Color Buzz

Artichoke Colors

By Michèle Coppin

The Artichoke - of delicate heart erect
in its battle-dress builds - it's minimal cupola;
keeps stark - in its scallops of scales
...
So you have it - a vegetable, armed - a profession (call it an artichoke)
whose end is millennial
we taste of that sweetness - dismembering scale after scale
we eat of a halcyon paste
It is green at the artichoke heart.
(excerpt from “Ode to an Artichoke,” by Pablo Neruda)

The glorious artichoke is the large unopened flower bud of a plant belonging to the thistle family. It originated from Southern Europe, around the Mediterranean, and there is evidence of artichokes being cultivated in Naples in the ninth century.

Castroville, California is the artichoke capital of the U.S. In 1948, it crowned its first artichoke queen, a little known starlet named Marilyn Monroe.  In her honor, the Norma Jean cocktail was created, containing Cynar (the bitter artichoke liqueur), gin, lemon juice, sugar, crushed ice and mint leaves, a delicious and refreshing sundowner.

Low in calories and nutrient rich, artichokes are an excellent source of fiber and vitamin C, and also rich in foliate, magnesium and antioxidants. My favorite artichoke recipe is simply boiled with a little lemon juice. The leaves are removed one by one and dipped in hollandaise sauce, vinaigrette, melted butter or more lemon juice. The heart is eaten after removing the inedible hairy choke.

The beauty of this long process is that you can admire the vegetable at each stage of undress, like an interactive kinetic art piece. The artful artichoke transforms with each step, from its coarse outer purple leaves lined with silver, to tender moss green leaves edged with delicate pink, each one unique and delicious.

Indeed, the colors of the artichoke span many tones and shades of green, purples and pinks that blend together naturally and can be a great source of inspiration.

                                  
 Lyndhurst Castle Sand 5008-1C       Lyndhurst Celadon Green 5004-1B
                       
                                 
                                   Pale Orchid 1003-6C

Wedding Colors Part II

By Michèle Coppin

In Monday’s post I explored the role that color played in weddings throughout the ages. As I mentioned, in the last few years, colors for weddings tended to lean towards soft shades of pinks, greens and lilacs. Although soft pastel color schemes are always in fashion, experts agree that bright, bold colors and even exotic combinations are the new trend.

Here are the hottest wedding colors for 2009:

Red and Orange: vibrant, fun and exotic.

Red and Pink: exiting combination mixing romance and passion.

Red and Yellow: Modern and hip

Orange: Elegant and radiant with shades of peach and ivory.

[Courtesy of Kim Fuller Photography]

Yellow and Turquoise: Summery and tropical.

 
Green and Yellow: Fresh and young.

Green and Lavender: Soft and sensual



Brown and Pink: Elegant and sensual  - one of 2009's hottest combinations.



I also questioned wedding photographer Kim Fuller for some additional insight. She noted:
 
"Purple is in! The jewel tones seem to be back in fashion this year for bridesmaid dresses. It makes for great photos, especially when you add a bold-colored flower to really make the color pop. Brown and pewter are still popular for the Fall, with a touch of orange or pink as an accent.  Both color palettes go well with most skin types, which is nice."



For more photos and ideas, please check out Kim Fuller Photography’s website.

Design Dilemma: Jason's House

Hi there!

I am in desperate need of help with the color selection for my hallway and kitchen. I have an open floor plan where my dining room and kitchen are both open and the hallway comes between both rooms. I just think that my current color selection doesn't quite go together.

Right now my dining room is painted with Hopsack.                                
                                 
                                   Hopsack 3003-10B

The powder room has stripes that my wife and I painted by masking off the green base and sponging on a silvery metallic.

      

Also coming off the main hallway are two bedrooms. One is painted with River Mist and the other is painted with Ralph Lauren Chaps Sandstone BRS-31, which is a medium dark brown.

