I’m painting the room in a colorful way …

Jan 10, 2010

Or at least I’m thinking about it. This is the room I’m working on

Deep Purple

I painted these walls several (too many) years ago, and believe it or not I was inspired by recurring dreams of rich purple and gold (which I suspect were a deep subconscious reaction to too many years of rental house off-whites). Not only did I choose a deep dark paint color, I also went for a velvety matte finish, just to make sure it would suck all the light from the room! The only time of year I actually like the result is now, in the middle of Winter. Partly because the sun is far enough south to sneak in under our overhanging eaves and light up the room, but mostly because there is an apple tree right up against the window, almost totally blocking the light all summer long.

I was amused to see House Beautiful recently touting Pratt & Lambert’s Grape Hyacinth as a hot color for 2010. And here, via Color for Your Home, CMG’s recommendation is Mardi Grape – I’m certainly not going in that direction again:

Tempting though it is to claim that I was just way ahead of the curve when I last painted, totally anticipating the trends for 2010, what this really proves to me is that these “hot color” predictions are pretty meaningless, unless you are going to repaint every year. I certainly would hesitate to do anything as permanent as kitchen cabinets in a hot, trendy color. For me, the one thing that reports like those from the Color Marketing Group do help predict is the colors that will be showing up in accessories and fabrics, perfect for injecting a little fashionable flavor without breaking the bank.

I can’t decide yet what the new colors will be – except maybe I’m going to look to that apple tree (Golden Delicious, no less) for inspiration. I haven’t had any dreams about the colors this time round – perhaps I just need to sleep on it?