{bits & pieces: bossy color goes yellow}

 Annie Elliot, an interior designer in Washington DC, spent seven years waiting, and wanting, to fall in love with her living room. Benjamin Moore helped seal the deal with Sunrays 343.

You can read more about her yellow living room and entire home on her blog, Bossy Color. Check out what the living room looked like a year ago; it gives me hope, as my rooms are always evolving.

What do you think of Annie’s yellow living room?

Here’s what you can do to find the perfect colors for your home:

•  shop at Hirshfield’s
•  take advantage of Hirshfield’s infinite color knowledge
•  sample a color at home with the Hirshfield’s Big Swatch, color sample pints, quarts and selected 2oz. Benjamin Moore colors

Let Hirshfield’s help you fall in love with your home all over again.

{friday finds: 50′s revival and what a hoot}

Audrey Jeanne

Vtwonen European paint colors

J. Crew

The appearance of coral and gray upon the color scene has been subtle, but it’s there. Coral and gray sightings started with a French illustrator on Decor8, and her adorable gray and coral owl postcards. Next were the European paint colors on the Dutch magazine, Vtwonen’s site. Lastly, an e-mail from J. Crew featuring soft coral, silk taffeta bridesmaids’ dresses on a pale gray background, and all this in the last couple months.

 I ran my “I think gray and coral are going places” theory by Greg at Hirshfield’s Design Studio, and he agreed. He has recently seen coral and gray combos in a number of European magazines; he also feels it is a revival of the colors of the 50′s.

{half-painted walls}

Paint It What I Tell You

Living Etc. 

Veneer

Plenty of Colour

Veneer

Ikea Family Live

In Portugal it is traditional to render the bottom half of walls in wood. I have played with tradition and painted part of the walls instead. Shocking pink seems very bright, but when you only paint parts of the wall it makes a great backdrop for furniture.  Graca, homeowner featured on Ikea Family Live

Remodelista

 What do you think? Love it or leave it? My eyeballs are loving the breath of freshness and added layer of interest “painting outside the lines” brings to these rooms. Pulling the paint color down from the ceiling or wrapping paint around a door, showcases the use of paint in an unexpected way which is fun and tasteful.

 According to Remodelista, the wall in the last photo exemplifies a traditional French painted half-wall. What’s old is new again or a classic look never gone out of fashion? Either way, it’s very cool.

Are you trying to figure out which room in your home will receive a new paint job? Can I entice you with a couple of gallons of paint?

Purchase your paint at Hirshfield’s and save your receipt. Send a before and after photo of your room rocking a half-painted wall and Hirshfield’s will refund half of your paint purchases. Just kidding, we’ll refund the full amount.  The first one to submit their B&A photos will be declared the winner! One winner and one winner only.

P.S. Make certain to click on the sourcing links to catch all the great half-wall images.

{bits & pieces: orange cupboard}

I have pinned it, tweeted it (or tried to), and put it on Facebook. I’m in love with this orange cupboard from Lucy Interior Design, based here in Minneapolis. Imagine this same cupboard stained instead of painted. Yawn. I love what a coat of paint brings to the party.

{friday finds: benjamin moore color stories}

What do you want first? The great news or the not-so-good news?

 It’s here. Finally. The new color collection by Benjamin Moore. The line is named Color Stories and offers 240 brand new paint colors. Can you stand it? The not-so-good news is Hirshfield’s Edina is the only location with the Color Stories chip rack and pint sampling. It’s worth the trip, you’ll see.

{are silver and gray colors?}

Some time ago there was interesting banter on a Color Marketing Group site about whether silver was a color and opinions were flying around like bees on honey. I don’t think there was a clear winner as experts from all over chimed in with their views on the subject. There was the opinion that silver was a finish not a color and from left field was thrown the idea that silver was a neutral like gray and therefore not considered a color. So now we have two controversies, are silver and gray colors?

A neutral is defined as “being without color” and you would think that gray falls into the neutral category. However, most grays in the paint industry are made with lamp black, a very blue cast black. Since it is blue cast any amount of it will add blue to the formula or will make it a “cool” gray. Another source of black colorant is carbon black which is less blue than lamp black but used less frequently. I have found the most neutral grays are found at the junction of red violet and blue violet, being a neutral between a warm and cool color family. There can only be one gray family that is a true neutral as any addition of color changes that color into a definite hue even though it may be imperceptible to the human eye.

Silver, in my opinion, is a gray with a metallic finish. If there is such a thing as warm silver and cool silver, or even a green, blue or whatever silver then how can silver not be a color? Stainless steel can be anything from a cool hue to a warm hue depending on the manufacturer, but since they are all silver they are considered neutrals, which is why they fit so well into all environments.

{friday finds: as seen at hirshfield’s}

Benjamin Moore Inner Glow on the walls and that amazing ikat fabric on the sofa is Thom Filicia for Kravet.

