Posted on: May 15, 2008
The Color Guard
Create a home palette that’s as welcoming as it is hot
By Jeff Schnaufer
CTW Features
Image courtesy iStockphoto
As each year ushers in a new kaleidoscope of hot colors to enrich the home, that inevitable question always pops up: How do I know if I’ll like these colors?
The answer may be as simple as experimenting with the colors to find the right combination in the right room to suit your lifestyle.
"You have to start with your own comfort level," says Michelle Lamb, a color expert who publishes “The Trend Curve,” a newsletter covering home furnishings trends. Lamb says the hot colors for 2008 include tanzanite ("a blue that sits so far at the edge of red, you might have to ask yourself if it's a purple or a blue"), light lemon ("there's a little green in it"), grey, sublime purple (a sultry, red-cast purple) and green envy ("a cleaner green, hot for 2008 and hotter in 2009").
A few of the best ways to bring a new color into the home, Lamb suggests, are in the dining room with napkins, placemats or salad plates. Or in the bathroom with hand towels displayed over bath towels.
And then there's the bedroom, which offers both striking and subtle options to incorporate hot colors.
For those who want to decorate their bedrooms with more than one fresh color, Lamb suggests considering sublime purple and green envy.
"Let's put sublime purple on the walls, aromatic green (a yellow-cast green) on the floor, ancient olive (an accent for 2008) on the shams, and green envy on the coverlet," says Lamb. "That's quite youthful."
Or consider sublime purple on the coverlet, green envy on the shams, ancient olive on the floor and aromatic green on the walls – a combination Lamb calls "outrageously sophisticated."
Leatrice Eiseman, a color specialist and a consultant for color authority Pantone Inc., says 2008 home colors can be divided into palettes that reflect individual lifestyles.
"It's less about the one or two 'hot' colors and more about a selection of colors that works for each lifestyle," she says.
For a dramatic look, Eiseman says, shades of blue iris (blue with a purple undertone) could be combined with graduated shadings of watery blue-green and turquoise, highlighted with a vibrant yellow-green for both the bedspread and window coverings. Carpet could be warmer, sandy tones and pillows could be solid variations of each of those colors, including the sandy beige. More drama could come with deeper, blue iris walls.
Whether you decide to focus on lifestyle or incorporate the year's hot colors into your home – or a combination of both – your gut may ultimately tell you more than a color swatch.
Says Lamb: "If you don't have an emotional reaction to the color, it's not right."
