While neutrals are always in fashion, it’s color that adds energy and personality to your home décor. Anything but boring, today’s vivid, on-trend looks are inspiring home updates and decorating projects in every room of the home.
“Color is one of the most inspiring and stimulating features of home furnishings, and we’re enjoying a powerful resurgence of color across the industry, in all style categories and price points,” says Jackie Hirschhaut, vice president of public relations and marketing for the American Home Furnishings Alliance. “People react emotionally to color and it’s often a specific hue that provides the inspiration for a room makeover or home decorating project. Color makes it easy to refresh your living spaces and today’s colorful home furnishings provide nearly limitless inspiration.”
A soft shade of blush accentuates a modern faux bois-patterned fabric on a Wing chair from Highland House.
As a design tool, color can be used strategically to define a space, create a focal point and add character to a room. “Vogue has declared color a watchword, and we couldn’t agree more,” says Holly Blalock, vice president of merchandising and marketing for CR Laine. “Sometimes all it takes is a burst of color to reignite your interior.”
Here are some of today’s top shades and ways they can be used in different areas of the home:
New Neutrals
As gray has replaced beige as a foundational neutral, demand has increased for harmonizing and complementary colors. “We are definitely seeing a trend towards mineral gray as the base color of a room, and away from the eggshell walls of years past,” says Suzanne Henson, vice president of merchandising and marketing for Craftmaster Furniture. “With that movement comes a need to use upholstery fabrics that complement gray. So, we are using a lot of black, charcoal, and white neutrals that contrast against gray. Then ,we create interest by mixing together different layers, patterns, and textures of fabric.”
Smart and stylish, the Kids Open Wardrobe from Sauder’s Pinwheel collection features a playful argyle pattern painted in shades of blue.
Unique shades of color that might not be a natural fit for an entire room—such as millennial pink—make the perfect companion to today’s gray upholstery fabrics and leathers, while being easier to incorporate in small measure. “Soft green and blush seem to be the next colors moving into the spectrum of upholstery fabrics,” says Henson. “Gray also works well with various shades of blue, which still seem to dominate the non-neutral colors.”
The traditional appearance of the Exeter Swivel Glider from Norwalk- Company C is updated with the addition of a contrasting welt and band of trim in a fresh shade of coral.
Bountiful Blues
A perennial favorite, captivating shades of blue continue to dominate color palettes across style categories. From indigo and navy to more yellow-based aquas, this hue continues to delight and inspire. “Navy, powder blues, and teals are especially strong right now,” says Henson.
- Bringing color to the home office, Twin Star’s Madison Desk in Franklin blue has a colorful desktop and drawers accented by clear acrylic legs and gold metallic hardware.
Perfect for nearly any room of the home, blue can serve as the point of inspiration or its partner. While teal and aqua work beautifully on the walls of a bedroom or powder room, they also provide a refreshing accent to a living space decorated in neutrals such as gray. Deeper shades of navy and indigo help ground a room when paired with oranges or reds and provide contrast to neutrals such as white and beige.
Upholstered in navy silk, Henredon’s Park Avenue Monroe Tufted bed is destined to be the focal point of the room. Its dramatic presence is enhanced by a deeply tufted high headboard and shaped base.
Freshly Picked Shades
From traditional to contemporary styles, unexpected hues are modernizing classic silhouettes. “We love to create refreshing combinations of fabrics and finishes, mixing traditional and modern designs,” says Blalock. “From shades of raspberry, papaya orange, and lemongrass to indigo blue—as far as color, nothing is off-limits.”
A colorful addition to any space, this fun chair from C.R. Laine features a fresh color palette, dimensional tassel trim and casters for mobility.
Its these freshest of colors that often spark the consumer’s imagination and inspire new home improvement projects. Whether it’s a particular color, or a combination of them, today’s delectably colorful fabrics and finishes are inspiring consumers to look at home decorating in new ways.
“Even in traditional design, where you would typically begin with a pattern that incorporates multiple colors as the jumping off point for other textiles, what is happening in design now is a selection of seemingly independent solids (such as berry and chartreuse) are being layered,” explains Blalock. “When used in proper proportions, they create a very colorful, harmonious, balanced—yet simple—design.”
Bring in color in a big way by choosing an accent chair in a fun floral pattern, like this one from Craftmaster, or start small with a few accent pillows in bold colors.
The beauty of using color as a decorating tool is that it’s completely customizable and there’s no wrong choice. Start with the shades that make you happy and build your design plan from there.
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