Working the New Neon Micro Trend

There are many people in the design world who are steadfast against colour trends. I hear what they say and agree to an extent but there is no doubt that colour trends, especially micro, quick, fleeting trends can add a lot of fun and a great ‘edge’ to an interior. I am not suggesting you embark on an interior makeover every time a colour trend emerges, that would be ridiculous and very expensive, but interiors should inspire, excite and explore new techniques in order to keep them alive.

Perhaps I just have a low boredom threshold but can you imagine your favourite interior shop where and the products remain the same colour every time you visit? I really don’t think that would be much fun.

Enter ‘new neon’. We are talking,  ultra clean-cut, sharp, pulsating colours. Use it in really small areas and it can literally transform a space from dowdy to cool without much effort. The obvious way to do this is with small accessories like a vase or a cushion or even just a zip but I have been trying to source a neon paint to use over a few old randomly shaped glass bottles I was going to dump in recycling. I rather fancy a still life, Giorgio Morandi style but within the group of ever so chic well balanced neutrals slotting in an unhinged neon.

Glowtec UK  have a neon paint range which they claim can be used outdoors too. The trick with this micro trend is definitely less is more. The fashionistas are wearing it on nails, belts or satchels along with ultra femimine tailoring worn in baby soft neutrals tones. It’s the shock factor that this trend is trading on.

Pantone of course have a range of neons (801 to 807 being some of the punchiest) but they are designed for ink printing so most paint stores are unlikely to have the formulation to mix them as paint.

You may have spotted the image below in last weeks post – it was the neon window frame of this design store in Reykjavik that lured me into the workshop. A great example of really working this trend to full advantage.

The problem is, I have now created a dilemma for myself……. can I justify the addition of a neon edge to the profile of my  business card………

2012 Warms Up

While Pantone have chosen Tangerine Tango to be their Colour of the Year for 2012,  Dulux opted for a lively juicy red but Crown paints have launched a whole new colour palette, New Directions ,which is intended to encourage us to mix traditional colour groupings together i.e pastels with neons, brights with neutrals, neutrals with pastels (but all still under pinned by neutral grey). So it looks like 2012, Apocalypse or not, is going to be a colourful year with plenty of trending hues emerging from the warm side of the spectrum.

Back blogging on January 5th

It will be interesting to see what iconic Danish brand Vipp will choose for 2012 as their 2011 colour was ‘rising red’ – I will tell you as soon as they announce it but I have a feeling we may see something with a violet tone to it.

Anyway, lots to look forward to but most of all I would like to take this opportunity to thank all subscribers and readers of my blog for being so supportive and jumping in with brilliant comments throughout the year. As all bloggers know, receiving feedback is what it’s all about, so thank you all very much indeed and I hope you have a wonderful Christmas and I look forward to catching up with you around the 5th of January 2012 for another colourful year.

Two Summer Colours to Keep

As I sit here at 55 latitude, I have to report that summer has definitely vanished. The shops are filling up with heavy textiles and the colour palettes are rapidly changing.

However, it is still August, so I thought I would pin up some summery palettes and interestingly each image contains one colour that is going to hang on well into Winter 2011.

Sulphurous yellow is likely to be a key micro colour this winter. Used for details to lift a moody room, or on the catwalk to make fun of  grown up tailoring, its presence even on very small areas will be felt.

Inky midnight blue is another colour I think we will see but this time on larger areas. Not a conventional navy, more a bruised navy heading towards off-black. A great backdrop for artwork and a colour that can easily add sophisticated drama to an interior. Farrow & Ball’s Hague Blue fits the bill but if you are looking for less saturation, Paint & Paper Library’s Blue Blood is a stylish “easy on the eyes” blue. Little Greene’s Juniper Ash  a hazy airforce blue-grey  would be a softer choice while Valtti ”St.Peter’s Boat” a powerful blue-black would create an interesting feature wall.

Put the two colours together and you have a great combination – perhaps it’s not so bad we are marching towards Autumn……

Rough with the Smooth

I’ve been working with a lot of highly saturated colours recently so I now feel more than ready to pare down my palette and experiment with less weighty hues.

However, when I use colours which display only subtle contrasts I like to introduce an extra dimension to the room through texture.

Generally speaking, the more light reflected from a surface, the lighter that surface will look, not just in colour but it will appear physically lighter as well. A rough surface which absorbs a lot of light will appear “heavier” than a smooth surface which bounces much of the light back into the room. It is therefore easy to make textural contrasts by placing rough (heavy) surfaces next to smooth (light) surfaces.

rough and smooth textures

Textural contrast definitely adds a new layer to a room and the more layers you include the more interesting the space appears. However, it’s a relatively new concept to mix textures. If you visit a museum of a mansion house you will not see many textural contrasts in the interior but you will see plenty of colour contrasts. Textural contrasts is something that was introduced at a time when monochromatic colour schemes were popular and it became evident that the space require another layer of interest.

The “texture tool” is also great for changing a room’s ambience from a summer to a winter season. Rougher (heavier) textiles can easily be added to create some winter warmth and weight while lighter sheers and silks help to lighten a room for summer.

The recent trend for paler, cooler, less saturated colours looks likely to carry on past the Summer Solstice and through into Winter 2011/12 so make sure you add that third dimension into your interior and start experimenting with texture.

One City, Three Colour Trends

I found myself in Paris this week absorbing three very distinct colour trends. The “beautiful people” (of which there were many) were wearing one of two colours – tangerine or Yves Klein blue. No pattern, just unpolluted blocks of colour neatly sitting next to their rather tanned and toned limbs. Colours which can translate to your interior as feature walls.

The next was a fusion of  kitsch and Indian inspired colour combinations mirroring the creations in the newly opened Paris-Delhi-Bombay exhibition in the Centre Pompidou (more from that exhibition in my next post). Basically a lot of very hot pink colliding with saffron yellows, ruby reds and chlorophyll greens projected even further by shimmering surfaces and mirrored mosaics. These colours move into interiors by way of accessories.

But the other set of colours that really stood out was something I think we will see a lot more of. The sorbets. Squeaky clean hues, not like the pastels of the 1980′s, much fresher, more acidic but still really pale. Pale with attitude. Pale with a punch. The exciting thing about this set of colours is that as long as they are of similar “weight” you can pile lots of them together. An entire house can be decorated in pale sorbets without becoming “cluttered” or fragmented. They flow well and don’t fight for attention. It will be interesting to see how magazines market these sorbets as they are difficult to photograph but ever so easy to use.