Choosing Interior Color Schemes

Answer these five essential questions to help you pick the perfect color palette.

Are you unhappy with your home's interior design? If so, you may be the victim of a bad color scheme. It's no secret that color can either make or break a design, but luckily, neither is finding out how to choose the perfect color palette for you.

When the color's right, it can:
• Enhance feelings of health and wellbeing
• Modify perceived temperature — make your space feel warmer or cooler
• Transform perceived space — make your space feel larger, or more cozy and intimate
• Illuminate dark areas
• Create mystery and romance in dull areas
• Energize static areas

But it has to be the right color for you. Color, and the psychology of color, is a big design trend says Barbara Jacobs, principal of Barbara Jacobs Color & Design. "But generalizations — green is relaxing, blue is soothing, red is energizing — only apply when certain hues are used," she says. "A sharp, electric green definitely would not be relaxing; a deep blue-green might feel cold instead of soothing. The wrong red used in an entire room might create the sensation of entrapment rather than energy."

Before planning color in your personal environment, make a mini-questionnaire and poll yourself and your family. Your answers are 50 percent of the project because your color choices depend on them for direction, Jacobs says. She gives her clients a very long questionnaire with hundreds of questions, but you can start with these five. The answers will lead you to your new color scheme.
1. Where is the room?
2. How many windows are there and which direction do they face?
3. Is there landscaping outside that will have an effect on the colors in the room?
4. Who will use the room, and what will they do there? Is it private or community space?
5. Will it be a sociable and active place, or a peaceful place? How do I want it to feel?

http://www.hgtv.com/decorating/choosing-interior-color-schemes/index.html?ic1=obinsite

Color Trends 2014

The "New" Neutral Palette

This palette is a reaction to all the color cues that we have noticed popping up in the home furnishing industry... textiles, carpets, wallpapers, tabletops and pottery, as well as color schemes that emerge in landscape design, the auto industry, fashion, and graphics.

As color rarely exists in isolation, we have designed a palette of 23 colors that work well together. There is harmony among the colors. There is an art to sequencing color from one room to another—hallways are the arteries of the house, rooms radiate off the hallways and this palette helps the transition because the colors flow seamlessly.

We've detected a 'lighter touch', hints, whispers, tints of color. Shifts to pastels without looking too 'candy', too 'Easter egg' which is an exciting message for us, a color company. We've begun to see a shift away from gray to tints of blues, greens, lavenders and pinks. Pastels, softened and filtered, to lift the spirit but not shout too loud... colors that can make a room happy, flatter your possessions and your art. We call these the new neutrals.

These colors have proven to be flexible; pair Breathe of Fresh Air 806 with Van Deusen Blue HC-156, you punch up a strong blue story. Pair it with Flint AF-560 and it transitions to a more sophisticated statement, more understated.

Personal expression is the best expression. We are here to make the selection easier. You want to pick a color that is enduring, resonates and is signature to your personal style. This is What Matters.

This introduction is the beginning of our color conversation for 2014. I invite you to explore the full Color Trends 2014 Palette and our Color of the Year Breath of Fresh Air.

 

 

Ellen O'Neill, Creative Director
Benjamin Moore & Co.

 

http://www.benjaminmoore.com/en-us/for-your-home/color-trends-2014