I look once again today to the color pioneers at Pantone to get a sneak peek of what this year will have to offer in the way of homes and interiors.  According to Pantone View home and interiors 2013, there are 9 exciting colour schemes that we can expect to see coming into our homes this year.  Let’s take a look…

Connossieur

This palette brings a fresh, up to date edge to old world elegance.  A selection of soft, pastel colours like Pink Nectar and Beechnut Green mingle with warmer hues of Liquid Pink and Deep Mahogany to bring this balanced look together.  Offset against a neutral backdrop of Champagne Beige, this sophisticated palette is sure to be a popular choice.

Glamour

This palette draws on the glamourous era of Art Deco.  It’s mixture of bold tones like Rio Red and Monaco Blue, with the sparkle of Silver and Moon Mist make this an exciting palette that you can really have fun with.  Choose a neutral base and add accents of striking colour, or be daring with a leading shade like Jasper Teal to make a real statement in your home.

New Old School

With a combination of colours often found in banners and flags, this palette even has touch of the collegiate about it.  This preppy look would be ideal for quirky living rooms or an interesting study with fun shades like Ribbon Red and Nautical Blue.  Microchip Grey and Gargoyle will provide a solid, grounded base.

Rugged Individuals

Inspired by cowboy culture, this comforting palette combines Vintage Indigo, Stonewash and Raw Sienna.  This look would blend perfectly with weathered woods and polished leather for a lived in, welcoming home.

Extracts

This palette draws on the culinary to bring together spicy and fresh shades.  The result… a delicious mixture of Apple Cinnamon and Spiced Coral, with somewhat unexpected accents of Green Banana.  Perhaps the perfect look for the kitchen this year!

Footprints

This vibrant palette has a wonderful tribal feel with revitalising blends of Peacock Blue and Pink Flambe.  Last year’s hailed colour of the year Tangerine Tango also makes an appearance in this energising colour scheme.  A look that is sure to awaken the senses!

Sojourn

There’s an almost magical quality to this palette.  The earthy tones of Cobblestone and Shitake are given and unexpected and welcome lift with Foxglove, a delightful and luxurious hue.  This is my personal favourite for an enchanting and inviting living room.

Surface Treatments

From earth to sea now, this calming range of colours evoke images of the ocean with vibrant Maui Blue.  The addition of Tornado Grey gives the look a turbulent quality, a refreshing change to the usual blue-green combinations of marine inspired looks.

Out of the Ordinary

As the name suggests, this palette brings together a range of unexpected and exciting colours.  A touch of the carnival is created with Golden Rod and Bright Violet.  This colour range could give a home great personality, and a wonderful whimsical feel.

So 2013 is shaping up to be an exciting year of unexpected colour combinations and looks that can really show off your personality.  Bear these colour schemes in mind the next time your looking to redecorate.  Remember, if you already have neutral decor, you could create any one of these looks easily with a set of new loose furniture covers or curtains and a few new accessories to add those exciting pops of colour! 

Which look will you be choosing this year?

To kick start the year I’m exploring the potential of Pantone’s 2013 Colour of the Year.  The global authority on colour announced last month that they would be waving farewell to the fiery enegy of Tangerine Tango and embracing Emerald as their colour of choice for 2013.

Formally known as Pantone 17-5641, this vivid green is said to “enhance our sense of well-being by inspiring insight and promoting  balance and harmony”, according to Leatrice Eiseman, executive director of the Pantone Color Institute.  Emerald green has long been symbolic of new life and regeneration in many cultures around the world, so what better colour to help bring new life to your home interiors!

Like the gemstones themselves, Emerald is a beautiful, luxurious hue.  You can really bring a sense of sophistication and a splash of fun to your living room with an Emerald inspired feature wall.  Keep furniture covers neutral so as not to overpower your room.  Whites and charcoal greys complement the look beautifully.

Image Sourced from Elle Decor

For a more subtle update,  you can choose Emerald accessories against a white backdrop.  This will give your new finds real stand out! Frames, mirrors, clocks, cushions and throws are just some of the items you can use to bring this on trend colour into your home.

Image sourced from Rachellabelle Interiors

However you decide to embrace the 2013 Colour of the Year, may it live up to its symbolism and bring you a sense of well being and prosperity throughout the year and beyond!

Now is the perfect time of year to embrace your dark side, and what better way than exploring the dramatic impact that Gothic Interior Design can have on your home.  Traditionally an architectural style dating back to the 12^th Century, Gothic design was all about high pointed arches, stained glass windows and rich, dark woods.  Today, Modern Gothic has been making a come back, creating dramatic and awe-inspiring interiors in the home.

