Color and Decorating Trends for Fall 2008!

Color and Decorating Trends for Fall 2008!
By Jennie Norris, ASPM®, IAHSP®, Owner, We Stage Sacramento

Color trends for fall are in one word: BOLD!

The color palettes for paint companies will continue to be in the bold family lines of warm tones, with hints of homage to the past for those young enough to recall the pea-greens and mustard golds of the 50’s and 60’s. With colors like periwinkle, navy, and chartreuse back on the color spectrum of acceptability, we should see some interesting combinations in homes. Throw in some rusty reds, fuchsia, lime green, plum and navy, and you have the “new” color palette being touted by groups such as ColorMix 08 found at Sherwin Williams. Not all palettes are bold, you can also enjoy a wonderful soothing palette of colors that have a peachy hint of a base color to warm them up.

The difference with today’s houses and painted walls are the furniture pieces that sit in the rooms that we find are mostly in the dark tones with classic clean lines. Framed art is also a way to create a new look and the wood frames have replaced the faux gilded frames from the past with a fresh and clean look that sits well on any wall color.

For guidance on what color to paint walls, take inspiration from your art. If you have a fabulous key piece that you really like, select a color from the piece of art, and use that as the background color or inspiration accent color for your room. If you are not confident putting bold colors on walls, you don’t have to paint the wall that color, but how about placing some lovely accent pillows in the accent tone on your sofa or chair? Or add an urn or other decorative object in that color. Add a thick faux mink throw draped over the arm of a sofa or chair, and your look says, “Come and sit – enjoy!”

You can also take inspiration from nature or a journey you have taken to another country where the culture of color inspires you! Get inspired by the costumes, the food palette, and buildings.

When looking at nature, notice how blues and greens blend together, and a pop of color such as yellow, red, purple, or pink give a special touch and draw the eye, much like a blossom of a flowering shrub captures your attention.

If you are looking to achieve a fresh look for your “tired” interior, consider the services of a Home Staging professional that can apply their “Staging to Live” techniques in your home. Unlike designers or decorators that will try to sell you on expensive new furnishings (as they typically make their profit on the margin of wholesale to retail cost), an ASP Stager will use what you have, apply a fresh set of skilled eyes to your room, and refresh your interior with their creativity.

For more information on how to take your home from frumpy to fabulous while sticking to your budget, give us a call! We’d be happy to provide an in-home Staging to Live Plan where you can do the work or we can help you transform you home, passing along our discounts and savings to you.

Call We Stage Sacramento at 888-WE-STAGE or (916)768-1662 http://www.westagesacramento.com/

Here are some tips from pros on the Color Trends for 2008-2009*:

Purple - in fashion and home, purple is the front runner of color.
Yellow - Yellow is the new orange! Orange will still remain with a presence, but not quite as hot as yellow.
Blues - varying shades from soft spa blues to robin’s egg blues to deep sea blues. Many nature inspired blues.
Greens - with all of the buzz about the environment, natural greens are making their way into the home
Browns -look great with other hot colors, especially the softer colors where black would be too harsh.

Home Accessory Trends - These trends allow you to maintain a conservative color base (neutral floors and walls) while playing with punches of color. These accessories can be replaced annually giving you a complete new look without a huge investment.

• Bright colors - yellows, deep spicy reds, deep sea blues


• Bold stripes - mainly thin multi stripes


• Large scale patterns - big bright oversized florals, animal prints are still hanging around


• Metallics - are still here contrary to previous forecasts. Perhaps the addition of pearl finishes and continued success of mirrored finishes are helping the metallic finishes stay around. Metal finishes are leaning more towards patina finishes rather than bright, shiny finishes.

Kitchen Trends

• Wall colors - either soft colors to compliment any cabinet color whether it be stained light finishes or dark finishes or painted color or bright bold colors to add life and punch to your kitchen walls.


• Backsplashes - adding a backsplash can give you an updated and stylish face lift to your kitchen


• Cabinets - New multilayered finishes are taking center stage with painted finishes, distressing, glazes and rub through finish techniques.

Tile Trends

• Metals - copper and stainless tiles compliment appliances, countertops in traditional and contemporary kitchens and baths.


• Glass - glass accents from mosaics, to single accents, to full walls and backsplashes in glass tiles


• Faux hardwood tiles - these tiles are great for rooms with a lot of water and moisture where hardwood might not be the most practical choice.