                                      
                                        River Mist 5003-9A

The kitchen, which falls at the end of the hallway, is painted with Woodlawn Silver Brook and my dining room is painted with Hopsack.

    

                         
  Woodlawn Silver Brook 5001-1B          Hopsack 3003-10B

The hallway, which links each of these rooms together, is painted with Dutch Boy's Mackinac Island with white trim throughout. It just seems like the green in my hall doesn't go well with my other colors.

I was wondering if you could help me determine what colors I should paint my hallway and kitchen. My wife and I like contemporary colors but we tend to choose more browns than anything. Also, we don't want any of the colors to be too loud in case we decide to sell the house someday.

Any advice you could give me would be appreciated. Thanks!

Jason

Color of the Week - Swiss Chocolate

Swiss Chocolate is one of Valspar's darkest and most sophisticated browns. This very deep color is versatile and can be paired with light pastels, neutrals or bright colors, such as Martha Stewart Chamois Cloth. It would function beautifully as the upper or lower portion of a chair railed wall. Also try this sultry color in a living room or den for a warm and relaxing space.
                                             
                                       Swiss Chocolate 3010-10 

              

Dark Chocolate

By Megan Leblond

                                               

I am a dark chocolate lover and find myself equally drawn to Valspar's Swiss Chocolate color and Labrador color. The sumptuousness of these deep, rich colors is inviting and soothing. 

                                
             Swiss Chocolate 3010-10                Labrador 3009-9

I am also in love with the color, Mona's Mane, a rich caramel/almond color that shares the versatility of the dark browns. If you’re a nature lover, I recommend pairing any of these browns with River Mist or Limonata to create an earthy space.

                  
      Mona's Mane 3002-9A      River Mist 5003-9A         Limonata 6002-5B

You can also create a gentle elegance with Lavender Mist.

                             
                Lavender Mist 4001-7B


 

Delicious Together: Chocolate and Mint

By Michèle Coppin

Green and brown, one of my favorite color combinations, is also one of my favorite flavor combinations—chocolate and mint.

                               

I remember my first lick of Baskin Robbins chocolate chip mint ice cream. I was 7-years-old and in sensory overload. It tasted like heaven!

                     

Now that my palate has matured, I have since switched to a more refined version of chocolate and mint: After Eights! After Eight mints are 1 ½  square-inches of dark chocolate with a peppermint fondant center. Each chocolate is wrapped in a small, square, brown envelope with gold writing, encased in a long slender green box. They are delicious, elegant and sophisticated and like the advertisements proclaim, “After Eight mints make each evening an occasion.” I couldn’t agree more!

                    

Not only do I love the taste of chocolate and mint combined, I love the succulent color combination. The warm comforting brown hue of the chocolate is perfectly balanced by the cool fresh green surprise of the mint—yum!

                                
           Caramelized Onion 2008-9B            Mino's Eye 6003-9B

What are some of your favorite dessert-inspired color combinations?

Chocolate Passion

Chocolate is one of my all time passions.  I absolutely crave it at least once a day so coming up with one particular chocolate color was really hard.  There are so many of them; it's like opening up a sampler and looking at all those luscious browns.  Working with brown is very easy.  It's a gorgeous backdrop for most other colors.  My dining room is brown with a creamy white trim.  It's elegant, but still very soothing.   Cafe Miel 2008-7C is the chocolate I ended up wanting to take a bite out of.   It's a creamy, toasty medium brown.   You can take this color in so many directions.  Try it with a warm pink like Sweet Sixteen 1006-2A or with a gray like Modest Silver 4002-1A.  You can use Cafe Miel on all four walls, or pick just one as an accent.  It would also make a nice color on a ceiling because of its warm nature.  Whenever working with chocolate, remember: have fun!  It's a delicious color.... Let us know what your favorite flavor is...