Gothic Colour Palettes

As with all design trends there are no hard and fast rules, and Gothic design can be interpreted in a number of different ways, starting with the overall colour palette.  Rich, jewel-like tones work well for creating a dramatic, sumptuous atmosphere; a look I find particularly effective for bathrooms.

Image sourced from Victorian Plumbing

Although dark colours are essential to the Gothic trend, they don’t always have to be overpowering.  See how black and white work together with metallic notes here to create this dramatic yet minimalist Gothic dining room.

Image sourced from Interior Holic

Gothic Furnishings

Modern Gothic Interior Design is all about extravagance and drama, so choose your furnishings accordingly.  Large, exaggerated furniture and luxurious fabrics are perfect for this style.  Velvet and chenille fabrics can be used for the darker more sumptuous Gothic styles.  Or choose soft sheer material for a more ghostly, nostalgic feel.

Chair Re-upholstered in Chelsea Velvet - Eggplant.

Gothic Accessories

With naturally darker palettes you may need to find other ways to bring light to your Gothic themed rooms. With extravagance in mind why not opt for a large ornate mirror to reflect the light around.  Alternatively, choose elaborate lighting where possible; chandeliers are ideal for this trend.  Finally, candles are a must for producing an atmospheric glow in your Gothic room; choose tall candles so the wax can run down in eerie patterns!

Mirror available from Dunelm Mill. Chandelier available from Debenhams.

PLUMBS ON TREND!

Here’s our take on the Gothic trends: Rich – jewel like tones, elaborate accessories, dramatic lighting and luxurious fabrics!

Sofa Re-upholstered in Italian Stripe - Aubergine/Green.

We all love to bring a little of the outdoors into our homes, which is why floral designs have long been popular in soft furnishings and interior design.  With each passing year the world’s designers bring us fresh new takes on the floral trend, with recent years focussing on big, bold and beautiful flowers!

This year however, more and more often I am seeing simple, leaf designs.  Top names, such as Sanderson are looking at the cleaner lines of leaves to create simple yet striking designs for the home.  So with Autumn just around the corner, and the beauty of leaves taking precedence this season, what better time to celebrate the wonderful possibilities of foliage in your home…

The simplicity of the leaf alongside the stark contrast of colour gives this design a modern, abstract feel.  Inspired by the paintings of Henri Matisse, Sanderson have created an exciting design, perfect for a feature wall in the home.

The botanical approach is also increasing popular this year, with the fresh green and white palette being an ideal choice for kitchens, conservatories and garden rooms.

You can choose a warmer colour scheme for a more autumnal feel.  Remember, as with floral designs, you can mix and match your leaf patterns to cement your theme.

PLUMBS ON TREND!

Discover our own collection of Autumn inspired fabric designs.  I love these different takes on the leaf design – which is your favourite?

Deciding how to approach your walls when you come to decorate a new room can be a difficult task. Do you paint, wallpaper or do a little bit of each? And now there’s a new option to consider! Introducing the latest trend in home décor: Vinyl Stickers! Yes, stickers for your walls!

Being cheaper and a lot easier to apply than wallpaper, many more people are opting to show off a bit of their personalities with a carefully chosen sticker. They take minutes to apply and should peel off easily when you next want a change!

These are also a great talking point, as I found out after applying one to my hallway. Everyone who comes loves the idea and it certainly sets the mood for the rest of the house! They can be used to create so many different effects. Which style would you choose?

Contemporary

Vinyl Wall Stickers are a great way of bringing your home up to date with a modern feel. This skyline silhouette is ideal for chic city living!

Quirky

There are lots of stickers out there that can be used to make real every-day objects a feature in themselves! I love this coat stand idea to give a fun an interesting place to hang your coats!

Personal

For a more personal approach you could choose a famous saying that is special to you or an inspirational quote that will give you a boost every time you read it!

Natural

Wall Stickers don’t have to be bold and attention grabbing. A more subtle effect can be created by choosing a sticker of a similar shade or colour to your wall. Trees and leaves are popular choices for a sophisticated look.

Colourful

Alternatively use wall stickers to bring pops of colour to your home. Remember they can be easily peeled off so why not be radical and choose a design that’s bursting with colour!

With the children and grandchildren getting ready for back to school, now is a great time of year to rethink your study or home library. It may all be about electronic books today but for me you can’t beat the look, smell and general ambiance created by shelves full of books! There are many different ways we can incorporate home libraries into the style and design of our homes, so here’s just a few of my top 5 favourites…

If you like to be organised, arrange your books in colour order to keep things looking neat and tidy. These vibrant book spines look great against the dark wood of the shelves giving this a modern and fun feel.

