Tracking the Trends

This calls for a celebration: No more color police. No more packaged looks from name-brand designers. No more obsession with rooms done entirely in neutral color schemes (that was so '90s). The big news in color trends for 2006 is that color itself - lots of it - is the trend. Bold, saturated colors. And not just for accent walls. You want an entire room done in "Caution" orange? Go right ahead.

"People want bolder, brighter colors now," says Aimee Desrosiers, color forecaster for Andover-based California Paints. Desrosiers belongs to the Color Marketing Group, an organization whose 1,500 members meet twice a year to discuss design trends and color forecasts. "People are choosing personal favorites and doing what they want, rather than what is dictated."

Leatrice Eiseman, executive director of the Pantone Color Institute, which provides color specifications for almost every product made in the United States, attributes this craving for color to developments in technology and electronics. "It started with the colorful iMac computers that people put in their kitchens or bedrooms a few years ago," she says. "Once you start to see bright colors peripherally, you want them everywhere."

Bonnie Rosser Krims, an architectural color consultant based in Carlisle, couldn't agree more. "We're seeing color in everything from silicone potholders to washing machines to desktop items," she says.

As for this year's trends, Desrosiers sees four colors in the forefront. "Purple is on the rise," she says. "It has been around as a supporting color, in a dark aubergine, for example. Now, it is pale thistle or soft violet. And you'll start seeing it used in every room, from a baby's bedroom to a great room to a master suite." She also predicts that red will give way to orange as the new high-chroma choice. "A little orange goes a long way." Greens will be fresher, brighter and splashier, in citrus or jade tones, she says, while the very popular pink will become more muted and peachlike.

Eiseman, however, says that no matter what colors move in and out of the spotlight in any given year, the sure thing is that there will always be color trends. Right now, she says, "it's not about new colors, it's about new ways to put colors together. Today, it is all about palettes." She adds, "The human eye is constantly searching for something unique and new. That's really what trends are all about."

Jill Connors is a freelance writer in Rhode Island. E-mail her at jillconnors@cox.net.