Knowledge is Strength: Pantone's Color of the Year 2014, Radiant Orchid

It seems Pantone, the world-renowned authority on color, has surprised many in the industry with the selection of Radiant Orchid, 18-3224 as the upcoming Color of the Year. The PANTONE® name is known worldwide as the standard language for color communication from designer to manufacturer to retailer to customer. Need a color to match exactly from one end of the globe to the other? Pick a Pantone color!

Last year's color Emerald served as a symbol of growth, renewal and prosperity. This year's color Radiant Orchid is an invitation to innovation, expanded creativity and originality. Cheers to that!

Radiant Orchid is quite a unique color. At first I thought "Wow, where would I use that"? Perhaps a powder room, child or teen's room, as a small accent color...which surprises me because the last thing I ever want to feel is limited by color. I like to believe I can use color anywhere, at any time, depending on adjacent colors, what proportions have been used, and the values (lightness and darkness) or chroma (intensity of a color) used. So I started doing a little research and looking around for inspiration. Best thing to do whenever a road block starts creeping in!

I ran across this lovely view of famous designer Kelly Wearstler's office on Instagram today. Lo and behold, I see Radiant Orchid!

Gorgeous artwork! Pinterest/Jeannie Mills – Aboriginal Art Centre – Anaty 1105 “Bush Potato”

And of course, nature will always give you the most exquisite color findings.
Pinterest

 Pinterest

 I love this this room, the purple and orange combo, the ethnic vibe. It's fresh yet warm at the same time. Pinterest

 Ditto with this dining room! Pinterest

A little retro mod to balance out the selections. Pinterest

 How's this for a funky barn?! Pinterest

And of course, all I had to do was look above at my blog header to see a more saturated version of Radiant Orchid in this foyer I designed. In fact, I found two other rooms where I used versions of this year's Pantone color!

Not quite as unique and unusual an application as I had initially thought. How many other areas in your life can you bring in this type of questioning and conclusion? Challenge yourself. Knowledge is strength.

Later gators, Susan 

Foyer in Full Color

Last week I did a post titled "Living Room in Full Color". Today -  the fabulous foyer selections within the same home.  Below are BEFORE pics...not a large space, but tall, and very cut up with doors, nooks, stairwells, openings, racetrack/varied depth ceiling, etc.  -- Yes A LOT going on!  We are keeping the tile floor, the white painted woodwork, and the stair carpet.  Everything else in the space is going ba-bye! 

The pillar above will get some additional moulding so it can say, "Hey I'm a legit column, and don't you forget it!!" Clarence House Flowering Quince wallcovering in the 20-22' height space will be perfect!  Accentuating the height is exactly the direction I want to go!  The movement of the dark branches will begin at the floor, over the top of the closet all the way up to the ceiling.  The ceiling will be painted the lovely tan in the background of the wallcovering with the one racetrack a darker version of the blossoms.  I may have to add a slight metallic bronze rub on the red if it is too intense, or worse yet, feeling "sporty", but time will tell!  Can not wait to see Flowering Quince on the wall and going up the staircase!

Below are a couple of spaces done up in the ever crawling vines of the quince!  You can see how awesome it is going to be!

 Lisa Borgnes Giramonti

Photo by Gemma Costas from Domino mag

The window next to the closet will get a lovely drapery from this fabulous F. Schumacher fabric below.

The chandelier will be changed out to the ever fashionable Crystorama Solaris large bronze pendant.  Yes, I know the look, if not this exact pendant is somewhat popular right now, but the style is just sooo perfect (not to say anything about the wonderful price!)

At the stair landing is a wall sconce which will become the Crystorama sconce below.  I will have to think about shades for the sconce otherwise it may be a bit bright walking down the stairs towards the bright light. "Harry, no! Don't look at the light!" Remember that scene?  (OK, probably not if you didn't have kids at that time ~~ A Bug's Life!)

The Terra Sur Mondrian bench will be in place of the Victorian furniture with an accent pillow of red with small purple/orange yarns.  LOVE Terra Sur's furniture!  All made in Argentina!

I'm super excited to se this coming together!  Of course, after pics will eventually surface for you all to see!  Next week, the dining room!

Toodles!  Susan

Living Room in Full Color

I know, I know...I have been greatly delinquent on posting once a week.  I have been so busy with my many projects , and I say many with a smile on my face :) or when I sit down to write, I am just too tired to care.  I definitely don't want to be posting "careless" pieces!

I am working on a living room, dining room, foyer redesign and thought I would share with you it's progress.  A few years ago, 2007 to be exact, when the couple with small kids moved into the home, we worked on the exterior -- new siding, ext lighting, railings, landscaping, etc.  We then did some paint colors in the inside just to give the house a more personable feeling.  Now we are starting over, with whole room redo's in the above three rooms.  I'll write posts on the dining room and foyer in future posts. Sooo stay tuned!!

Above is the layout of the room.  I love using Post-It notes cut to size of my furniture selections so I can move the pieces around at will.  Yes, I have the ever popular magnetic set.  However, I can never seem to find the size/style I need.  So I made my own!  The Charles Ray sofa is in the bottom right corner with an existing cocktail table in front and an existing low buffet in back which will eventually get a couple of lamps.  A contemporary style Hickory wing chair is in the bottom left corner and a Hickory chaise in the upper left corner.  In the upper right corner is the husband's Ekornes brown leather chair/ottoman where he likes to work on his laptop from home -- so a must to incorporate!

Here's the sofa material -- kind of a reinterpreted "running dog/Asian" look with the softest of soft microfiber pillows and trim in a rich rust color with an accent trim.  The dark gold color is the Benjamin Moore wall paint while the light gold color will be the on the elevated, peaked ceiling.

The chaise lounge will be in this wonderful soft blue microfiber (more desaturated looking than in the pic) near the fireplace with an accent pillow in a Ralph Lauren green/blue/red to tie in with the sofa and wing chair.

Fabulous Schumacher printed linen for grommet drapery flanking the fireplace.

The Schumacher linen has super duper large paisleys on it and will be bordered by a Robert Allen rust linen at the top.  The green fabric is the Hickory contemporary wing chair.  It will also have bronze colored railheads to bring in a bit of masculinity to the room!

This is the coffee/cocktail table -- an inheritance from the husband's mother so it has sentimental value.  He is thrilled we can reuse it, and so am I!  Look at those big chunky legs -- aren't they cool?  And I love the acanthus leaf accents.  I am having a decorative paint artist add a bit of gold leaf and gold Rub n' Buff to the legs to give it more of a worn, yet elegant look.

And here it all is!!  What do you think?  (Again the blue is not that vibrant - jeepers!! :)

Cheers!  Susan