Think vintage wine

No, not that kind!   I Googled vintage wine and didn't get what I expected. Isn't everything about colour?  To anyone familiar with Benjamin Moore Paints ,Vintage Wine  2116-20 is the colour of the year for 2011. 

Out of all the colours in the Benjamin Moore palette,  how and why was Vintage Wine singled out as "the" colour for 2011?  Benjamin Moore's team of experts observe the world looking for inspiration and trends.   Sonu Mathew, senior interior designer at Benjamin Moore and blogger, notes that the team is always looking two years ahead.  That means that the colour of year for 2011 was chosen in 2009! The key concept for 2011 is balance -  buying into our efforts to find  calming influences  in a hectic, disorderly world. As Sonu puts it "Remember that 2011 is all about balance- work/play, nostalgia/future state, new purpose/old materials". There's no doubt Vintage Wine is a calming colour that is both comfortable and luxurious at the same time. 

What would Vintage Wine look like in our homes?

Trends in colour are just that - trends or patterns to be considered.  Does it mean we should repaint walls a deep brownish purple?  Perhaps not. If you like a colour there's a continuum of possibilities for its use from over the top to the merest hint of it.

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This is my over the top application of a vintage wine colour.  I'm practical to the core and my personal design instinct for my  home is casual contemporary with lots of light colours, but  I love to contemplate extremes even when I know I could never live with  them .  This kitchen fills all my fantasy needs. I love its depth of colour and sleek lines, but I couldn't live with it for twenty years. That's my criteria when choosing hard surfaces or built ins in my home.

This room is featured in Benjamin Moore's Envision 2011 brochure. The colour scheme is from  the Soulful palette referencing the global balance achieved through communication technology- what was once foreign is now familiar.  On the style front, these beliefs are evident in the  "ethnic glam" trend characterized by  pattern on pattern, map motifs and  arts and crafts from different cultures, etc. 

Design Hint: This is not a look for every room. Don't try this application unless you have lots of architectural details and a high ceiling.

This is a good way to use a dark colour.  You aren't limiting yourself to several years of looking at 2011's trend.  If you want to change it to something else you'll need only several hours of work and a quart of paint. I love the way the dark draws you down the hallway into the main part of the house. I'm not a fond lover of accent walls everywhere, but this works.

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 Design Hint: Consider using a strong colour as a backdrop behind a light coloured  bed or sofa.  It allows you to keep your remaining walls light and  include a strong vertical line in rooms where horizontal lines dominate. It is also a great way to integrate dark and light furniture into a cohesive design. 

 

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This colour, similar to Vintage Wine, is Benjamin Moore AF 650 Caponata .  It provides a great backdrop for the light  furniture and black chairs.  Without the amount of creamy white used here, this would  have been a dark, dingy room.

Design hint: Use dark colour on walls to provide contrast with  light furniture pieces. This application allows you to highlight your furniture while still controlling your  light colour balance.  My preferences are showing! Dark rooms and dark furniture depress me.

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 This very sleek, modern room uses a purple green scheme as a backdrop for creamy white. I like the way that the vintage wine colour is used modestly as an accent. 

Design Hint: Are you tired of your wood grain entertainment unit? A current trend in decorating is re- purposing furniture. You many not own built ins that look like this, but you can achieve the look  with a similar paint combination. 

 

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Just because I love the table and the sparseness of the room.... The sofa, plush and plum, is the luxurious item in the room.

Design Hint: Every room should have one luxurious item in it. Size doesn't count.

Sarah Richardson via Decor Pad

Design Hint: If you don't want to commit to design trends in a big way, accessorize with them. Pillows make great trend statements.  Consider recovering them when you want to nod toward the next colour trend. As always the magic colour, white allows you to do so much.

 

This is my idea of a luxury item for my kitchen. Le Creuset�s gorgeous enamelled pots, are the ultimate in my mind, but only in my dreams so far. I have a perfectly good set of stainless steel pots.  There's always the dream list....

What are your thoughts on using trend colours?

Think pink in 2011

For more than a decade, Pantone's Colour of the Year declarations have influenced product development and purchasing decisions in multiple industries including home  design.  This year's Pantone colour is.....

