It’s February, 2013 is only about one month old, and that means that the trendy colors for the spring are about to start showing up just about everywhere. If you’re in the process of picking a color to paint in your house, trying to find a new theme for a room’s décor or even just wondering what colors to wear in the new season, chances are you’re scouring the world for cool colors and hot hues right now, and that can get seriously overwhelming.
As the neighborhood painters in Birmingham our customers trust us to make their homes look great, however, Prestige Painting has a vested interest in keeping up with the newest, hippest trends in color, because we want to help your life look as absolutely amazing as is humanly possible. Because of that, we thought it’d be helpful to give our readers who are on the color hunt a few tools to use this spring, and that’s what we’ve got for you today.
The Pantone Fashion Color Report, Spring 2013
We’re guessing that, like us, anyone who’s looked for a new color for just about anything has had that moment where they wished a magic list of trendy colors for the season would just appear and tell them what to pick. What you might not know, however, is that such a thing not only actually exists, it even comes out with each new year!
This list is called the Pantone Fashion Color Report, and before you go thinking it’s just a bunch of people telling you what they like, know that the Pantone Fashion Color Report is actually a study on the colors that show up in the previous year’s New York Fashion Week, where the top designers in the world show off their new looks. The colors that show up at Fashion Week are the ones that end up seeping into just about everything else in life, from product design to advertisements and, yes, even home decoration, so the Pantone colors are a great predictor of what you’ll be seeing everywhere over the next 12 months.
For 2013, the Fashion Color Report (which came out in September) focused on balance, using what they call “novel neutrals” such as a tan mixed with a slight bit of pink (called “Linen”) which they play against colors like the 2013 Pantone color of the year, Emerald. Pantone says that this idea of balancing slightly quirky, bright colors with neutrals that are off the beaten path but not shocking represents the current trend toward individual expression mixed with stability and warmth.
The full list from Pantone 2013 is Dusk Blue, Tender Shoots, Lemon Zest, Linen, Poppy Red, Nectarine, Monaco Blue, African Violet, Emerald and Grayed Jade, while the Men’s list adds Vibrant Orange, Tidal Foam, Sunflower and Alloy. This is a great set of colors that we’re just crazy for, and to check out any of these colors in detail, Pantone has them all displayed on their site.
The colors on the Pantone list will make for dynamic and fresh additions to your household, however you decide to use them, and getting on them now before they start showing up everywhere will put you ahead of the curve, fashion-wise.
Pin for Prettiness, Tumbl for Tones
If the Pantone Report doesn’t get the inspirational juices flowing, might we suggest spending a bit of time on the wonderful scrapbook-style websites Tumblr and Pinterest? Each of these sites is easily searchable for terms such as “color,” “trend” or just about anything else you can think of (try “paint,” “art” or even “house”), and doing so means you’ll immediately be greeted by a nearly endless gallery of trending, colorful images. In fact, Prestige Painting has a Pinterest account where we often display exceptional uses of nearly every major color as resources for ourselves and our friends, which you can use as a resource as well.
Currently, the Pantone list’s idea of taking the standard version of colors (such as what we’d consider plain blue or green) and knocking them a few tones brighter or taking them very light with a hint of brightness is what’s trending on both Tumblr and Pinterest, but that can change weekly, so check back often to see what’s new!
Between the new Pantone list and the web, you should have plenty of color resources to mine for your next project, no matter what it might be. And, if you still can’t find anything you like, check a few fashion mags at your local supermarket or corner store for inspirational tones. The key is to always be paying attention to the colors around you, and let the ones that grab you guide you to your next paint color. Because in the end, the person you want to please most is always yourself, and you know your tastes the best. Get out there and find some colors!
