Choosing interior paint colors can often be quite daunting and time consuming, especially for large jobs where several colors need to complement one another both within a given space and from room to room. Color selection is a design skill that grows with experience, but here are a few tips for clients and designers alike that can help make the color selection process more enjoyable and rewarding:

To Illustrate the concept of "color families", I've provided some fabric sample photos from the Greenhouse Fabrics website. From left to right, we have earth tones, neutrals, sunny citrusy colors, and cool blues and greens.

 

Billed as the definitive reference guide to the major design trends for the coming year, the very popular Trends 2011 presentation has now been posted on the Boston Design Center website. Organized and presented by BDC's Alexis Contant, the slide show presentation predicts the hottest colors, patterns, materials, and styles for 2011.

 

Featured colors include soft reds, Mediterranean blues, "wicked" greens, and sophisticated neutrals. A number of different collections are featured, including many that are on display at the Martin Group, Osborne & Little, and Webster & Company showrooms at the BDC. I particularly like Zimmer + Rohde's Residence Collection which BDC is predicting will be hot in 2011.

 

To view the full presentation, click here.

 

I recently had the good fortune of attending a presentation by Barry Dixon, one of today's foremost interior designers. Mr. Dixon has a casual and friendly demeanor that instantly puts his listeners and his clients at ease. His talk included views of numerous beautiful residential projects that had been completed by Barry and his firm, and I couldn't help but be in awe of the detail and thought that Mr. Dixon has put in to every aspect and element of his projects.

 

Mr. Dixon shared an inspiring and holistic philosophy, one that makes perfect sense yet is often overlooked by designers and clients: link your interiors to the world outside, and frame your views with materials and colors that flow to or from the outside. To paraphrase Mr. Dixon, "You'll not find colors in my interiors that are not part of the view outside.."

 

To illustrate his approach, he presented photos of a St. Bart's residence that featured beautiful blues, greens and beiges from the ocean seascape outside, photos of a Virginia residence that demonstrated the use of mineral-based colors that reflected the composition of a nearby hillside, and photos of homes that subtly incorporated the flora or fauna found outside. This philosophy results in a wonderful transition from outdoor spaces to indoor spaces, and creates sophisticated interiors that allow for quite a bit of individuality and whimsy.

 

The fabrics, furnishings and wall treatments that Mr. Dixon used in his projects were selected with much consideration for history, the environment, and of his clients' lifestyles and wishes. Rooms flow wonderfully from one to another to create cohesive and luxurious surroundings. Mr. Dixon's clients quite obviously have the means to procure the best of the best, and he produces exactly that by creating a meticulously orchestrated interior, respectful and aware of historic elements of design, creative and innovative, opulent but far from ostentatious.

 

It was a pleasure viewing his outstanding work.

 

Barry Dixon Interior from Residential Home in St. Barts

 

Although it's not my primary line of work, I recently staged a home for a client who was planning to put her home on the market. The plan was long-term; there was no need for an immediate move, and the client had plenty of time for renovations.

 

In this particular case, the staging and preparation for showing her home included two bathroom renovations, a complete interior paint job, an evaluation and placement of the client’s existing furnishings and accessories, and selection of new furniture pieces and accessories to create an appealing look that would not come across as either too fussy or too crowded.

 

The house was open and contemporary, with a kitchen that needed only some minor carpentry work and repairs, but with a master bathroom and guest bathroom that were very dark and dated. The client was amenable to gutting the bathrooms, and I selected tile, granite, vanities and plumbing fixtures that created a neutral, light and airy feeling in each bath. I also redesigned the master bathroom to allow for a good size walk-in closet off the master bedroom, which I felt would excite prospective home buyers.

 

For paint specs, we went with warm neutrals that would appeal to just about any potential buyer, providing some color while not overwhelming with color. Working within the client’s budget, I selected furniture, area rugs, lamps, bedding and accessories to pull everything together. We were able to use most of the client’s furniture but removed some older, darker pieces and numerous extras that were hanging around such as baskets, old lamps, old rugs, and the like.

 

The result is well organized and nicely contemporary, but with plenty of warm colors and welcoming touches. The client and realtor were each very pleased with the renovations and staging.

 

With the few clients that I've worked with to prepare their homes for sale, my experience has been that homeowners can accomplish quite a lot with a small investment in design consulting services, paint, and accessorizing.

 

I’d love to hear from other designers who may have branched into staging, or who even focus primarily on staging, and what their typical staging jobs entail.

