PPG at the Forefront of Home Décor Color Trends

According to PPG Pittsburgh Paints’ color forecast for home décor in 2011-2012, homeowners will gravitate toward bold, bright, bodacious color, instead of the grays and beiges predominant in past years. The company’s color experts see a renewed focus on individual expression, manifested in such color choices as lipstick red, aqua and poetic blue. These are just a few of the 20 paint colors presented in four new “Wow Color Now” palettes from The Voice of Color program, which sets the stage for a vibrant 2011 and 2012.

“The mood today is one of triumph over adversity,” said Dee Schlotter, brand manager, The Voice of Color, PPG Pittsburgh Paints. “Despite recent challenges in society, our need to succeed prevails. It’s a triumph of the individual and of personal expression, and there’s no better way to express yourself than with the transformative power of color in your home.”

Two societal trends are driving these trends in color, Schlotter said. The first is a new level of consumer sophistication as design becomes democratized, aided by people’s ever-increasing ability to decipher and disseminate information in real-time. The second is the quest for authenticity in a world where knock-offs are pervasive and instantaneous.

“The home is becoming a lab for new technologies and new looks,” Schlotter said. “We keep what works, and start over when it doesn’t. But always, the search is on for what’s real and honest.”

Because a trend is never about just one color but rather about all the colors in a room or space, Schlotter noted, The Voice of Color program offers signature five-color cards that express the mood of each new palette and provide colors for paint, fabrics, flooring and accessories. The four new “Wow Color Now” PPG Pittsburgh Paints palettes in The Voice of Color program for 2011-2012 are:

INstinct: The soul of this palette is warm and authentic. It fuses the ancient, the mythological, the raw and the primitive with a highly technical and minimalist modern-day aesthetic. A mix of ethnic exoticism and modern urban sophistication, this style befits the grown-up taste of a true citizen of the world. This palette is the most muted and grounded; organic rather than adorned. It blends light and dark woods, burnished leather with raw utilitarian stitching, and deep browns and natural charcoal stones.

The palette is refined but essentially basic and showcases the colors of materials with rich earthy qualities—leather, minerals, wood and fur—enabling their natural beauty, grain and texture to emerge. PPG Pittsburgh Paints colors include Cracked Slate, Silver Bells, Gypsum, Oregon Trail and Chaparral.

Glamour: With a focus on the “amour,” Glamour is mysterious, sophisticated, sensual and intricate. It’s déjà vu from a contemporary perspective; always intentional, never shy. Slightly theatrical, conjuring an atmosphere of a new-age Sleeping Beauty, Glamour’s take on pattern is bold and sharp, with plays on negative space to constantly surprise and delight.

The palette incorporates glorious neutrals inspired by the most sumptuous materials, and it inspires thoughts of time worn limestone, starkly modern crystal, magnificent black marble, the warmest gold and other color-infused metallics. PPG Pittsburgh Paints colors include Dark as Night, Timber Beam, Angel Food, Almond Cream and Rum Runner.

NEW Bohemia: Every inch of NEW Bohemia exudes personality through a whimsical sense of design, a rebirth of craft, and the appearance of secondhand objects and other quirky and nostalgic elements. It’s a vintage aesthetic for a contemporary age, at once authentic, romantic, imaginative and poetic—it positions the room as a discovery center or personal scrapbook. The style is “gypset,” fusing the ease and carefree lifestyle of a gypsy with the sophistication of the jet set.

With fantasy, fairy-tale, floral prints as an inspiration, color is innocently romantic and untamed. PPG Pittsburgh Paints colors include Red Cedar, Happy Trails, Hat Box Brown, Green Wave and Aqua Fiesta.

UPcycle: The “green” movement, all grown up, UPcycle is about living simply with beautiful, useful and sustainable objects. It is a philosophy steeped in the desire for clarity, function and craftsmanship; it repudiates wastefulness and embraces the authentic, the meaningful and the simply fun. Honest yet elegant, UPcycle is optimistic, clever and proactive.

The palette is simple, honest and upbeat, as the colors coordinate with wood, basic yarns, wool, cotton, untreated metals and simply glazed ceramics in tone-on-tone ways. A color-blocking effect injects the dose of “up” into this color cycle and lights up pale wood tones. PPG Pittsburgh Paints colors include Brown Basket, Allspice, Gold Buff, Chalkware and Adventure.

It’s important for designers to know about upcoming trends, Schlotter said, because their clients certainly will. Consumers are becoming savvier every day, and they notice and instantly assess the aesthetics around them, from the coffee shop they frequent to the airport they pass through to the tissue box they buy, she said.

The “Wow Color Now” color palettes, as well as the nearly 2,000 colors of The Voice of Color program, are available in any of PPG Pittsburgh Paints’ paint lines, including environmentally responsible PPG Pure Performance paint. PPG Pure Performance paint is a premium quality, zero-VOC paint that features minimal odor during application and drying.