For something a little more traditional you could choose rustic, earthy colours of browns and muted green. The ladder adds a little rustic charm here, and the globe gives the room a studious feel.

The perfect place to hideaway with a good book, this mezzanine home library is great for utilising space and adding a pretty feature to this home. The natural lighting from the skylight window will make for excellent reading!

This certainly is a unique design, and yet another great use of space. To me this feels like a secret archive where you can store all your favourite books!

I love nothing more than curling up with a good book and what a cosy place to do it! Combining a comfy chair with effective lighting you can create a snug home library to sit and relax.

What’s your Home Library style?

With gold on the nation’s mind this summer, spare a thought for the wonderful possibilties of silver.  We say silver doesn’t have to mean second best!

Used effectively in the home, this verstile colour oozes luxury and sophistication; and with metallics featuring heavily in interior design this year, you’ll be right on trend!

For a truely luxurious look, emphasise the silvery shine with an elaborate silver framed mirror.  Introducing a sparse pop of colour can also be effective and help to add interest to your room.

We can never rely on the British weather, especially not through the summer! With the fun-filled season officially here, it can be quite a dampner to look out onto dull and dreary skies, as many of us will be doing today!  So, since we’re forced to stay indoors until the sun decides to pay us a visit, we’ll have to bring the fun of summer to us at home!

Plumbs have a great range of fabrics ideal for adding vibrancy and life into your home this summer.  So, forget about the weather, where would you like to go today?

The beach hut look is very popular this year, and it’s not hard to see why.  Cool greens and blues offset with sandy neutral tones can create a calming, tranquil environment.

Inject some fun into your Great British summer with a vibrant pop of colour!  This bright pink harvests all the fun of the fair.  Contrast with a plain neutral fabric for maximum impact!

Red, yellow and terracotta are the perfect colours for wamring you up during our cooler British summer.  Why travel thousands of miles when you can have a sunny paradise in your living room?!

For a gentler, more traditional English feel, opt for a delicate floral design.  A pink and green colour scheme works well here for a fresh, femenine feel!

I don’t know about you but the sunshine always has me anticipating fresh, washing line dried laundry!  There’s nothing better than climbing into a crisp, freshly made bed after a long summer’s day and taking in the fresh smells of the outside!  For me it’s the one time of year when laundry doesn’t seem so much of a chore, with the end results being worth the ritual of seperating, washing, hanging, ironing and folding.  But maybe there’s a way to enjoy the usually mundane task all year round, by revamping your utility space!

The utility room deserves considerate design and decor like any other room in the house, and today we look at our top 5 favourite looks…

A popular design trend at the moment is reworking the 50’s style with enamel storage and traditionl, retro styled bottles.  The Belfast sink is a key feature for this nostalgic trend, along with a warm yet muted colourscheme of grey and cream.  Pinks and Greens and various shades of red and brown also work well with this look.

Creating a similar feeling of nostalgia, the shabby chic look is also a popular choice of utility rooms.  Steel storage containers and simple decorative flower arrangements are a common feature for this look.  A sage and white colourscheme helps to keep the space looking fresh.

On the opposite end of the spectrum, a more modern feel can be created with wire baskets and industrial style metal shelving.  A femenine feel can still be maintained with carefully chosen wall colours and accessories, like purple and pink.

Adopt a bold and colourful palette for a fun and cheerful utility space.  Ironing could never be dull in a room like this!  Be brave with your colour choices and choose contrasting hues for maximum impact.  Include exciting fabric designs to complement the quirky look.

A simple white colour scheme should not be underestimated however!  Not only will it create an illusion of space in smaller utility rooms, the colour is fresh and clean – just how you want your laundry!  You can make it less clinical with the addition of natural woods, creating a more homely feel.  Adding an accented colour would also work well here if used sparingly.

What’s your utility room style?

We’ve been talking a lot lately about bringing the outdoors in, but this latest interior design trend takes that idea to a whole new level.  Green walls, or Living Walls as they are popularly known, are fast becoming the statement feature to have in the home.  Why hang a picture of the rainforest when you can have something close to the real thing on your walls?!

The trend of growing foliage up and across interior walls has been made famous by British artists: Ackroyd and Harvey, when they covered a former church with grass interiors.  The concept may seem unrealistic and pose obvious functional difficulties in the home.  However, not all designs have to be quite so elaborate as Ackroyd and Harvey’s.

Green walls could make a stunning focal point and certainly a talking point in a contemporary home…

Opt for a smaller version and display a series of foliage like picture boxes for a novel decorative touch…

Or you can even merge design with functionality in the kitchen, with a living wall of fresh herbs.

Would you like a living wall in your home?