AT HOME: ELLEN O’NEILL SAID THAT SHADOW “EBBS AND FLOWS WITH ITS SURROUNDINGS AND LIGHT BRINGS IT TO LIFE.” DOES THAT MEAN IT WORKS BETTER IN ROOMS WITH PLENTY OF NATURAL LIGHT? AM: It’s funny, but one of the things we hear about Shadow is, “Oh, I really love that color but I don’t have the right room for it.” The truth is, we’ve been able to play with it in small rooms and in larger rooms – and Shadow works beautifully in both spaces. I think people assume they can only use it in a large room with tons of light, but it’s a color that will work even in a dramatic powder room without any natural light. Balanced with enough lighter colors, it’s very useable in that space.
One of the more prominent images we put together for the 2017 card is a living room. In that particular home, we had Shadow on the wall balanced by a lot of white trim, lighter-colored furniture and then this really strong black mantel around the fireplace. So, it’s a matter of balance and figuring out how to make it work for your home. AT HOME: HOW DOES THE COLOR OF THE YEAR SELECTION PROCESS BEGIN? AM: Our Color Studio, made up of five or six design professionals with unique perspectives, puts a full year of research into choosing the Color of the Year. We travel to industry events around North America, Europe and Asia, collecting anything and everything that catches our eye. We pick up cues and clues from what’s happening in our world culturally, including societal influences, cultures, fashion, home furnishings and architecture. This year, fine art was our main inspiration. You can see how Shadow hints at the way an artist uses color and light to create a sense of mood. We bring all of our ideas back to the studio and pin them to a 20-foot wall. It can be overwhelming to look at thousands upon thousands of pictures at once, so we group them by key color families until common themes slowly begin to emerge. Eventually, we reach a point where everyone in the room is moving in the same general direction. A great deal of work and discussion goes into this process. Our team wants to make sure that the color is indicative of the research we’ve done, but ultimately, it comes back to making sure it’s about the paint that goes on the wall. Will this be a good color for people to consider using in their home? AT HOME: THAT SOUNDS LIKE IT TAKES QUITE A BIT OF TIME. AM: It’s a year-round process. We’re already in the midst of researching the Color of the Year for 2018. AT HOME: IS THERE A RISK FACTOR IN FORECASTING NEXT YEAR’S BIG COLOR TRENDS? AM: Sometimes people worry, “Uh oh, trends. Does that mean they’ll be out of style next year?” Not at all. We just view trends as offering up a different way to approach a painting project. When you’re researching color trends, particularly with paint and home design, it’s not about what’s in this year and out the next. Here’s why: most people don’t paint their home every year; it’s more of a five to seven year cycle. So, we want to make sure that whatever we choose for the Color of the Year, it will be able to stand up in the years to come. Another thing to remember is that our Color Trends are only a suggestion; it’s sharing our insight into what’s happening around the world color-wise. This year’s palette happens to be a move toward darker colors. People tend to shy away, but I think with great imagery they can see how dark colors don’t have to be scary or intimidating. That it’s possible to paint a room in a darker color, then step back and say, “I never thought I’d use that color, but I really, really love it.” Our hope is that the Color of the Year and the Color Trends palette expands people’s ideas and gives them a chance to think about paint color in a new way.
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