Meet New Bohemia featuring Voice of Color Green Wave – a fresh aqua –  on the walls.  We shopped Anthropologie to find the fanciful teal, red and orange curtains, braided yarn bench and paisley reef rug to give us the bohemian, eclectic style we were looking for. PPG Pittsburgh Paints Hatbox Brown on the bookcase, and Purity on the trim pull together the eclectic mix of patterns, textures and colors in our newest trend, New Bohemia.  This trend is all about whimsy and a rebirth of craft, romantic, imaginative and poetic.  Check out the fireplace tile: Whimsical Forest Creatures, Trikeenan Tile Works, available at Ceramiche Tile & Stone, Pittsburgh PA. Choose fabrics with fauna, peacocks, sparrows, hand-painted canvases, yarn, macramé, and hand-stitched pillows.  The pillows in this photo were purchased from Hot Haute Hot, The Strip in Pittsburgh, PA.

Paul has a wealth of knowledge from years of experience in the paint industry across several areas including product development, product testing, sales, field application and acceptance, and training.  He has great ability to share his insights in a way that relates to everyday common uses and practices.

If you’ve been thinking how you might successfully complete that next paint project or what types of primers, paints and tools are best or even is it too early to start thinking about painting outside, then tune into the program on Saturday, February 12 at 11:30 am ET at Lifestyle Talk Radio!

Simmering with aromas, conversation and activity, the kitchen—or cocina—was the most inviting room in Mexican haciendas of days gone by.  The colonial hacienda and convent kitchens—often sites of meal preparation for 100s of people, were spacious, well-stocked and laden with cherished & well-worn implements.

Though the long hours spent grinding, chopping and rolling food ingredients are a fast-fading feature of Mexican kitchen life, the simple furnishings, colors, glazed tiles and old culinary implements remain popular in today’s hacienda style kitchens.  Homeowners are combining these old world elements with highly functional polished-concrete surfaces, modern fixtures and appliances.  Favored paint colors include creamy whites and warm, golden yellows, with rich blues or rusty reds as popular accent hues—for nichos, stove hoods or for use as door/window surrounds.Contemporary smooth concrete surfaces are paired with long, arcaded countertops and islands fronted with lustrous Talavera tile. Most often, tile styles are mixed for a modern display of color and pattern. Colored concrete tiles, widely used throughout colonial Mexican homes, are favored for flooring. Stove Hoods, inspired by the old colonial kitchen hoods, these dramatic, sculptural hoods are plastered and painted in rich, saturated colors—usually blue, yellow or red. Most often, the wall and stove hood colors are coordinated with tile colors. Stencil work also adds additional interest—used around doors/windows, counter fronts or stove hoods. Solid simplicity and furnishings have a pared-down beauty.

Key hacienda kitchen elements include rustic wooden prep tables & chairs, handcrafted pottery, stone culinary implements, hanging shelves and colorful trasteros (open cupboards) and space-saving alacenas (built in wall cabinets). Repisas (hanging shelves) are hung on colorful walls and old morteros once used for grinding coffee are pressed into service as containers for fruit or other implements. As the evolution of the Mexican kitchen picks up steam, authentic colors and hacienda elements continue to add perpetual appeal to newly built kitchens. Many of the old stencil patterns are now available through haciendastyle.com

“The mood today is one of triumph over adversity,” says Dee Schlotter, Brand Manager, The Voice of Color, PPG Pittsburgh Paints. “Despite the challenges that Americans have faced recently, our need to succeed prevails. It’s a triumph of the individual and of personal expression, and there’s no better way to express yourself than with the trans-formative power of color in your home.”

Two societal trends are driving these trends in color, says Schlotter. The first is a new level of consumer sophistication as design becomes democratized, aided by people’s ever-increasing ability to decipher and disseminate information in real-time.The second is the quest for authenticity in a world where knock-offs are pervasive and instantaneous.

“The home is becoming a lab for new technologies and new looks,” says Schlotter. “We keep what works, and start over when it doesn’t. But always, the search is on for what’s real and honest.”

Because a trend is never about just one color but rather about all the colors in a room or space, Schlotter notes, The Voice of Color creates signature five-color card that expresses the mood of each new palette and offers colors for paint, fabrics, flooring and accessories.

QUESTION:

We’re doing flooring and paint for an addition for a company here.  One of the rooms is a training room and they are wondering what would be the best wall color for that situation.  The floors are going to be vinyl tiles in and oyster white with some forest green and gold scattered in (their company colors).  Is there a color you would recommend for a learning situation that might coordinate with that floor?

ANSWER:

A really good color for training is a soft yellow, which sounds like, well chosen, can actually work with the gold in the flooring. I recommend something light but not too clean, something not too dark or deep as it might put people to sleep. Nothing like PonyTail, perhaps the value that is one or two above that particular color value. There are some nice colors in the new Atmospheric deck that are light and not so ‘clean’ that would work well. Something like Soleil ATC 23 is very nice for learning, soft and yet happy.  Also here are some others:

214-1 Satin Weave

111-2 Blonde Beauty

115-1 Combed Cotton

115-2 Soft Cream

114-1 Lotus Flower

114-2 Silk Sails

213-1 Candlewick

213-2 Crescent Moon

113-1 Moonshine

212.1 Cake Batter

212-2 Golden Fleece

112-1 Capri Cream

211-1 Clear Yellow

211-2 Bright Laughter

111-1 Sail Cloth

111-2 Blonde Beauty

111-3 Butter

What all of these have in common is a softness and a subtlety, what that will do is allow the space to emit an energy of mental clarity but not over-do it and make folks cranky because too much or too saturated a yellow will tend to over-stimulate our senses.  Yellow is a challenging color to get right, it’s the happiest color but too much or if we are in a space with yellow for too long, it’s just like being around a ‘way-too-happy’ cheerleader…we’ve all been there, it just makes us cranky.

Especially if this is in a Northern-facing environment, with windows receiving the grey-er northern light, it will be important to have yellow as the undertone for the paint.  With learning, it is also very important to have windows, natural light, sun-tubes to allow natural day-light harvesting, or at the very least, artwork that replicates the ‘long-view’ to allow our bodies the opportunity to visualize and see further into possibilities and not get overly grounded or hyper-focused on details and miss the bigger picture.

Through out times, Pink has been in and out of favor in the general cultural aesthetic, but in recent history, pink rose in prominence in the 1950’s along with the after war feelings of liberation. It became the ‘’IT’’ color, when Elsa Schiaparelli, cutting-edge fashion designer of the time, trademarked the since famous ‘’shocking pink’’ . Women were smitten with pink and it’s popularity took over their homes. It seems that, with a decade into the new millennium, the passion for pink has been rekindled. A star for the fashionistas, the favorite of many interior designers when looking for a touch of cheerful , Pink is joy. Pink is nice. Pink makes you feel good. It seems to be the perfect antidote to our multitasking, busy crazy life… But not all pinks are the same, there is a quintessential sweetness to pale pink that prompts in us the feelings of innocence and tenderness and makes you immediately think of a little baby girl bedroom.

But if you go for a little less white and a bit more red, you are in for a jolt of passion and find yourself on the wild side of Pink. Hot Pink is definitely sexy, bringing in excitement with a feminine flair when declined in Fuchsia and Magenta.

As neutrals are continually redefined, we find pale palettes enhanced with striking accents and complements. This is a cosmopolitan collection, the perfect blend for a social environment, especially for living or dining rooms.