Eye spy, from the pages of the February and March issues of House Beautiful, lots of lovelies you’ll find at Hirshfield’s Design Studio and at our retail stores. Stop in and check us out. 

{Hirshfield’s Colour Canvas 2012: Part 2}

We’ve already traveled to Australia, Asia and Europe to visit the forecasted color trends inspired by these regions in the Hirshfield’s Colour Canvas 2012 collection. Now let’s get our passports stamped in South America, North America and Africa!

In South America, design is heavily influenced by Spanish trends, Aztec patterns and the iconic color scheme of deep red orange paired with neutral beige and a calming green.

{Hirshfield’s Colour Canvas 2012: Part 1}

Color is the universal language. Throughout the globe, color is used to convey emotion, personal style, drama and storytelling.

The interesting thing about color is the way it can be mixed and matched to create functional color palettes that compliment larger societal trends.

The Hirshfield’s Colour Canvas 2012 collection features color combinations that harmonize with the greater surrounding colors representative of different regions, along with forecast color trends. Each of the color combinations demonstrates the use of a neutral or off-white mixed with forecast colors and harmonizing hues. In this post, we will take you on a tour of three of the six new collections; the Australian, Asian and European collections.

The colors in the Australian collection represent the area’s rich culture of aboriginal art, the treasured Great Barrier Reef and the simple, clean design  common in Australian homes.

{friday finds: guest post from Pat Verlodt: the color of the future}

I attended the Color Marketing Group Conference earlier this month to participate in their workshops where color directions for the next year or more are discussed and identified. Color Guild has several members who belong to this prestigious group of color professionals that help define where we can look for color to take off in the coming year.

It is no surprise that the talk was centered on the economy and our reaction to it. Global events and influences are commonplace in the group as our members come from all over the world and sharing palettes from those countries made for some interesting observations. For example, when palettes from Europe, Asia, Latin America and North America were consolidated it was determined that purple was represented more than any other color family.

Majestic Plum 1214

Color Is Majestic Plum 1214 represents the forecasted purple, not a surprise when we consider looking at things differently. Designers spend a great deal of time putting a new face on current products, one way to do that is to color it in an unexpected hue. Purple had a reputation for being a feminine color but has mainstreamed to the masculine market in recent years.

Fresh Take 1278 and Paternoster 546

Blue, never absent from the palette, is destined to be a red cast blue such as Color Is Fresh Take, 1278. Neutral Grays such as Color Is Paternoster 546 is a perfect backdrop for this bright and lively blue. Gray was the topic of discussion as a replacement for the common beige, not overtaking it, but giving neutrals a fresh new look.

April Love 1061 and Bad Hair Day 0564

Oranges are down to earth, homage to our appreciation of our planet. Color Is April Love 1061 is a rich deep terra cotta and pairs well with the forecasted Bad Hair Day, 564. This deep green infused neutral is a natural complement to the brighter pops of color.

Best of the Bunch 1068, Heat of the Summer 1025 and Origin 791

Enter the 70’s, a scary thought when most of us remember the 70’s. Colors that populated that period of time are returning in newer and fresher versions. The bright orange Color Is Best of the Bunch, 1068, A yellow cast orange, Color Is Heat of Summer 1025 and a new take on avocado Color Is Origin 791 makes this pattern hop into the 21^st century.

Perennial Garden 759 and Petals Unfolding 1092

Color Is Perennial Garden 759 brings the beauty of our gardens into our homes to give us a Mother Nature boost. A soft pink, Color Is Petals Unfolding 1092 adds to this garden bonanza as a soft feminine pink.

Delicious 438 and Dodge Pole 157

Sun rooms are back in style, lots of light and nature’s neutral, green, create a peaceful retreat. Color is Delicious 438 and all the other colors on that stripecard are perfect backgrounds for ecology minded haven. Wood tones complement this look in Color Is Dodge Pole 157, a warm woodsy brown.

The economy has affected all areas of our home, mostly our pocketbooks. With this in mind consumers are taking the economic route of repainting rather than redoing. Take advantage of this trend and show your customers ways to repaint while making a huge change in their environment.

ABOUT PAT VERLODT: Pat has been involved in the world of color for over 40 years. As an advisor to dozens of building products companies – including paint systems, GAF roofing, Alcoa siding and more – Pat shares her expertise in color design, forecasting and trend analysis. Pat has the unique ability to explain color technology to the novice and to combine the scientific with the aesthetic. Pat is a past president, lifetime member and senior chairholder of the Color Marketing Group. Ms. Verlodt makes presentations at trade shows, corporate sales meetings, conventions, seminars, web conferences, and on television and radio. Whether speaking about color trends and where they come from, she gears her talks to the product mix and the audience and has presented all over North America, Europe, China, Australia, South America and South Africa. She has appeared in the Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Better Homes and Gardens and in Harold Linton’s, Color Forecasting, a book about the methods of various color forecasters.