Honeysuckle 

Pantone Colour Institute Executive Director Leatrice Eiseman says, "In times of stress, we need something to lift our spirits. Honeysuckle is a captivating, stimulating colour that gets the adrenaline going-- perfect to ward off the blues."  Yes indeed, Honeysuckle is that kind of pink, but there are many  tints and shade of pink that are options in decor.Perhaps there's one for you.

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Vibrant all the way.  You couldn't help but feel upbeat in this room.  Some rooms have so much colour energy they are difficult places to relax.  Personally, I love a room that soothes and this space would not be my first choice.  How about you? 

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A subtle and understated pink creeps quietly into this decor and settles in place. It produces a quiet, relaxed environment that calls you to curl up with a nice book.

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Another quiet pink combination that  works well for  relaxation.  The pink/ brown combination is one of my favourites and recently it is a popular  colour scheme for children's rooms. 

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Anything with gray is bound to be a favourite with me. I love the way grays are  the supporting actors in a room , letting other colours do their thing.  Gray is the new neutral, but it has been my neutral since the mid 80"s

tineke triggs

Orange and pink are a somewhat unlikely pair, but they work well together especially when one dominates. 

 

Oatmeal and pink  which is moving subtly toward coral  makes a fantastic duo in this Sarah Richardson design. 

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Yellow is another colour that you don't often see paired with pink, but it is one of my favourite combinations. The addition of orange makes this an energetic combo without being too much so because of the light colour on the walls. If I could make one change in this room,  I would paint  the walls a more neutral colour.

 tineke triggs

I love the chairs.  Enough said. 

 Ventana Construction LLC

This room combines two 2011 trends, honeysuckle and pattern.
 
What's your tolerance level for pink in decor?

Design trends for the new year

This time of year many design blogs and magazines present trend forecasts for the coming year.  They are interesting to read, but one has to recognize they are best guesses based on the knowledge and intuition  of the individual writer or design group.

On every newstand this month you'll see design magazines with design trends a prominent feature on their front covers. On closer inspection you may find there isn't a great deal of overlap from article to article and you have to work to piece together exactly what the trends are.  Exploration online offers almost too much information on the subject and the sheer quantity boggles your mind, but I keep reading.   Over the next several posts I'll  explore the  trends that appeal to my design aesthetic. 

Re-purposing 
This is a continuing trend from 2010 and I predict with the focus on everything green it will continue well into the future.  Finding creative ways to use what you have or to recycle furniture and objects from other sources  provides satisfaction on many levels. Re-purposing will be combined with buying new to develop a more unique, individual look that has a history. 

photo: Margaret Ryall

 artwork:  Will Gill  

This wicker chair acquired from a second hand store is one of my favourite pieces of furniture. I was attracted to it because of its unusual shape and I could see  beyond the horrible orange wicker and brown seat pad.  After four cans of spray paint it took on a new life.

I like a comfortable, more casual feel in my home,  therefore re-purposing has always been part of my design approach. I'm on the look out for a new chest of drawers to replace my sad little wicker set which is lost next to the chair. Then a  long overdue reorganization of this  space will be necessary.  The hunt is part of the fun.Yes, decorators have design problems like their clients and solutions need patience.


Sculptural White Objects:
The simplicity of grouped white pottery and sculpture has always appealed to me and I've used this interest in different ways over the years.  Finally it's a trend according to Canadian House and Home!

photos: Margaret Ryall

White vases to covet.....

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Check out the attic and the back cupboard, talk to your family and friends. Perhaps you can re-purpose white objects into a beautiful grouping.

Should I follow colour trends?

Do you plan to change your colour scheme in the new year?

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Have you been  looking for a colour scheme you won't see in every other house you visit?

traditional kitchen design by seattle architect

Do you want to put the stamp of individuality on your home?
  

traditional family room design by atlanta interior designer Cristi Holcombe

Here's a post just for  you.

Striving for individuality in your home is an up hill battle as I know from choosing colour scemes for my own home. Six years ago I repainted the first floor of my house at a time when heavy earth colours were popular .

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 The thought of using  dark  colours on my walls depressed me because they absorb too much outside light, and I need light to be happy.  So I choose a  colour scheme that was light and  neutral based on creams and grays.  I threw current trends to the four winds and created rooms I was happy in.  Six years have passed and now  my house is trendy!
 
