It’s a pretty outlook for spring 2009 on the home decor front. The colour palette includes fresh blues, saucy pinks and upbeat yellows, as well as a veritable laundry line of clean whites. Patterns are playful or romantic. It’s the season of renewal, and a great time to fluff up the feathers in the nest.
Louise Smith, colour and design manager for Dulux, points out, “This is the year to go wild and express yourself. Since fewer people will be moving, the onus is on personalization and reinvention.”
So if you’ve never been brave enough to dip your toes in the colour pool, now’s the time to get wet. Never been a flower child? You may reconsider when you see the new floral motifs. The mood-enhancing benefits of a re-styled living space cannot be underestimated.
Yellow is such a happy hue, and so right-this-minute. Look for it in dishes, furniture, soft furnishings, even trash bins: Vipp’s Yellow Cab stepcan may be made in Copenhagen, but the vibe is totally New York.
Spring in the city is evoked in Blissliving (blisslivinghome.com) Home’s contemporary bedding ensemble, Off the Park, which pairs a black and white print with bright yellow. Designer Mei Xu notes the colour’s “cheerful, optimistic tone. It has the power to bring a smile to your face.”
Conran USA (conranusa.com) continues to support international craftwork with the ceramics of south African designers Philippa and Werner du Toit. Their pitchers and cake stands are embossed with tribal fabric textures, then washed in soft yellow. They’re quirky, rustic and charming.
We’ll see white as another dominant colour, either crisp and pure or vanilla-tinged. Gather a group of snowy vases, fill them with white blooms, and place on a textured runner. Pull off all the dark drapes and hang white cotton or silk; the light will pour in, awakening everything.
Garnet Hill (garnethill.com) has the Angie lamp, a curvy number in soft tones accented with barrel shades in on-trend motifs like black and white ironwork, white-on-white bubbles, or orange and green zinnias.