 

On a recent visit to one of my stone and countertop suppliers, I started looking at some wonderful glass products that offer beautiful and environmentally friendly alternatives to stone. I specified Bio Glass for a kitchen and bar area countertop and adjacent family room fireplace surround in a seaside home in the color "Oriental Jade," which picked up on the aqua color of the nearby ocean.

 

The unique, translucent qualities of Bio Glass are produced by recycling hollow glass, tableware and factory shards, and the results are reminiscent of sea glass.

 

The possibilities for kitchen countertops, bathroom vanity tops, shower seats, bar tops, and even walls and partitions are very exciting. The really wonderful thing about Bio Glass is that it offers a fresh and new approach for countertops and other surfaces.

 

Another product that offers recycled glass and great possibilities is Vetrazzo, from a company named Polycor. With a great website and a story behind each product, the Vetrazzo line offers countertops and surfaces for residential and commercial use.

 

Vetrazzo uses 100% recycled glass - most of the glass used for Vetrazzo products comes from curbside recycling, and 85% of the finished product is made from the recycled glass (the other 15% being cement, additives and pigments). The product selection ranges from finely grained to "chippy".

 

My current favorite is "Charisma Blue with Patina," which is made from recycled beer, wine and soda bottles. The color descriptions for each variation are really fun to read, and are powerful reminders of how effective recycling can be.

 

Another company, Fireclay Tile, offers products with recycled content. I particularly like their "Debris" tile, which is fashioned from recycled glass bottles. The Debris series is available in more than 100 fantastic glaze colors and in several sizes, shapes, trims and decorative options. The company is also developing a countertop surface called "Bottlestone" with 80% post-consumer recycled glass content. "Bottlestone" looks like it will offer a fine-grained appearance (rather than chunks of glass) in four unique colors.

 

Yet another company, Stardust Glass, offers tile with very high recycled glass content (87-97%), using pre-consumer recycled glass that is collected and harvested within 250-500 miles of the company's manufacturing facility that's located in Portland, Oregon.

 

With a wide variety of fun colors and shapes, Stardust offers some terrific ways to use tile in kitchen and bath design, as well as solutions for fireplace surrounds, floors, tiled walls and more. Commercial applications are highly possible as well, for interesting counter/service areas, funky commercial bathroom designs, and beautiful display areas.

 

With spring approaching, home and business owners often begin to contemplate restoration and renovation ideas for their homes and work spaces. Paint, of course, is a great way to quickly and economically achieve a sense of renewal. Environmentally friendly paints are becoming the standard rather than the exception, both as the result of recent state and federal regulatory changes and because of consumer demand.

 

Paints generally contain volatile organic compounds (VOCs), which are organic compounds that are unstable. These compounds are off-gassed (gradually dispersed) into the air as paint dries, which means that fairly hazardous chemicals are typically dispersed into our indoor and outdoor environments.

 

Most paint manufacturers now feature less toxic "Low VOC" or "No VOC" paints, with their designation determined by the amount of VOCs per liter of paint. Unless paints are designated "natural" and contain only natural, raw ingredients, they will still contain chemical colorants, and possibly fungicides, biocides, or very low levels of heavy metals or formaldehyde. Note that "No VOC" (sometimes referred to as "Zero VOC") paints may still contain up to 5 grams of VOCs per liter of paint.

 

Natural paints have come a long way, and are rewarding to use from both an environmental and a color selection standpoint. The Real Milk Paint Company, for example, offers a very wide array of color possibilities.

 

For a great guide on natural, Low VOC and No VOC paints, check out EarthEasy.com's page about non-toxic paints.

 

And here's a New York Times article by Stephen Treffinger where the author tested 10 different brands of various vendors' self-proclaimed environmentally friendly indoor paints.

 

 

 

Wow - seems like I was just checking out the 2009 color of the year. Pantone, the color guru of the design industry, has named "turquoise" as the 2010 Color of the Year. Great choice!

 

From the Pantone web site, "Combining the serene qualities of blue and the invigorating aspects of green, Turquoise inspires thoughts of soothing, tropical waters and a comforting escape from the everyday troubles of the world, while at the same time restoring our sense of wellbeing."

 

In the right setting, turquoise is wonderful and provides a great connection to the outdoors. Turquoise glass or ceramic tile, table linens, pillows, and furniture can yield a fresh and stylish look. Turquoise trim on a sisal rug or turquoise paint on a vintage side table or footstool can add a pop of fun and upbeat color.

 

Last year's color was "Mimosa," a bright and cheery yellow that projected optimism and happiness. Pantone's "Color of the Year" originated in 2007. Rather than lock in on these colors as complete room colors or as imperatives for a successful interior, many designers tend to use such "Color of the Year" colors as accents in fabrics or accessories.