While I'm very aware of design trends, there's an aspect of my personality that likes to fight them a little. Rather than giving advice to follow the latest colour trends, I feel the most important aspect of my role as an interior decorator is  to help clients develop a colour scheme that makes them happy  and comfortable.  That means keeping an open mind about all colour.

I'm a firm believer that you can use any colour you want in a room if it works with your furniture and the light. It's a matter of finding the value of the colour that works  and then expanding the scheme  with accents.  

You can develop your own style by starting with a colour you love and building on it. If you love yellow and think it is too much on walls, use it as an accent.

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 If you love pink, use it!

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If pristine is more to your taste , go there.  

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Remember...

"Be faithful to your own taste because nothing you really like is ever out of style." ~Billy Baldwin

The magic colour

Is there a magic colour that solves a lot of problems when developing a colour scheme? 

Read on.

 White furniture provides  relief from vibrant colours

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This is a vivid colour scheme that could become a problem without the balance provided by the sofa and chair.  Soft white shows the other colours to great advantage creating a clean, crisp scheme.

White furniture in a dark colour scheme

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Brown on walls can create quite a dreary colour scheme, but  this room it is anything but dreary. The touches of yellow brighten it and white is quietly doing its job.

Crisp white and green

Amy Lau Design

Can you have too much of one colour in a room?  Yes,  this could have been such a room without the judicious use of white and creamy yellow accents.

Soft white in modern decor

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What other colour could produce this much impact with a purple wall?


This-eclectic-bedroom



Blues softened and connected by white, the magic colour. 
But.....


Is white a colour?
Scientifically speaking, it�s actually the combination of all colors in the visible spectrum of light.

Season's Greetings

Breathe (2004) 10 x 30 acrylic, paper on canvas

Margaret Ryall

Merry Christmas 

and 

Happy New Year

from 

my house to yours

Yellow colour schemes

Bright or soft?

 Pure, bright yellow is a very visually demanding colour which is difficlult to ignore- in other words, a little goes a long way. Softer yellows work better on walls so save the bright yellows for accents.

Light or dark?

Yellow is a tricky colour because it always looks darker on walls that you expect when you choose it from a colour card. If you have a certain tint or shade of yellow in mind it is a good idea to choose something a little lighter than you think you want. 

Walls or accent?

When you choose to put yellow on a wall, it needs some space to shine,  therefore, grays and whites provide a perfect foil for it.

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Yellow looks great with citrus colours as accents so look for lime greens or oranges if you want a fresh, clean look. that will energize you every time you walk into a room. Yellows work well in north light.

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This is another room where yellow is used successfully on walls without overwhelming the rest of the decor. Again white provides a perfect accent to keep the yellow in check.

Sometimes people love yellow but are afraid to commit to yellow  walls because it can overwhelm a room.   For the faint of heart yellow accents can do the trick to warm up an otherwise cool decor.  

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The small splashes of yellow in these two rooms are all the convincing I need to say yes to yellow as an accent colour. Yellow accents with gray are my all time favourite.

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Bright yellow, white and black is a fresh colour scheme for a teen's room.  In this application no yellow is too bright!

As you can tell from the previous pics I'm obviously attracted to yellows used with white.  Let's move on to other combinations.

Cristi Holcombe

 Cristi Holcombe

I always appreciate how touches of yellow will warm up a room that would otherwise be cool.   I find an all cool or all warm palette boring ,and I always like to break it up with the addition of the opposite temperature if only in accents. 

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An orangy yellow and brown have been used to create a soft look in this bedroom. The hint of pink in the pillows and the soft buttery colour of the throw further softens the overall feel of the room. Don't be afraid to mix several yellows in one room.

Jenni Leasia Design

This soft cream and historical green create a perfect combination for a traditional kitchen.  There's nothing here to dazzle the eye; it's all about subtlety.

modern kids design

This is a brave combination for a baby's room.  Black is difficult to work with. but it's harshness is balanced by the striped  yellow ceiling.  I'm glad I'm not the one who had to paint it. I'd be tempted to paint the bureau yellow too to spread the colour around the room. 

eclectic bedroom design

  Jennifer Brouwer

If I could choose to live in any of the rooms shown in this post this would be the one I would like to see when I opened my door after a busy day.   It's the essence of sophistication and relaxation. 

Which room would you like to see when you opened your door at the end of a long day?