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Creating a unique space by incorporating the latest home fashions in a personal way is part of the excitement of decorating a home. “Typical is out and personalized is in,” Sonu Mathew, Benjamin Moore color manager, says. “Consumers should apply their own perspectives into how they use trends.” To help homeowners do this, color experts share this seasonʼs color palettes.
Josette Buisson, Pittsburgh Paints artistic director, explains that everyone has a “color personality” that must shine through in the home. Seasonal palettes are determined with this necessity in mind, while also giving weight to the trends that “tend to bubble up,” Debbie Zimmer, Rohm and Haas Paint Quality Institute color and decorating expert, says. These trends stem from “social, global, and economic issues that really have people thinking of how to incorporate colors into their space,” Zimmer says. Each company interprets these qualities differently, but all work “to translate those social trends into design and color,” Buisson says. The results are vast rainbows from each company from which homeowners can choose the moods and mixtures that suit them best.
Zimmer calls them “paint directions.” Buisson explains them as “trends in context.” The reality is, Buisson says, there are no new colors – trends are just the way we look at and use color. “Itʼs a way of expressing our social reactions to reality,” she says.
‘Home As Oasis’
In todayʼs fast-paced world, people are craving a gentler, slower life and looking for more spirituality, Buisson says. The paint industry, taking cues from yoga, is enabling people to turn their homes into the soothing spaces they are craving. “After 9/11,” Leslie Bishop, principal designer at Alexandria Paint Co. and Arlington Paint & Decorating, says, “it was home as refuge. Now it is home as oasis … People want to come home to a calm Zen-like feeling in their homes.” This trend has taken shape in palettes using greens, colors of water, and neutrals to create a soothing spa-like atmosphere.
Green is one of the most popular hues, making up half of the color palette, explains Tiffany Campbell, PR manager for BEHR Paints. Earthy greens and herb colors are lush and calming, and emeralds and teals also create a strong but comforting atmosphere. Sea and sky blues are also prominent, giving rooms tranquility. These calming blues and greens are best in bedrooms and especially bathrooms. “No one builds a bathroom anymore, everyone builds a spa,” says Aimee Desrosiers, California Paints director of marketing and color forecaster. Inspired by the spa craze, Sherwin-Williamsʼ Relaxed Retreat palette blends earth and water with colors such as Peach Fuzz, Dancing Green, and Cooled Blue. These tranquil rooms can be tinged with pastels, especially yellows and pinks.
Neutral colors are also helping homeowners to use their homes to escape. “Brown is the new black,” according to Campbell, and rich brown tones like chocolates and mochas create both strength and comfort in a room. Sherwin-Williams is sporting this trend in its Sumptuous Browns palette, and Rohm and Haas is featuring browns in its Skintone Neutrals palette, with wonderful whites, off whites, and flesh tones. Zimmer thinks of these colors as “cosmetics for your walls” to create a comfortable foundation spiced with brighter accessories.
Chocolate colors with pale blues in a bedroom create a restful feeling, Bishop says. In addition, bedrooms and studies in rich gold tones are regal and peaceful. Pittsburgh Paints integrates blues and neutrals in Prana, part of its Light Years Collection, as a reaction to stress. This palette mixes misted blues and aqua with soft pink and lilac. “People are multitasking – women are tired!” Buisson says. “They need to have a color message that is calming.”
Nature at Its Best
Bringing nature indoors is another trend extending from homeownersʼ desire to retreat into their homes. Soothing blues and greens and wilderness tans create a nice backdrop to make the home come alive with a natural motif. Sherwin-Williamsʼ Natural Living palette brings the garden inside with Candid Blue and Determined Orange. Benjamin Moore, whose palettes this season focus on lighting and its effects, has created Harvest Moon, Moroccan Red, Desert Tan, and Big Country Blue to turn the home into a natural getaway.
Inspired by Frank Lloyd Wrightʼs Falling Water, Pittsburgh Paintsʼ Modern Artisan palette, with a focus on greens, woods, copper, and mineral shades of aqua blue, aims to mesh with organic living. It is a “reflection of a profound shift toward conscious living,” Buisson says.
World Renowned
Travel-inspired colors also allow homeowners to have the whole world at their feet. Rohm and Haasʼ Exotic Enhancements brings “colors from overseas into your living room,” Zimmer says. It is a global palette, representing a love of travel and a love of new and different colors. Its cranberry, brick red, and deep blue and green make one “think about a beautiful Indian rug, or perhaps the color of Morocco,” Zimmer says.
“From great escapes to great outdoors, our five color trend categories for 2006 bring together close-to-home comfort with world-view attitude,” says Sheri Thompson, director of color marketing and design for Sherwin-Williams. “The categories spotlight palettes that can serve as a springboard for countless home decor schemes and themes.”
Urban Edge
For a more refined look, companies are offering palettes that represent the technology age. For those who are tired from phone calls, e-mails, and BlackBerries and say, “I want my life to be simple,” Buisson explains, Pittsburgh Paints has created its Strategy palette. A strong statement of red, black, white, and gray, this palette is “modern and sleek” with an industrial feel.
