All About Color

Everything from individual products to entire rooms is influenced by color choice!

Color is mesmerizing and appears everywhere, often in bold renditions and on unexpected items in today's designs. For example, one appliance manufacturer offers its stand mixer in upward of five dozen colors.

Inspiration strikes from anywhere- from sprawling country fields of wildflowers to the latest couture showcased on the fashion runways in Milan, New York and Paris. Every room in the house and each fixture in that room susceptible to an infusion of color.

Kitchens and baths often are deal breakers for people when house shopping. They are also the first rooms people tend to remodel. In recent years, kitchen color schemes featuring chocolate, mahogany and espresso stains on cabinets were popular for a time. Today, that trend has done a one-eighty. Gray kitchens are moving forward- gray wash over wood gives it a driftwood-type look and the grain of the wood still comes through. The gray color gives warmth to a space that pure white kitchens lack. Pure white kitchens were popular for a time with white cabinets and white marble tops and maybe white tile floors. Homeowners would then go in and say, "I've just created a surgical studio". It was too white and too sterile. That's when color started coming in. Color infiltrated these sterile-looking spaces through brightly colored towels and small appliances such as mixers, toasters and blenders.

Color cannot be discussed without addressing one of the most powerful players in the color world: paint. Pain company Sherwin Williams released its 2013 palettes for color based on current trends and research. Those palettes for 2013 are High-voltage, Honed Vitality, Midnight Mystery and Vintage Moxie.

High Voltage incorporates neon trends and is driven by pop culture, fashion and technology. It started trending in commerical office spaces, but as people saw in in their work places, they began to think they could live with it at home as well!

Honed Vitality explores the softer side at the opposite end of the spectrum- soft, soothing hues. Driven by our desire to shut off our electronics and just relax in this beautiful environment that wasn't screaming with color but isn't completely neutral either.

Midnight Mystery pays homage to the recent throwbacks in pop culture to different eras- think of "Hugo", "Snow White and the Hunstman" and the Batman trilogy. There are dark, moody characteristics and overtones to those. Interiors created with this palette have a beautiful masculine vibe to them.

The last palette for Sherwin William's 2013 trends is Vintage Moxie. It compliments the midnight mystery by offering a feminine palette. Heavily influenced by the 50's and 60's, there's also a definite fashion influence with designer having beautiful vintage styling to some of their clothing.