Color is one of the most personal choices consumers can make when they choose to buy a product for their homes. You may be wondering what is influencing color these days. Here are some important color notes that you will find available in consumer product palettes:

Green -- Subtle sage is a big color. It broadens to include a yellow version of lime green, which has lightened. Dark greens have more of an olive tone and emerge as classic colors.

Yellow -- Dreamy, creamy shades of yellow are mainstream as other shades of this sunny color interact in color combinations across the board. It is especially strong in combination with other fruit and vegetable tones.

Red -- Is gaining prominence, including true reds, orange reds, terra cotta, pinkish reds and cool, salmon-like reds, even browns are taking on a red influence.

Orange -- Variations from creamy peach to rustic, allspice tones are making their way in.

Teal -- Around for eight to ten years now, the turquoise/teal family, considered gender neutral because it is equally popular with men and women, has a little more blue in it and is predicted to return strong in an all new color value reestablishing its popularity with consumers.

Neutrals -- Disappeared from the color palette, but not from the home. Much will continue to be neutral, but color will be brought out in window treatments and decorative and tabletop accessories. The more expensive and durable the item, the less likely people will adopt a new color. The more impulse-related an item is, however, the more readily they will try new hues.

Metallics -- Brushed metals such as stainless steel and metallic touches on items are emerging.  

Tip for the Week: Trying to make decisions before their time can cause inaccuracies as well as stress and frustration.  As we move through busy days we feel we are forced to complete one project so that we can move into the next one -- ‘close the book’ -- so to speak.

Consider the architect who built a cluster of office buildings around a central green. When construction was completed, the landscape crew asked him where he wanted the sidewalks. The architect told them to plant grass solidly between the buildings. By late summer the new lawn was laced with paths that had been created by the constant flow of people on their normal course of business.  The architect then used these paths as the basis for the paved walkways and sized them according to traffic flow. The paths had an interesting design and directly responded to user needs.

What decisions are you trying to make before their time? Can you let some things flow freely, then observe where the pathways are created naturally before you add the permanence of cement?

Published: September 23, 1999

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