Photo by Maria Killam
I arrived in Portland with time to spend walking around and taking in the city. I loved this image from the Pearl District (what a great name). It’s black white, gray and charcoal with a vintage feel all in one photo! Exactly where colour is right now!
The first day of colour workshops, this is what our board looked like with everyone’s colours pinned up.
What keeps me ‘in the know’ on colour is blogging of course, in addition to local as well as on-line consultations I conduct every week with clients all over the US and Canada. One day I’ll be in Virginia and Florida and the next, LA and Calgary. What colours are my clients asking for RIGHT NOW? Greeny grays, blue grays, charcoal, white and black with blues and greens thrown in for some colour.
The NEXT ‘brown’ that was chosen was warm and more orange (nothing espresso there). And it’s important that you interpret this particular shade of brown as ‘warmed up wood’ NOT as a wall or sofa colour. At the same time that every single one of my clients wants gray, they wish to eradicate ‘orange spicy’ tones everywhere else.
Image via Pure Style HomeLauren from Pure Style Home recently wrote a post headlined Warm Brown and her post is right on trend because all the gray, raw, limed wood that is very hot needs the mix of warm woods to add ‘patina and character’. John Troxell from Wood-Mode Inc. a cabinet manufacturer reported that 10-15 years ago everything had to be perfectly smooth and now there are lots of requests for imperfect looks, crackled glazes, worm holes and knots and they have a dozen finishes that have 20+ steps to get the distressed looks that people are demanding. And if you think about it, embracing the environment is also about embracing imperfections.
Image via Pure Style HomeWe have a small oak gate leg table that we are using as a dining table in the interim while I’m looking for a new one, but it’s already in the exact warm tones that I want (it’s too bad it’s the wrong size).
Photo by Maria Killam
I posted earlier this week that a purple/pink undertone gray was also NEXT. Overall gray was declared NOW and almost a classic colour (classic for now, it’s not like gray has been classic at all in the past 10 years since brown has been ‘in’) so my interpretation of this purple gray tone is that it will be re-mixed in wood tones much like the ‘pickled pink oak’ of the 80’s but of course in a new finish that we would potentially like – although I’ll reserve my opinion until I see it in person.
The first day in the break-out sessions my group didn’t see yellow as an important colour and I would have to agree. It’s not a colour I’m specifying at all these days for anyone but myself :) I’m curious to know what your take is on yellow at the moment – it’s rare that I choose one for a client, even though gray and yellow are fabulous together!
Tim Wetzel an Industrial Designer from Rejuvenation said his take on today’s colours is that they are influenced by the mid-century palette. Rejuvenation designs their products around historical colour trends. I had a tour of their store and loved all the old mixed with the new. Here are some of the images from the store:
I tried to take a photo of this very cool light fixture and there was too much in the background to get a good visual of it. I’m posting it anyway because I like the blue workbench in the background, the whole image just feels old and cool. Very Steampunk!
This is their library filled with wallpaper books, magazines, and other elements from 1890 to 1970. Here are a few pages of wallpaper from a wallpaper book from 1895:
It looks very ‘today’ doesn’t it?
Some vignettes from around the store:
Really what they do is specialize in Authentic Vintage Lighting and Restoration Hardware. Built-to-order reproductions of classic designs.
So that’s the trend report from the conference. The reclaimed wood, mixing old with new, adding patina conversation is still strong as ever (I talked about this back in April when I was in Brooklyn).Over to you, which colours are you going to introduce in your home NEXT?
If you would like your home to fill you with happiness every time you walk in, contact me for on-line or in-person decorating and colour.Related posts:
An Open Letter to my Lover on DecoratingWhat do you think? Is not Advice that Helps
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