Sherwin-Williams also offers this edge with its Indulgent Fifth Avenue palette. Sophisticated and subtle, colors such as Flexible Gray and Quixotic Plum work well with stainless steel and chrome. Pink and purple in lighter tones, for a more feminine atmosphere, are also popular, Desrosiers says.
Pittsburgh Paints mixes this virtual edge with young energy in Color Delight, which targets Generation Y. Young people like the “energy of a lot of colors,” Buisson says, and this collection featuring deep and light pinks and blue-greens uses bold pastels and pure colors for a clean look.
Other palettes are moving away from reds into oranges. Coral salmons and soft pumpkin shades are dominating this part of the color wheel. Coppery, burnt oranges, as well, are making an energizing statement in dining rooms because they invigorate the appetite. Brown is the new black and gray, from neutral backdrops to deep rich saturated browns such as mahogany and ebony. Green is also on top, but shades have moved away from gray greens to more yellowy hues.
New Approaches
“What we see as a use of color that is changing is using color in new and unexpected ways,” Zimmer observes. Most people, she says, when thinking of painting a room, think about wall color, but not the ceiling. Painting the ceiling a color, however, or a different color from the walls, is a trend more designers are suggesting. “Most of what we do is about looking down,” at laptops, at text messages; “by putting a bit of color on the ceiling, it really gives you a reason to put your head up and enjoy whatʼs above you.”
In addition, Zimmer sees a growing use of sheen levels of paint. As opposed to painting walls a flat color, people are using higher sheen products to add a little sparkle and shine on a wall or ceiling. Such products allow for more light reflection.
What’s in Store for Washington
Washington, DC is also breaking out of its mold. “DC residents tend to have a preference for a sophisticated palette of light blues, creams, and neutrals,” says Martin Ephson, director of Farrow & Ball. The popularity of oranges, corals, and salmons is on the rise. Bishop says she cannot keep colors such as C2ʼs dark pink Turkish Market and Benjamin Mooreʼs orange-hued Soft Pumpkin in stock. Yet Bishop says Washington is not quite what it seems. “Everyone thinks Washington is a very buttoned-up conservative town … but people are getting bold, saying, ʻI want color on my walls!ʼ ” Desrosiers agrees, and adds that Washingtonians are also moving away from mass-produced looks.
A new custom, high-end paint company, Details Painting Company, recently opened in the DC area. Owners Felix Morales, an artist, and Deborah Morales, an expert color consultant, aim to bring their love of color into homes and create personal relationships with customers to turn their broad visions into “a ʻdetailedʼ reality,” Felix Morales says. The Moraleses look for “quality painting solutions” using color, texture, faux finishes, murals, and other creative designs for interior and exterior residential and commercial spaces.
Sea to Sea – What’s in Abroad
Although many trends are considered global, regional events and landscapes stylize trends to fit different countries. “In interior design abroad, they are much bolder than we are,” says Bishop. Additionally, one trend that drives Europe more than the US is technology; we are seeing a techno-driven, hard-edged palette of toned purples, grays, white, black, and red, Bishop says. Yet technology has also led to more fluid trend sharing. “The Web changed everything,” Buisson says. “Things are everywhere at the same time now.”
UK – In line with the technology craze, regal but conservative grays are up-and-coming. In contrast to the US trend of bringing the world into the home, the preference in the United Kingdom seems to be toward creating a time machine within the home, incorporating both retro colors with a modern zing and a futuristic look using light to manipulate a sense of space. Edward Appleton, Rohm and Haas Paint Quality Institute manager for Southern Europe, adds that “bold floral designs are proving enduringly popular as feature points. Stencils are an easy and comparatively cheap way to capture flowery patterns, which when done in combination with strong colors look great – cool, contemporary, and very expressive.”
France – Appleton sees the retro-turned-modern look in France, too. Yet the focus there is also on simplicity: “Itʼs all about talking to the inner child and transforming your bedroom with soft pastel colors and delicate floral patterns painted in freehand to convey a sense of innocence and childlike simplicity.”
Germany – Ludger Kueper, manager of the Rohm and Haas Paint Quality Institute in Germany, highlights the drastic change the German paint market has undergone in recent years, from predominantly white and light to bold colors. “Of course the pastel colors are still around,” he says, “but the trend towards bold, warm colors is amazing.”
Helpful Hints
As you embark on your color journey, several companies offer helping hands to guide you on your way.
Pittsburgh Paints has created The Color Sense Game™ to help potential painters discover their color personalities based on favorite words, tastes, touches, smells, and even favorite vacation spots. They also offer Visions at a Glance, virtual painting software that allows you to experiment with different palettes and to upload images of your own spaces for color experimentation. For live visuals, try their two-ounce trial size paint bottles. (voiceofcolor.com)
BEHRʼs ColorSmart is a fun way to preview paints from the comfort of home. Also try a package of four eight-ounce samples complete with rollers and tray to see how different lighting affects color choices. Choose from 3,700 colors in samples. (behr.com/behrx/workbook)
Benjamin Mooreʼs color consulting program, Color Makeover, allows you to submit photos of rooms for designers to help create different customized palette options. The Personal Color Viewer also allows you to pick your own color combinations for different rooms. Benjamin Moore also offers two-ounce color samplers. (benjaminmoore.com)
