Color Trends 2014: Pretty and Playful Pink Makes Romantic Resurgence at High Point Market

*Songs of Celebration * by artist Kathe Fraga
COLOR TRENDS 2014: PRETTY IN PINK { AND CORAL } IS BACK! 

Feminine and flirtatious looks combined with chinoiserie made a dramatic appearance on the international design stage this week at the Spring High Point Furniture Market, where pink, coral, melon, sable, cocoa and terra cotta and a host of passionate pastels in fabrics and accents were one of the big surprises that set the stage for color trends for 2014, 2015 and 2016.

One woman not caught by surprise was Michelle Lamb, Editorial Director of The Trend Curve. Michelle, who trend spots all over the world, and who attended the famous Maison & Object show in Paris, along with the Ambiente and Christmasworld design shows in Frankfurt earlier this year, shared that this time, she saw “a palette that embraces warmth and pastels that was dominated by pink.”

 “We are moving into an era of femininity,” said Michelle, as she spoke to a rapt audience while keynoting WithIt ‘s Education Breakfast on “Future Trends: Driving Forces” during High Point Market. “In addition to pinks, florals and metallic are also part of this feminine trend. “The advance of florals requires pinks in the same way that the advance of leaves requires warm earthy tones,” she said. Michelle stressed the importance of warm browns like cocoa and sable as a coming color trend to balance the feminine tones of pinks and corals through 2016.

Pink has embraced a partner in romance: green. “All the design fairs in Europe this year seemed to be answering the question, ‘How many ways can you combine pink and green?’ You can expect to see pink and green in every personality,” Michelle said.

This pretty picture from the blog, Yes Spaces by Barbara Miller, exemplifies the trend Michelle shared with all of us. This hot pink chair frame from Wesley Hall is filled with dusty green plant material designed to emulate a floral fabric. If you’d like to see Barbara’s entire post, of this wonderful and innovative street space, created for the October 2012 #HPmkt, please come back and click, here.

“Pink is breaking up the blue-green love affair that has been going on for years,” she added. “

In the C. R. Laine market showroom, Holly Blalock, Vice President of Marketing and Merchandising, said that this dramatic room setting below combining *coral, flamingo pink and Kelly green* has been getting the biggest reaction.

In a close up, below, of another vignette of this color combination from CR Laine’s showroom,  shown above, Holly, well known for her creative merchandising when it comes to color, told us that she had the idea to ask Duralee to take the green and white stripe from the Tilton Fenwick for Duralee fabric on the chair  and have them custom create it for her to use as a coordinating band on the bottom of the sofa.

 By virtue of its name, the Hadley Chair, below, also from CR Laine, caught our attention. It’s an updated wing chair silhouette contrasting a coral floral print with a Belgian solid fabric in Leno Cocoa on the chair back with brass ferrules on the front legs.

At Century Furniture, coral and pink were also on display in a new collection by iconic designer Charlotte Moss, pictured below. “We think her energetic use of coral imbues her rooms in our showroom with a bit of playfulness and her trademark warmth,” said Comer Shuford Wear, Century’s Director of Marketing. 

Charlotte’s bed below, made up with custom Leontine Linens, is set against a dramatic backdrop of brilliant coral. And if you missed the Hadley Court gracious living guide on choosing luxury linens, please come back to read it by clicking, here.

Pink by its very nature is playful, believes Julie Smith Vincenti, an editor of Home Fashion Forecast.  “Pink is my pick for 2014. Yes, it sends mixed signals: innocent and sweet, romantic and sophisticated, or flirtatious and sexy. But this is exactly why it’s so perfect for home decorating—it’s playtime after too many years of caution and restraint!”

Speaking of playful—have you ever seen anything so delightfully clever as arranging romantic, pink and coral vintage roses in Chinese food takeout boxes like C.R. Laine did in their showroom at market in this picture below, against a backdrop of cocoa colored chairs?  Not only is it a juxtaposition of the ordinary and the extraordinary—the takeout boxes subtly bring in the timeless Asian and chinoiserie interior design themes – once again so popular today. 

No discussion of the feminine and romantic influences in home fashion would be complete without touching on another aspect of this trend: Luster and glamour. “Consumer optimism about the economy is being reflected in surfaces,” said Michelle Lamb of The Trend Curve. “Metallics: brass here in the United States and more copper overseas, are huge, from glazed finishes to foiled burlap to sequins.”

One of our favorites, as an accent piece, was this ottoman, in hammered copper, from Worlds Away.

“Wood and metal forms and surfaces dressed out in a razzle dazzle mashup of golds—shiny 70s brasses, gold-leafed woods and satiny jewel box cabinetry” are part of a new collection at Bernhardt this market. The company introduced a 300-piece eclectic assortment in classic English style with a bit of unexpected panache, that caught the eye of all of us who saw it. Below is the Sutton Cocktail Table with a Greek key wood frame in antiqued brass with the Tunis Chair and Kenworth Sofa.

We were also very impressed with Bernhardt’s *Stories of Giving* matching contribution initiative, honoring their employees and artisans who give back to others less fortunate than themselves in their local communities. For our post on that, please come back and click here.

At Hadley Court, we think the flourish of femininity and romance wrapped in pinks, corals and metallic tones are one of the best things to happen for gracious living in quite some time. After all, this palette invokes warmth, love and welcoming hospitality. What could be more gracious?

And to end this love affair with pink that today’s product designers have with warm pinks, coral, sables and brass, we have a special treat for you. In addition to seeing Michelle Lamb of Trend Curve speak at the WITHIT breakfast, we also ran into Michelle later and also her friend, Elaine Markoutsas, a nationally-known design editor for Universal Press Syndicate and the Chicago Tribune.

Please enjoy a Hadley Court exclusive video interview with these 2 experts as together they discuss their views on upcoming color trends -2014-2016 in the home furnishings and interior design industry.

{ To watch the interview, please click on this screenshot taken from the video, of Michelle and Elaine, below }

Thank you, Michelle and Elaine.

Kim Darden Shaver

for

Leslie Hendrix Wood

Founder, Editor In Chief of Hadley Court

Gracious Living. Timeless Design. Family Traditions.

~~~~~~~~~~

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Image credits: 1, 2, 3-6; 7 -all other images are by the Hadley Court team or linked to in the post.

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