 

A plain manila envelope arrived in the mail the other day with return address "Farmboy Fine Arts". Out of a sense of duty rather than curiosity, I opened it, planning on adding another brochure to my ever growing pile of "stuff to look at some day"... Inside was a wonderful array of beautifully creative artwork including backlit art, acrylic digital art, art on canvas, art on glass, 3D sculptural art and more. I was captivated by each page. Both the catalog and the website that I subsequently visited provide a comprehensive look at all of the offerings and mediums available. With over 40,000 images to choose from in many different types of applications, the possibilities seem endless.

 

CEO Todd Towers and his team have put together quite an enterprise. The catalog and website illustrate many projects and installations, including hotels, restaurants, casinos, offices and residential applications. Each project is unique and dramatic in its own way, and the website's client list is quite impressive.

 

The print brochure is available through a link on the website, and Farmboy Fine arts says they will be at the HD Las Vegas Trade Show, May 14-16 2009. Here's a sampling of just some of their creations:

 

Farmboy Fine Arts - ADA Designs

 

 

Farmboy Fine Arts - Architectural Elements (AE)

 

 

Farmboy Fine Arts - BADA BOX

 

 

Farmboy Fine Arts - EGO Tempered Glass

 

 

Farmboy Fine Arts - LUMA Acrylic Panels

 

 

Farmboy Fine Arts - META Aluminum Composites

 

 

Farmboy Fine Arts - OPTICA Lenticular Imagery

 

All photos courtesy of Farmboy Fine Arts.

Have you seen Applied Coating Group's new Color MirageTM line of decorative glass products? They're very cool. I haven't used them on any projects yet, but I'm sure that I will at some point in the near future.

 

Their offerings include glass wall and floor tiles as well as glass blocks, panels, lighting fixtures and tableware. All of the products and materials have one thing in common: they appear to change color as the light sources associated with the products change in direction or intensity. The colors also appear to change as the viewer's perspective changes. Even a rising or setting sun will change the color of the item being viewed. Cool!!

 

According to their website, the effect is accomplished with optical thin film dichroic coatings that are applied to the products. A particular coating dictates which colors (light wavelengths) are transmitted through, reflected off, or absorbed by the material.

 

All of their product and application types seem like they'd be equally wonderful in either a commercial or a residential application. Their product literature says that their glass blocks are available in a variety of  patterns, colors and sizes and that each individual block is unique with its own subtle color variation. Visit the SwiftTrack Glass Block System website to see some example glass block applications. The SwiftTrack site also provides a video that gives installation instructions.

 

Here are some sample photos that show some of the possibilities that the Color MirageTM and SwiftTrack products offer:

 

 

Color Mirage TM - Gorgeous Glass Blocks

 

 

Color Mirage TM - Glass Block Bar Application

 

 

Color Mirage TM - Glass Block Kitchen Application Using SwiftTrack System

 

 

Color Mirage TM - Lighting and Tile Applications

 

The Color MirageTM glass material can be used for custom applications such as railing banisters, restaurant dividers, wall panels and tempered glass (once a final size is determined). See the examples shown above and below.

 

Color Mirage TM - Custom Commercial Railing / Divider Application

 

The Applied Coating Group has also showcased their colored glass Modono TileTM on their website. The Modono tiles can be used for flooring accents, backsplashes, and a variety of other applications. Simply beautiful!

 

Modono Tile TM - Stunning Flooring Accent

 

For more details about all of the aforementioned products, visit the www.appliedcoatingsgroup.com or www.colormirage.com websites. Disclaimer: I have received no compensation of any kind for talking up these products. Enjoy!

Benjamin Moore will soon begin accepting entries for its fourth annual HUE Awards, a competition which recognizes the exceptional use of color in architecture and interior design. Submissions will be accepted between May 1 and October 9th of this year.

 

First established in 2005, the HUE award categories for this year's competition are: residential interiors, residential exteriors, contract interiors, contract exteriors, lifetime achievement and social responsibility. Five panelists from the architecture, design and fashion worlds will judge the entries

There's no fee to enter and submissions to multiple categories are welcome. The competition is open to all comers, from seasoned architects and designers to students and industry novices. Each award winner will receive a $5,000 cash prize and a hand-blown crystal "HUEY" sculpture.

 

Visit the 2010 Benjamin Moore HUE Award web page for more details, including instructions for their downloadable application entry form.

 

Good luck!