The red and blue hues in this year's color forecasts have nothing to do with the color of ink on a growing number of residential real estate investments or the feeling caused by a bleeding bottom line.

They also have nothing to do with the attention to political colors assigned to states depending upon voters' left or right leaning.

Derived from thinking outside the Crayola box, the colors forecast as hot for 2007 are based, not on realty gloom or political partisanship, but on an eclectic blend of environmental reflection and global awareness.

Of course when they are slathered on your walls, died into the fabrics of your furnishings and used to accessorize your decor, colors can mean whatever you want them to.

The Consumer Colors Current 2006-2007 Forecast by the Color Marketing Group, the younger of two color forecasting groups, offers, not directives, but directions based on the course colors are likely to take.

Those directions come from input gathered each year at CMG's color collaborative, a conference of color-evaluating workshops for colorists in a host of industries including consumer goods and home and visual communications.

With all the global warming concerns, this year's colors are coming down to Earth, but they are bogged down by convention.

• Leaning toward green. The idea of "green" (sustainable materials, energy efficiency, conservation) also means the color green. The current rendition is a softer, more botanical green inspired by nature.

• Hot, shimmery blues. A new "aqueous" tone, from that transitional point in the rainbow where blue becomes green, is inspired by the sea. Likewise, yellow-greens offer a coat of eco-savvy and global awareness. More blues from the color of the sky and nature, are often pared with the darkest earthy browns.

• New reds. Another new hue, "rubino", is a raspberry red, heavily influenced by the upcoming 2008 Beijing Olympics as well as design from Central America and India.

• Natural neutrals. Medium to dark browns, beiges, and tans are more grounded, reflecting the colors of rock, stone and soil.

  The older Color Association, forecasting colors since 1915, offers a forecast from a committee panel of eight to twelve industry professionals.

• The association gives a more retro perspective with a greater tolerance for color combinations that include multicolored designs within a room or fabric. Bright combinations include periwinkle blues and saturated purple-browns.

• Like Color Marketing, the association sees a landscape of browns, wood tones, but also "honeyed" almost orange browns and golden wheat tones back in vogue. Other browns are more arid, reflecting desert shades rather than chocolate bars.

• Along with the influence of Central America and India, the association says to expect influences from Indonesia, India, Thailand and the Philippines and the tones and materials with natural woven textures, rattan and wicker.

• Brighter neutrals, those with hues of hickory, cherry, nudes and blush tones are also what the association forecasts. The forecast also calls for cooler greens.

Published: February 1, 2007

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Broderick Perkins parlayed a career in old-school journalism into a contemporary digital news service that really hits home. The award-winning consumer journalist, originally from Wilmington, DE, is founder, publisher and executive editor of the bootstrap DeadlineNews Group, a Silicon Valley-based editorial content and consulting service specializing in residential real estate, consumer news and related editorial consulting services. The DeadlineNews Group includes the Web site, DeadlineNews.Com, offering real estate editorial content and consulting services, and its back shop, the Deadline Newsroom, an open house on news that really hits home. Perkins obtained his formal journalism education from University of Delaware and a journalism boot camp, the Institute of Journalism Education at the University of California-Berkeley. He went on to 20 years of service as a daily newspaper journalist at the Wilmington, DE News Journal and San Jose, CA Mercury News. Perkins covered housing on the San Jose Mercury News reporting team which earned a General News Reporting Pulitzer Prize in 1989 for coverage of the Loma Prieta earthquake. He has also produced real estate, consumer and small business content for the Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, RealtyTimes.com, Nolo.com, Better Homes and Gardens, the National Association of Realtors, Homestore/Move and Intuit/Quicken among more than three dozen publications. In addition to managing the DeadlineNews Group, Perkins most recently served as chief editorial consultant for "Nolo's Essential Guide To Buying Your First Home" (Nolo $24.99) and writes real estate television scripts for RealtyTimes.com.