Here, try something out real quick: point your browser to Pinterest, and type “spring colors” into the search bar. What do you see? More than likely, what you’re looking at is a few shots of flowers, some earthy tones on fancy models, and a whole, whole lot of gorgeous pastel.
That, dear friends, is because right now, in this spring 2013 season, pastels are back in a big way, and that’s the trend we’re going to talk about today!
In the last two or three years, pastels have made the jump from primarily Easter-related tones to the hip worlds of high fashion and design, and that’s primarily because of the power that is the Internet. It’s always hard to pinpoint where a trend started, but signs point toward the pastel trend springing from the Harajuku “kawaii” (meaning “cute”, or even “very cute”) culture in Tokyo, Japan, which took the colors on as part of their primary palette.
The Harajuku culture is a huge influence on the rest of the world, though you might not know it unless you’re pretty seriously plugged in. Take a sec, however, and browse around Tumblr or Pinterest under tags or search terms like “Japanese,” “Tokyo” “kawaii” or “Harajuku,” and you’ll pretty quickly see that the culture from this area of the world is heavily followed, most especially by those ultra-hip youngsters who dominate sites like Tumblr. In fact, some of the crazier fashion choices that our American stars like Lady Gaga and Nicki Minaj have blown minds and caused controversy with are straight out of Harajuku!
So, when the trendy Japanese started sportin’ pastel outfits and hair and painting entire rooms in it, it’s no real surprise that the colors caught on in America not too long after.
What does this mean for you and your home, you might ask? Well, if you’re lookin’ for a stylish new color to add to a room, it could mean quite a lot! Pastels, both for their current trendiness and their natural properties, can make excellent choices for both accent colors and as the color for an entire room.
When choosing a pastel to use, what you want to consider first is what you’d like to do with the room. If you’re happy with the overall color, and are just looking to add a touch of something new here and there, you’ll want to make sure that any pastel you add complements what’s already there. Pastels work especially well with white and beiges, as the lightness of these colors complements just about any pastel very nicely. Otherwise, pastels work best with very dark and deep colors, and you’ll want to consult a color wheel or online complementary color-finding tool to make sure you don’t get any clashing notes. Avoid using pastels to complement any overly bright, vivid or primary color, as they will tend to cause eye-strain and confuse the vision.
If you’re looking to go with a whole-room pastel, light sea greens, very light summery yellows, faded sky blues and even muted pinks and purples are excellent choices. Use these on entire walls, but make sure you break up the color a bit by accenting it with some white or another complementary pastel. You can use deep colors here as accents as well, but you;ll want to limit the amount you bring into the room, or else the pastel will be overwhelmed and lose its light, airy touch.
To find a little pastel-spiration, we mentioned Tumblr and Pinterest before, and these are wonderful sources for finding hues and complementary colors as well as some seriously cool examples of people using pastels all around the world. From fashion to food to front doors, you’re about to see pastels all over the hippest parts of the globe, and if you’re a home-owner looking to jumpstart a room or a whole house with a look that’s hugely in right now, this is a great place to start. Or check out our blog post, “Hot Hues, Spring Edition!” for extra advice using the The Pantone Fashion Color Report-2013.
Pastels really have come a long way from their tame, holiday-related connotations, and we at Prestige Painting just love what they’ve become. As painters in Birmingham Al and the other hippest towns in the state, we think this is a wonderful trend, and we’d be thrilled to help more homeowners give it a go. Look around the web at a few examples today, and see if you don’t just feel the same way we do about lovely pastels this spring.
Original Source: https://paintedbyprestige.com/paint-colors/pretty-pretty-pastels-theyre-in/