• Window frames - a new trend is to remove a pictures window casing and replace with tile.

*Source: 2008 Color Trends February 28, 2008 – Floor Talk Online

Color Speaks - What Does Your House Say?

Color. It is part of our everyday life. We have color all around us and every color elicits an emotional and physical response. We are usually not even conscious of our body or mind going through the physiological process, but it happens. For example, in the world of color physiology, red is associated with blood and energy (or heat) and emotions that stir the blood such as anger or excitement.

There are entire industries devoted to the use of color and how to apply it to elicit desired responses or behaviors from consumers.

Consider this: Do you remember the old style Denny’s restaurants? Why were the booth colors orange and pink? Those colors were specifically selected so customers would not linger because orange and pink are stimulating colors that keep us unsettled. Their reasoning worked. Think about other restaurants where you have been that want you to stay a while – their color scheme was most likely soft, neutral, with calming colors of blue, green, greys, and soft purples, and dim lighting. Black and white are considered at the opposite ends of the color spectrum – with some schools of thought stating that they are not even colors. Black weighs down a space and white lifts it up – so together they help create an emotional anchor and should be used with accessories or art – a little splash here and there – to balance a room.

The art of “reading colors” has been a part of beauty and fashion for years – with certain colors making us look and feel younger and energetic and wrong colors literally making our complexion look sallow and eyes dull. When we wear certain colors, we actually feel happier and more uplifted, and the opposite is true when we wear other colors. When we paint our houses, we are dressing them up for show as well. How can we tell what colors work best? This article should help give you guidance whether you are selling it or living in it.

Here is a list of topics covered in this article:

▪Colors in our lives and our houses
▪Physiology of Color
▪Accent Walls – friend or foe?
▪Best Colors solutions for Selling
▪Embrace versus Replace
▪Contrast Colors to the Rescue
▪Where to get Help
▪Color Trends for 2008


Color is an integral part of our homes.

Just like we dress ourselves, we dress our house with colors used in accessories, artwork, and on walls. You may recall the avocado greens and gold colors found in houses in the 1950’s. Or how about tie-dye, and houses with olive green, orange, or dark brown shag carpets common in the 1960’s -70’s. The 1980’s seemed to be all about pastels and southwest color schemes. The 1990’s saw some shifting towards the use of color, but there was also an “all-white” movement afoot in homes. We did not see the full impact of using color in homes until the new millennium. It was almost as if with the turn of the century, homeowners left their fear box of white and enter the euphoric world of colored walls. Some of these people have really embraced the interior color world, while others remained more conservative – placing color on accent walls for punch and impact, while keeping the main walls a neutral.

We know the psychological impact of color can be found in nature.

Think about how you feel when you look at the water or sky, or sit under a tree. Blue and Green are relaxing. Cooler tones tend to be more relaxing, and Warmer tones tend to be more stimulating. So are some shades of purple such as lavender and periwinkle. If you want to relax in your bedroom, it’s probably a good idea not to paint it Red. On the other hand, if you have a room where you want constant activity, feel free to paint it Orange, Red, or Yellow – but just be sure you really like those colors because when they go on a wall they can really dominate!

Accent Walls – Friend or Foe?

If you are not quite ready to commit to an entire room re-do, consider an accent wall. Accent walls in red and burgundy are very common in dining rooms and kitchens. We are less likely to see this color in a bedroom or bathroom, but accent walls with a deeper tone of a soothing color behind a bed where a headboard is placed or a large piece of art makes a nice frame for the focal point of the bedroom. Experts share that we should never paint an outer wall as an accent wall.

What colors are best for the interior of a house?

Painting each room in a house a different color chops up the flow and actually is a detraction emotionally and visually. It’s better to use one color or tones of the same color family to flow through each room as a common thread, and then punch up color in various rooms with accent walls, or accessories and art. Dark colors close a room in and make it feel smaller – literally eliminating visual square footage because of the emotional response. It is never a good idea to paint a ceiling a dark color unless it is vaulted or higher than the standard 8-9 feet. Children’s rooms may have creative murals, fun colors and themes. Just keep in mind colors impact children more than adults – so keep the bright, stimulating colors off the walls unless you want Johnny and Susie up all night. If you want to have some fun, use accessories, props, and artwork to add the color but keep the background in a calming color or warm neutral.

