Like all fashion, color styles in home interior decorating cycle through various phases of popularity. Color choices that were new and exciting a few decades ago, then consigned to the “out of date” category, are making a return to favor with homeowners and professional decorators alike. When you make a flooring choice, you are probably making an investment that will most likely outlive the current trends. By knowing what is currently “hot” with leading decorators, you can make a carpet, hardwood or tile choice that will work with today’s home fashions and adapt to what may be coming in the design world.
As you can see by thumbing through any design or lifestyle magazine, the keywords in design trends now are “calm and comfortable.” The move toward more home based activities that was the hallmark of the 1990′s has evolved into a design standard that allows the home to be the basis for almost all contemporary activity. Work time, social time, family time and private time are all-home based now, and design choices, particularly in colors, reflect the need for serene, satisfying, and unobtrusive choices in home décor.
Classics always, blues and blue-greens dominate today’s design color choices. Their natural association with nature, and the ease with which these colors work in both traditional and contemporary settings, make them especially appropriate for home use. The range of tones can vary from bold sky blues to classic delft and Williamsburg blues to the blue-green-gray tones of seawater in varying light. The greens now in favor range from subtle mossy gray-greens to rich botanical greens to bright yellow-green combinations. Flooring that works well with any of these colors will be suitable for decorating changes for years to come.
Bold oranges and yellows, which have enjoyed special popularity lately, are giving way to richer shades of coppers and golds. Metallic tones have for some time been popular choices in interior design, but the trend now is away from the more severe industrial or technical shades of silvers, yellows and grays, and towards the more burnished look of classic gilding. Bright, startling and playful colors always have a place in design schemes, but the current trend is to use them as bold accent points rather than the dominant color in a design plan.
Red continues to be an important color option, but the lipstick reds of recent years are giving way to warmer pinks, roses and magentas. Deep red tones, such as brick, maroon, grape and marinara, are becoming especially popular because they both make a strong color statement, and lend themselves to easy incorporation into many design schemes. Like with yellow and orange, the popular tone choices in reds should be calming and inviting, not jarring.
And neutrals are making a strong return in the design world. This does not mean that designers are returning to the eggshell white or beige of years past. Instead, up-to-date interior designs are building on rich, interesting tones like champagne, putty, nutshell, chaff, dove, gunmetal, and cane can create an up-to-the-minute look without restricting the use of other color in the design scheme. Flooring choices in almost any neutral tone will have an up-to-the-minute look today and for years to come.
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