DESIGN INSPIRATION: FALL 2008 HOME COLORS MIRROR RUNWAY FASHION PALETTES
This season, interior designers will outfit their clients’ homes in colors inspired by the fashion industry. A combination of conventional, neutral shades and cool hues with vibrant undertones are stepping off the runway and into every room of the home - the bedroom, the family room and even the kitchen.
Classic stainless steel appliances have provided a highly coveted pro-style appearance for several years, but lately there has been a growing desire for finishes that will stand out among the cold, shiny clutter. What we now see are kitchen accessories, cabinets and appliances in non-traditional colors and patterns, such as Preference® by Dacor, which features color-infused glass in six shades, guaranteed to let creativity shine.
And homeowners are enjoying the new options. In fact, a 2007 online survey conducted by Dacor and Better Homes and Gardens Special Interest Publications revealed that more than 80% of those surveyed actually prefer color alternatives for the kitchen, and this season’s must-have colors provide countless choices for exploring new ways to introduce beautiful hues into the room.
THE COLORS OF FALL 2008
When Leslie Harrington, PhD, director of The Color Association, and her committees of experts gathered to select the colors that will define the Fall 2008 season for the home, they chose tones inspired by the environment, mirroring the color palettes for many of this season’s fall fashions.
“Everyone is more conscious about sustainability and what we’re doing to the planet. This is not anything new but has simply come to a greater level of consumer awareness and is growing more prevalent in everyone’s mind,” said Harrington.
It is no surprise that we are seeing nature’s inspiration everywhere, particularly when we look at the fall collections from fashion designers like Carmen Marc Valvo, Luca Luca, Betsey Johnson and Tracy Reese, who are introducing collections featuring powerful green tones and radiant blue and teal shades. Reminiscent of lush foliage or a blue sky on a spring day, these robust tones offer a wonderful contrast when paired with warm earth tones or steely grays.
In comparison, according to The Color Association, the two key palettes for the home this fall, Rock Crystal and Vegetable Garden, are quite similar to what we have seen in the fashion industry.
Rock Crystal includes hues that look exactly as one would imagine, a strong neutral palette, featuring grays in resilient green and blue-based neutrals ranging from pure white to cigar-brown. The neutral groups include a wide variety of values similar to the varying gray tones of Anthracite Gray, Sterling Gray and Titanium Silver in the Preference assortment.
Vegetable Garden is a brighter, more saturated palette, with a combination of light values like beige and cream and deep colors such as Eggplant and Concord Grape. The palette also includes a strong showing of greens that vary from an energetic Kelly Green to a deeper sage similar in tone to the Slate Green appliances in Dacor’s glass-front collection.
This palette also includes a few colors that aren’t exactly vegetable garden tones but represent shades that support the environment around a vegetable garden such as sky blue, which is reminiscent of the Preference Blue Water finish and blue-based reds like Poppy or Smoky Raspberry.
You can use color in the home very much the same as in fashion. Make a bold statement with a single piece or as an accent with fashion accessories. Color can be used in the fixed elements of the home as with appliances or simply as an accent using accessories or textiles. The key is to look to other trends for inspiration because design is often cyclical; home design is influenced by fashion, which is influenced by film, which may have been influenced by an automobile design or simply the way the clouds gently float across the sky on a crisp autumn afternoon.
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