These photos illustrate the difference strong colors versus warm neutral with accent colors in the accessories can do for presenting a room in a house that is for sale.

Warm Neutrals should be used as a background for the rooms in the house. White is called “the color of fear” with paint – meaning it is the sign of someone that does not know what to do – so does nothing. It seems clean and fresh, but really it’s boring. Houses exist with all white walls but they are usually ones with black and white decorating schemes, which is not practical for the everyday homeowner. White is great when used as an accent for moulding, trims, and cabinetry. On walls, even if you are not brave of heart to paint a wall orange, go for a nice tan color – or a soft gold or taupe. The walls come alive!

What if you are selling a house and you have bright colors on your walls? Colors speak to buyers. They say “Buy Me” or “When you buy me, before you move in you will have a lot of work to do.” If a buyer likes the color painted on a wall, great but to take that chance and eliminate an entire pool of buyers over a too-bright or odd color on the wall, does not make sense. In a market where there are a lot of houses for sale, making sure that a house is move-in ready is essential. Some sellers will argue that a buyer will usually paint the walls anyway, but painting a neutral wall is easy. Having to prime (possibly with multiple coats of paint) and then paint is a lot more work.

The best solution for selling is to paint out all the walls with a warm neutral. (Note: Sherwin Williams has a great line of colors and ASP Stagers can get a 40-60% discount on materials for clients.) We recommend sellers paint walls a warm tan, soft gold, or taupe color. Keep in mind that the undertone of the paint needs to blend nicely with cabinetry, carpet and flooring. Picking a color with a grey cast and painting it in a house with yellow or red oak cabinets will result in a mis-match and will not enhance the house. If you are not able to decide which color should be painted, seek the advice of a professional ASP Home Stager. Most ASP Stagers have color wheels and fan decks from professional paint supply stores and can easily help select a color that will be a good background to the features of the house.

“Embrace, not Replace.”

When a client states they will not invest in the painting, what do you do? First, we need to know how motivated this client is to get the results they want. There is a reason they don’t want to paint and it is usually about one of two factors: Cost or Attachment. Painting a whole house can cost a fair amount, but the return on investment more than makes up for it in the sale. There are discounts they can receive when they work with a Stager, and the fresh paint job can actually be marketed as a feature when selling the house. An attachment issue says the seller is not sure they want to move and because they like the color, if they don’t sell they don’t want to have to repaint the walls. They clearly lack the commitment to make necessary changes. The goal is to always work with the Seller to help educate them about why they need to make changes and give them solutions that make sense for them to achieve their sale.

What if the client just refuses to paint the bright walls?

How can you tone it down so that it is not such a shocker for a buyer? The solution is to counter-balance the color by adding accessories that are in the contrasting color. This takes experience to know exactly what to do, but it works! Again, an ASP Stager will know what colors to introduce in the room, and where to place them to help neutralize the impact of a too-bright or outdated color. As an example, a house that has too much blue – flooring or counters – would have gold, soft yellow, and perhaps even orange introduced with accessories, art and furnishings in order to play down the blue, and help a buyer focus on the house and not the blue paint or counters or carpet. The detracting color is still there, but with Staging the house is presented in a way that is appealing and helps a buyer to know how they might be able to deal with the color too.

Lastly, if you are planning a move and have not updated your house in a couple of decades, it’s time to bring your house into the current trends. Painting is a proven investment in a house that brings the highest rate of return.

Colors do speak to us. When we are Staging and selling a house, we want to make sure they are saying, “Come and linger here” and not “Run away!”

Whether you are selling or staying put – the We Stage Sacramento Staging Specialists can help advise you on what colors to select so that your house has the right combination of peace and pizzazz.

Want to know what the decorating color trends are for 2008?

Want to freshen up your house for 2008? Experts say earthtones are on the decline but still provide a great backdrop for most houses. Homeowners that are trend setters for style and decorating will add paint and decorative accessories and furnishings in the tones of soft grey blues, silvery green-blues, earthy greens, silvers and plums, and orchid. Expect to see more green used – as a following of being more earth and eco-friendly, plus green is the color of nature and life. Use of metallics and silver accents are a great touch to an already delightful palette.

We are an approved Sherwin-Williams vendor and receive 40-60% off on materials and supplies! Ask us how we can help YOU save on your painting needs!