|
Look around your house and scope out the colour of your rooms. If your
dining room is taupe (come on, admit to it), imagine it dressed in the
colours found in. a salad. Or before you take a 'sip of Merlot, analyze
the burgundy tone. This is what paint marketers do. Colour trends are
concocted from everythingfrom the slate stones on the back patio
to the hues found
on the scales of fish.
Each year, "of-the-moment" paint chips hit the stores: This year,
blue is big, wine is making a splash and yellow is hot.
"\There's lots of spicy reds and Merlots, sky and navy blues and cool
neutrals this year, says Kevin Skelly, the marketing service manager of
Para Paints
and a member of the Vir-ginia-based Colour Marketing Group that helps determine
the hot new colours for fashion, retail, interior design and automotive
industries.
"
Greens are softer; neutrals are blue-based with a touch of grey and the
reds are rich and deep. We are - also seeing lots of environmental colours,
where the natural tones found in wood, flowers, trees and rocks are making
it onto the walls
Do some research at a few paint suppliers and chances are you will find
they all add a fairly similar range of colours each year. But Farrow & Ball,
the British manufacturer of traditional wallpapers and paint, introduced
just a single colour this season, one called Radicchio.
"
We don't follow the trends," says Jason Cass, the executive director
of its Canadian stores. "We have had the same palette for over 100
years, because the range is excellent. That said, I am noticing that light
blue is flying out the doors."
While decorating has become a popular hobby, painting house still has
not made it to pastime status: For most people, it is a dreaded project.
While
the odds of painting each year or two are slim, some people do it. Remember
your grandmother's 1950s mint-green kitchen? If she followed the trends,
you might also recall her brown and orange days, the avocado period,
the whiteout era and then mint making a comeback in the 1990s.
"
Painting is the cheapest form of decorating,"says Mr. Skelly, who
` says he colour-corrects his bedroom every six. months. His latest experiment
is cobalt blue. "People don't realize that a fresh new colour
gives a room the most visual impact. New wall, colour will make you, think
ypu bought new furniture."
"
Trends aren't gospel. They are supposed to be fun, says Hilary Farr, a
Toronto interior designer. "What they do is open our eyes to colours
we wouldn't think of on our own. They encourage us to break the rules."
Next time someone says it's just a coat of paint, listen up. Colour trends
do, matter. Rolling the sought-after hue on your walls can increase the
value of your house. Just ask Jane Hall, owner of The Voice of Colour
in Toronto, whose intense colour choices transformed a Riverdale home
into
a golden sale, helping garner $126,000 above asking. Rather unheard of,
considering most, house fluffers walk through, wave their arms gesturing
at what to ditch and what to keep and write up a proposal that says think
beige.
"
People feel that one can of paint is a lifelong investment," says
Ms. Hall, who has to do a lot of handholding to get her clients to go bold
or trendy.
"
But it's not. Its just a can of colour and the payoff is personality." ,
Colour forecasting is a little like watching the Academy Awards preshow
- you can't wait to see who is' -wearing-what, while im agining how it
would look in real life. Sometimes it works: Sometimes it doesn't. Think
back to last year and the coral trend. No room should be slathered , from
top to bottom in a bad lipstick colour.
"
That's a key thing to remember," Ms. Farr says. "You can add
a splash of a 'trendy colour such as pink in your accessories, but sometimes
a whole room just doesn't work. You have to askyourself if you'll like
it a year from now. And if you're on the fence, don't do it."
National Post
|
