August 27, 2012

Rich milk chocolate or mousy brown? Sunny yellow or old mustard? Passionate red or just bloody scary?

Now, more than ever before, color is personal. As humans, we have certain common traits hardwired into our brains and color plays a prominent role in that imprinting. The blues of water and sky ‘feel’ cool, for example, and the reds and oranges of fire and blood ‘feel’ hot. Culture also plays a role – some use white for mourning, others use black – both are ‘felt’ as the absence of color, of vitality… of life.

Color is life – and life has always had millions of variations of colors. Some are harder than others to capture. Red is the color of royalty because it has always been the hardest to find and keep! Even today, it is the first color to run in the washer and the hardest to paint with!

Designers know that color trends have generally followed a flow – from fashion to smaller accessories for your home to bigger, more expensive pieces. And that flow has gotten much faster over the last few years! The gap between fashion and home fashion is narrowing. Self-expression is often expressed through color and there are more ways than ever to express YOU in your home.

In this time and this place, color ‘trends’ are less about following the latest designer and more about knowing yourself, your needs, your desires and how you want to feel – and making it fresh and current. There are always ‘new’ reds, yellows, blues and greens – ‘new’ being more related to how the colors are used and combined. So if blue is your go-to color because you love the coolness or it reminds you of your childhood vacations at the beach, you can keep blue in your home and still have your home feel current and comfortable.

Play with color! Here are a few links to help you explore color and learn how you relate to it!