PALETTE OF PRODUCTS
Colorful Ways to Coordinate Your Designs

Pity poor Jonas Rosenthorn of Malmo, Sweden. According to a report published on the website thelocal.se ("The Local: Sweden's News in English"), neighbors in Rosenthorn's apartment building want to fine him for hanging blue curtains inside his apartment. White, they insisted. Happily, designers have many more color choices than that, and in a multitude of product categories.

WALLPAPER
"I think the No. 1 mistake designers make when using wall covering is not using color," declares Nicole Caucina, wallcoverings product manager for UK-based firm Graham & Brown. "With wallpaper, you can use your wallpaper pattern as a color chart to coordinate your entire room."

G&B's best-selling color used to be beige, but the company's new Paste the Wall products, which can be removed in full sheets, allow designers to use "...walls to play with...trendy colors," enthuses Caucino, who notices growing interest in dark and bold hues.

When it comes to deciding where to create the greatest color impact, she suggests two methods. Use coordinating paper on all four walls, with one wall in a bold large-scale print and the other walls in a less dramatic pattern. "Another great way to get a big color impact is to use a pattern that has a small accent of a metallic or bright color and use that accent color to tie the entire room together."

In addition to stressing the need to view wallcovering samples in the light in which they'll be used, Caucino reassures, "Don't shy away from dark or bold colors—they're not as jarring as you might think. They make a defined statement, and after all, isn't that what it's all about?"

Fabrics
What it's all about in fabric color these days is a shift in emphasis from reds to blues, according to Kara Roberts, senior merchandising manager at to-the-trade supplier Jessitt-Gold Interiors. "We are selling all shades of blue, from the soft spa blues to ocean shades of turquoise and teal, to true blues and even navy." But don't write off reds completely. Roberts has seen demand "… shift from spicy tones to more of a raspberry or azalea.

"Black is a color we never used to put on a window but we are seeing many of our black ground prints and solids doing well," she adds. And while "neutrals are always going to be where the volume of our sales are, some of the newer neutrals...like taupe, chocolate and slate..." are increasingly popular. "Color in small doses, such as in a top treatment, can help tie a room together by repeating color from accent pieces in the room without overwhelming the window."

Color can also be introduced to a window via sheers or shades, reminds ADO Product Consultant Rose Bower. "ADO has thrived off the sales of our sheers in the last decades because we offered versatile colors for sheers." At ADO, color is the main driver of sales, she says.

Among neutrals, "beiges, creams, off-whites and khakis are always top-sellers because they can be layered into more colorful treatments or can be used to offset bright colors," explains Bower. "We're also finding that light modern greens and blues are becoming widely accepted as neutral hues."

But in Bower's opinion, the best way to use color when working with soft window treatments is by using embellishments. "Colors don't have to be an exact match...designers can pull colors from trimmings to enrich other colors that may otherwise be hidden in an intricate printed fabric."

Trimmings and Accessories
Whichever trimmings your client chooses, color is likely "to be the driving factor, with style and texture being the next considerations," says Kristin Norville, co-owner and vice president for product development at D'Kei Inc. "Our best-selling colors are golds, browns, reds and greens in warm subtle blends. This has changed over the last several years from brighter color blends with more distinct contrast."

Norville believes that the best way to apply color via passementerie depends upon the goal. "Either the fabric color is the most dominant...with the trimmings softly complementing, or the color can contrast with the fabric" for greater drama.

Decorative trim in a contrasting color is the best way to inject color into window treatments, says Frank Wyatt, president of 3W Quilting and Laminating, a company that fabricates soft treatments for windows and beds. He observes requests for trims increasing. That's especially true for bouillon trims, which Wyatt sees used on both beds and windows. "On window coverings you can add trim to valances as well as to side drapes," he points out.

What color are those drapes likely to be? "We see more solids than prints," Wyatt observes. "Tone-on-tone neutrals are big right now," surpassing the pastels that designers used to specify. Although, "if it's children's rooms, the colors are brighter," with colors like lime green and shocking pink.

Janet Cass is an editor and freelance writer whose favorite colors are soft pink and forest green.