I always enjoy the theatre and language of colour trend presentations. While, as a natural-born sceptic, I find the concept that homeowners across the globe will start painting more rooms green as a subliminal reaction to watching Shrek hard to swallow, I can see that advice from professionals who analyse colour for a living provide much needed reassurance in an elusive discipline where the options are virtually limitless.
And colour, it appears, is enjoying something of a revival in the ceramic tile world, after a decade where modern minimalism, urban brutalism and the grey-beige-greige trio has largely held sway. So I will be devoting the next two Diary of a Tile Addict blogs to colour. Firstly, I want to draw attention to Little Greene‘s revived and revitalised colour card that was unveiled earlier this year.
I will follow this with my personal take on the stand-out accent hues from Cersaie 2017 and what I predict will be a strong colour direction in the tile market for 2018: the post-war revival.
And, looking at Little Greene’s beautifully curated 2017 palette, clear similarities emerge between what this market-leading paint and wallpaper company is currently offering to the market, and what I believe is coming down the pipe in Sassuolo, Castellon and the other global tile hubs.
Little Greene’s palette is extensive. It comprises 184 shades: 170 individual colours and 14 that are repeated, in varying strengths, as Colour Scales. The card spans over 300 years of historic interior design and includes many authentic 18th, 19th and 20th century shades, which are denoted by red icons identifying the era of their provenance.
These archive colours sit harmoniously alongside contemporary shades conceived to meet the requirements of 21st century living. As a result, the card, while duly respectful of period architecture, is also completely in tune with modern life and today’s interior design aesthetics.
Little Greene is the chosen partner for the English Heritage range of period colours. Over 50 colours in the company’s range have been recreated from paint analysis in historic properties through the key ages of interior design, from the Georgian period right up to the 1950s. In fact Little Greene offers specific Georgian (20), Regency (8), Victorian (10), 1930s (7), 1950s (7), 1960s (11), and 1970s (19) palettes.
All this went into the mix when creating Little Greene’s current colour offer; which was carefully refined to reflect current trends without compromising the palette’s integrity. “The Colours of England card has been designed to meet a growing appetite for timeless colour that’s both easy to choose and a pleasure to live with,” says Marketing Director, Ruth Mottershead, “whilst much of the neutral space is occupied by the increased Colour Scales offer.”
The current card contains seven new colours, some from the Little Greene archive, (Mid Azure Green, Grey Stone, Pale Lupin, Middle Buff, Light Gold and Pleat), and a new stand-alone shade Mortlake Yellow in one of this year’s most on-trend tones. 22 key colours have been imported from Little Greene’s Pink and Blue capsule collection; while two new families of diluted colours, Aquamarine and Dorchester Pink, augment the Colour Scales palette.
“The neutral trend for 2017 continues away from cream and beige towards grey tones so, to complement the new collection, we have retained the ever popular separate Grey colour card,” explains Mottershead. “Offering a total spectrum of greys for all applications, we firmly believe Grey is here to stay, due to its universal appeal and very useable shades.”
A new post by Joe Simpson, Diary of a Tile Addict, November 2017.