                    
     Cafe Miel 2008-7C         Sweet Sixteen 1006-2A     Modest Silver 4002-1A

Bubbling Over in Winnipeg

We like to start all of our projects with a conversation with our client, and the Valspar Ultimate Match Makeover project was no exception. Last year’s winner, Krislyn, was great to work with, and we began by discussing her living room’s renovation, focusing on the room’s function. Her living room also doubled as her son’s playroom, so we wanted to create two areas of the room: one for Eden and his toys, and one for grown-ups and visiting with friends.

 

It was important to make sure the room had a unifying theme while still identifying the separate parts of the room. Krislyn really wanted something fun and lively, so we had an idea of using giant circles or bubbles in different ways to achieve different effects. We once painted large circles in a client’s entry - they made the space very playful. For the adult side of the room, we wanted to created columns of circles which would give a calming sense. I suggested this sketch which she liked.

                 


Krislyn and Phillip’s house is beautiful and located alongside a winding river. We were also able to meet  Krislyn’s adorable son, Eden. He was very excited about bubbles, as you can tell.

We started by looking at colors. Winnepeg is cold and frozen most of the year, so we thought bringing some green in would lift the spirits. We created a color wash  using blending Leaf Bud 6005-5B and Plum Passion 6007-5B. After we painted the room a soft warm green, we started cutting stencils.

                              


We began by painting larger circles on the walls. We painted these in a soft color to give an ethereal effect.

Krislyn really liked the warm colors, and we were able to incorporate these colors by using them with the smaller stencils, giving the room some “pop.” We used Terra Cotta Red 2004-3A, Caramel Honey 3003-3B and La Fonda Antique Red 2002-5A on the small circles and a cooler blue, Dewdrop 4006-7A, on the mid-size bubbles.

 

Above the fireplace, we added Venetian Plaster in a deep charcoal brown that matched the existing mantle. This gave definition to the fireplace and anchored the room. Krislyn and Phillip were so wonderful to us, and we were very fortunate to have gotten to know them. They were a pleasure to work with and they seemed quite pleased with the final outcome. What do you think?

        

        

Color of the Week - High Noon

Last week’s color of the week was High Noon. In rushing to get ready for the holidays, it can be refreshing to see a cool soft blue. Try this in a bedroom to calm and sooth you at the end of a hectic day. Try adding some warmth with accents of browns and rusts, like Chocolate Cherry 2003-7A and Crimson Glow. For light accent colors, try Barcelona White and Dreamy Clouds.

                                 
                                      High Noon 5001-5B
               
           Chocolate Cherry 2003-7A         Crimson Glow 2011-5
                 
            Barcelona White 7003-14         Dreamy Clouds 5002-5B

Mexican Colors

By Michèle Coppin

When temperatures drop and frost moves in, when nature pales and the days shorten, I turn to Mexico.



I long for sun and color, for chilies, for songs with "Corazon" in every sentence, straw hats, Sangria and little towns where the cobblestone streets are lined with abstract paintings—palettes of vivid colors—that echo like poems.

 

Colors in Mexico are so site-specific; they reflect orange sunlight, acid blue skies, red hot peppers, the sound of bullfights, turquoise stones, green taxis, silver mines, purple shawls, black hair, golden mangoes, pink watermelons and brown earth. These vibrant colors have inspired many artists who have paintings tucked away in museums and private collections. My favorites, however, are the true Mexican muralists—the home owners simply embellishing their walls and doors for all to admire!



If you are like me and crave spice in your life, these wild, and sometimes unusual, color schemes are right at your finger tips - just go to Valspar's Globe Trotting Color Trends where you can create your own ethnically saturated and spicy color combinations.



By using the simple technique of color washing, you can create that beautiful, worn, old look on your walls. The visible, overlapping brush strokes resemble weathered stucco. This is ideal for imperfect walls, as the subtle textured finish helps hide imperfections. It works particularly well with brighter colors like yellows, oranges and reds.

After painting your base coat, simply apply a bright golden glaze in random crossing patterns like overlapping X's. For a wall that glows, work lightly allowing the base coat to show through.