Sharon Grech knows a thing or two about colour and she's not afraid to paint her walls to prove it.
Hues inside her home range from a golden tan to a tawny orange to a dark purple-brown. She'll probably switch it up again in a couple of years to keep her interior current.
"Buying a gallon of paint is a lot less expensive than buying a whole bunch of (new) cushions," says Grech, a colour expert with Benjamin Moore.
Benjamin Moore's up-and-coming colours for 2009 has a shade for everyone, from blushing red (a Caribbean-infused hot pink) to white sand (a barely-there beige). But two hues of note showed up on each of three palettes: grey and green. "We've been really seeing grey taking over from that beigy neutral," says Grech.
Grey, in turn, has helped usher in a flood of cool colours that look great paired with it, from the purples and aubergines of last fall to the blues and, especially, greens popular this spring. Be it pale avocado, brookside moss or dry sage, this all-natural shade has been so popular the past several years, it's becoming a neutral too, says Grech.
Para Paints recently rolled out 18 new hues, including a steely grey called digital and a grey dubbed treadmill.
General Paint's colour card for 2009 features pale powder, a washed-out grey-blue, and harlequin, a dark charcoal-navy. An eclectic mix of purples, blues and browns round it out.
"Colour experts search the world for inspiration," says Yvonne Provencal, the company's brand and creative services manager.
"It could be the kingfisher blue of an Indian sari, the sleek shine of a copper bowl or an elusive shade of grey found in a stormy sea.
One global concern of late has been the environment, whose go-to colour is, surprise, green. So intertwined are the colour and the concept, "We talk about green even when we don't mean the colour now," says Grech.
So, is the rise of grey, like a thunderous sky, a metaphor for the sodden days of recession? Not at all, says Aly Velji of Alykhan Velji Design in Calgary.
"Greys are becoming huge in interiors now because they are little more complex. Greys are no longer reminders of dark and stormy days, but of more sophisticated colour palettes. We are seeing greys as all-around wall colours, in flooring and furniture," he says. "It's the new neutral and works with so many other colours."
-- Canwest News Service
