This spring I’m in love with beige. The New White. So sad it has such a ‘beige’ name, because with this colour in home decor, things aren’t automaticly weak and dull – quite the opposite: beige actually has more spirit than white (what colour hasn’t?!), it’s earthy and pleasant; it’s the ideal backdrop to many many styles. Just look at these pics and tell me beige aint beautiful…Our bedroom walls are now painted and ready and we are so happy with the results! (We used Farrow & Ball’s Matchstick, an amazing hue, will get back with pics soon) Also, it seems we’ll go for beige dining chairs! Enough love bombing on beige now, here’s two more lovlies.

| images via marie claire maison & three potato four blog |

This home is featured in Danish Bolig Magasinet headed “Luxury home on a budget”; through a thorough search for 2nd hand stuff you can surround yourself with great things in spite of a relatively modest budget. Danes, Danes, Danes….they are so creative and fun! A style that is very much Scandinavian, but far far from rigid white, bright fresh and sterile.

The residents themselves say it like this:

It’s all about mixing styles, to buy a few things of good quality, to know your local charity shop and plow through ‘Den Blå Avis’ [the Danish equivalent to Craigslist/Blocket] In addition, online auctions such as Lauritz.com and Qxl.dk are great places to make good purchases. There’s really no reason to buy everything new.

I think colour theory is really interesting. Like how and why colours affect the perception of a room and what colours do when you put them together. Such as the thing with warm and cold colours. Broken down illustratively, the warmth of a colour is associated its redness and yellowness while the coolness has to do with the blue- and greenness. Like hot fire and cool ice! That’s the simplest part, though it has a grey area; like the lukewarm beige borderline cases (I have btw finally settled for a beige paint hue!). Furthermore, the “coldness” of a colour tends to increase with the whiteness/lightness, while the hottest colors are fairly strong. And they affect room space as well: warm colours seem to invite us whereas cold ones distance, they have a depth effect. Anyhow, how you perceive a colour is always determined by its surroundings (and of course its gloss and texture etc): A colour is perceived as warm or cold on the basis of how it relates to the surrounding colours. This interaction can for example cause a red-violet hue to appear warmer if it is placed next to a cold colour, such as blue, or colder if it is placed next to a warm colour, such as orange. The greater the contrariety the greater the effect. Since carrot-orange is such a trendy colour right now, I think these temperature-balanced interiors make the perfectest point.

Bedroom design by Jonathan Adler via Style at home and bottom pic via Design*Sponge (the wall colour is Benjamin Moore’s Blue Stream and the door is Pumpkin Spice.)

Spring news! Farrow & Ball paint is, we say deservedly so, world-renowned for their purity and depth of colours. This British Paint God today introduced nine new colours to their palette. The 2011 colours range from neutrals to moody greys and takes on a mild and serene scheme. When the muted shades come together they are like earthy subdued pastels.

Alongside the warm nude-honey Oxford Stone (no.264) – a nice addition to the range of “New Wall-Whites” -  I think Plummett (no.272) and Mizzle (no.266) are the most interesting news.

Dark grey Plummett is a lighter version of the “amazing grey Down Pipe“. I can imagine this lead-grey doing wonders in a glossy finish. And matte alike. Mizzle is a pale greeny-grey, or as described: a ‘soft blue grey’ that got its name from very British combination of mist and drizzle. This is one of those mysteriously balanced hues that change according to weather and scene. The 2011 news also include Manor House Gray, Dove Tale, Cabbage White, Calluna, Brassica and – this one deserves its own topic later – Charlotte’s Locks. In the neutral/moody palette there’s locks from a very special redhead! Pippi Was Here. She told F&B to introduce a fierce 50′s inspired orange.

Hello and extremely welcome to trendey.com! Here’s me, Mia, sitting in my home office bringing you the bestest of interor decorating trends and tricks ;) Well some, like my mother, say it’s true :) Today’s topic is the most interesting though slightly hidden trend colour of spring 2011: Carrot. Let’s just say carrot, it’s the hues somewhere between pink coral and traditional orange. Somewhat yellowish pink-red. It’s an interesting new spark I’ve noticed lately, that goes extremely well with the sandy [new-white] base. I will use the sand and carrot combo myself in our bedroom so pics will be coming from that – but for now, an illustration of this too-hot-to-be-true spring colour:

| apart from the carrots and a spring 11 fashion Pantone colour sample – there are pics from Danish Bolig and Lonny Magazine Jan/Feb 2011, (bottom right) |

One of the clearest lines of development in the interior decor area is the movement towards coloured walls. Bye bye boring white! In particular, dramatic darks and – a new favourite of mine, even called the “new white” recently – the colour spectra with names like ‘nude’, ‘sunrise’ and ‘sand’. Light neutrals encompassing sandy light browns to pale sunrise yellows….A neutral but warm and uplifting background for many styles. This, dear friends, is a “trend colour” I firmly believe in.

For furniture and details it’s a well-used, even traditional, colour (just think of all light wood and leather) but for walls, trick is to find the right hue. I’m actually into it right now – our bedroom wall is currently a patchwork of four sandy shades. (Will come back on the exact colour choice later).

| pics top to bottom, left to right: elements of style blog & anthropologie, lonny mag & style at home and last row via 1st option |