better, thanks to its enduring style credentials, I won’t need to change it up when the next trend cycle rolls around!

Benjamin Moore has put together a curated palette of accompanying colours to anchor and enhance Webster Green, all of which speak to the same considered approach to grounding colours. Tawny browns (Antique Copper and Townsend Harbor Brown), dusky pastels (Wild Aster, Nelson Blue, gentle off-whites and elegant ochres are the name of the game. My verdict? This is a supremely versatile collection of colours that can be used in ways that will feel fresh and modern in any room – considered but full of character and personality.

I always feel inspired when I look at colours in a new way, and my creative brain is bursting with ideas for my own home. My hallway is crying out for a bold but elegant new look, and this palette could be exactly what I’m looking for.

What to style it with

Aldi is dropping a sleek new dehumidifier, and it’s perfect for keeping small homes and flats free from damp – and it’s only £44.99.

Now that the summer’s heatwaves feel like a distant, sweaty memory, the temperatures have dropped, the weather is getting wetter, and it’s quickly becoming the time of year when we are relying on the best dehumidifiers to help keep damp at bay in our homes.

However, the best models can easily cost hundreds of pounds. That is where this Aldi Specialbuy comes in handy. It’s affordable, compact and will remove excess moisture from your home. Here’s everything you need to know.

Every autumn, Aldi drops a dehumidifier, and this latest model is one of the more affordable options I’ve seen. A dehumidifier works to get rid of damp by sucking in excess water from the air in your home and releasing dry air back into the space to reduce the overall humidity. It can help dry washing faster, reduce condensation and can even remove musty, stale odours. This contributes to making your home a healthier environment for you and your family.

The Aldi Ambiano Dehumidifier has a 2.2L water storage tank, making it small to medium and well-suited to smaller rooms. It runs on a 24-hour timer and has overheat protection so you don’t have to worry about running it overnight. It even offers 10 different coloured night light options.

The dehumidifier itself looks pretty smart and, as a compact unit, is again well-suited to a small home. What I will say is that because of its small water tank, you should expect it to need emptying more frequently than larger tanks. Luckily, there are plenty of ways to reuse dehumidifier water around your home, including watering your plants and for cleaning jobs, like filling the iron.

Now, we haven’t tested the Aldi dehumidifier and considering its price, I expect it will be a little basic. However, if you are looking for an affordable dehumidifier, Aldi Specialbuys do tend to surprise me in terms of quality. So, I do think it’s worth a try.

Alternatively, here are a few more dehumidifiers that the Ideal Home team have tried and reviewed.

If you struggle with damp, but haven’t invested in a dehumidifier let this be your reminder to do so, and that budget options are available.

It might seem early to be talking about Christmas decorations, but past experience has taught me that you need to act fast to get the most stylish and best-value ones. Even if that means Christmas shopping in early October.

Last year, my big loss was missing out on Habitat’s £5 statement green stripe paper star decoration. I spent too long dithering over whether I needed one or three (the answer is always three). By the time I decided, it had flown out of stock, and it was only October. I’ve been waiting patiently for a year, and I’m happy to announce that it is finally back in stock, but act fast; they’re already becoming like gold dust to get your hands on.

Paper stars are always a staple festive decoration, but over the last two years, larger, colourful and striped iterations have been a big breakout christmas decor trend.

‘Scandi-inspired Christmas stars have been popular for a while now. But in the last couple of years, they’ve become a major focus of so many people’s Christmas decor,’ explains Ideal Home’s Room Decor Editor, Sara Hesikova. ‘And this year, pretty much all the major high street brands and retailers we love buying our Christmas decorations from have jumped on the trend. Compared to previous years, the favoured look has evolved, though as brands are leaving the uber minimalist styles behind in favour of stripes and layered, snowflake-reminiscent shapes.’

This year, M&S has launched its own £15 striped paper star in red and green colourways, and they’ve been selling like hotcakes. IKEA has also brought back its own ever-popular STRÅLA star lampshade in a bold red. However, Habitat’s XL paper star remains both the best-looking and best value for money at £5.

I was alerted to the Habitat Paper Star last year by Ideal Home’s Room Decor Editor, who spotted it in person at the Habitat Christmas preview and was blown away by just how big the decoration was. Measuring 75 cm across, it is about the size of a computer monitor or a backpack; it delivers a big impact for a fraction of the price of similar-style decorations.

Last year, the star was only available in a green stripe, but this year Habitat has brought it back in a red stripe too. Red is always a staple festive colour, but burgundy and red stripes are set to be massive this Christmas, especially with the ongoing trend for rich, dark, juicy reds going strong in the rest of the interiors world.

I’m planning to snap up three of the red stars to display on the wall in my pink living room as the backdrop for my Christmas tree. That is, if I can get my hands on three.

The stars are already showing as sold out for many locations in the green colourway, and currently I can only find two of the red stars for collection at my local Argos. So if you want to snap any up, I’d recommend acting fast.

Alternatives

If the Habitat paper stars are currently all out of stock in your local area for delivery and collection, I’ve tracked down a few other statement stars and snowflakes that give this classic scandi decoration a joyful spin.