Jane’s Windowpane — My way of beautifying your view of the world.

Here are some hints that we have for when you are arranging your furniture.  Remember, although these are guides and not absolutes, these hints use good design principles and often make your room more comfortable and inviting. 

*Arrange the largest seating pieces facing toward the major focal point in the room.  This focal point could be a fireplace, a window or patio door, or even a television.

* When placing sofas and chairs in a conversational area, remember that 6-8 feet is the most comfortable distance for talking.

*Major pathways used to get to the sofa or to a frequently used door should be

 3-4 feet. 

*Minor pathways can be 2-3 feet wide.

*Try to keep major and minor pathways from passing through conversational areas or in front of television viewing.

*Keep at least 18” clear in front of sofas and chairs for easy access and leg room while seated.

*Leave three feet in front of tables or pianos to pull out chairs and benches easily.

*Make sure that anywhere a person may sit there is a tabletop within easy reach on which to set a coffee cup or plate.  Sofa tables behind a couch do not count as it is too easy to spill on someone while reaching over.

*If the room is very large, create smaller conversational areas with minor focal points after the major one is defined. 

*An uncluttered small room will feel larger.

If you are like me, you can never find a decorating idea when you need it. So I have started IDEA  and HOME  files. 

Marked IDEAS, I keep a file beside me where I do my reading, especially magazine reading.  I have a 6-pocket expandable file and a scissors within easy reach.  I do not think magazines are sacred and readily tear out and cut up pages.  Whenever I see something that inspires me, I tear it out.  It might be the color of the whole room, or the style of the furniture, or a great looking window treatment.

I have divided the 6 sections into Living room, Dining room, Kitchen, Family room, Bathrooms, and Bedrooms.  Then I can put the magazine picture directly into the “room” to which it applies.  This saves sorting again later. Touch that paper once!!  Then when you are ready to make some decorating changes, you won’t have to search back through months and years of decorating magazines to find that picture you love.  This works especially well if you are planning to build a new house. You can fine tune the ideas you eventually use from these magazine pictures.  And this is a good source of ideas to take to your design professional.  It is so hard to verbally describe a look and here is where “a picture is worth a thousand words” really does apply.

The HOME file is also an important tool.  Get another folding file and put your existing finishes and fabrics in the file – paint chip colors, wallpaper samples, carpet or wood floor scraps, fabric samples, arm covers from and pictures of existing furniture that you plan to keep. Even having some measurements of the rooms is a great idea.

Keep this file in the car so when you are out shopping and you have found a terrific deal on towels for the bathroom or an area rug for the dining room, you will have the information you need to make good decisions.  Also as you have new design products installed in your home – fabric treatments, flooring, etc – be sure to save some scraps before the installer throws all those little pieces away.  They will tuck nicely into your HOME folder. 

To round out the discussion of colors for 2009, we must include the neutral category.  Neutrals are seldom pure in color and often are influenced by some or all of the other colors.  They are usually softer colors with a longer shelf life.   We are seeing colored neutrals coming into play – neutrals with more saturation of color.   To many consumers, neutrals are a “safe” purchase.

Established classic colors are a soft ivory that is a yellow tinted neutral like warm camel, a mushroom taupe that makes a great background color, and a stone color that is greenish, brownish, and taupish.    That should just about cover everything! 

As we move into the new neutrals we will see some gray influence such as a mushroom gray or driftwood color.   Blues will influence the slate and steel colors.  Black will be influenced by green as we will see in the auto and technology industry.  The black will become softer with the green addition.

Bridgestone will become the bridge between gray and black – a very earthy stone and brick color. 

Browns are still very popular.  Rich Chocolate is still the best selling color.  It is a comfort color in fabrics, in clothing, and in food.  We see it reflected in the choice of darker woods in door trims, wood floors, kitchen cabinetry and furniture. Chocolate colors combine well with blues, and light and deep, rich turquoise.  There is also an established mid-brown with the influence from nature.  This has a slight yellow hint.  The new brown will have a coffee-with-cream color – soft, warm, yet still neutral. 

Because of where we live and which university is in Lawrence, we often don’t have much interest in purple.  But that doesn’t mean we should ignore this traditional color in our decorating.  Nationwide, there is not much change in this color from year to year in consumer interest. 

Most of the movement in this color is from red-purple to blue-purple or back to

red-purple.  It certainly isn’t a volume selling color and, in the lighter tones, often appeals to the youth market.

Watch how this color is moving from blue-based lavender to a red-based version that is now a raspberry-like color – almost the new burgundy.  Gray, chocolate, and black look very sharp with this color.  The deeper raspberries will become a Victorian purple. 

Greens continue to grow in popularity with consumers.  Yellow based greens will persist for many years, but we will also see a move into a more organic green.  This will have a slight undertone of yellow but additionally will be more grayed. I think it will be a very livable color,

But we are also seeing blue based greens gaining in popularity.  You might think of spruce green or a darker spa color but on the green side of turquoise rather than the blue side.  Spa is a color that moves from the blues to the greens very easily.  Be careful when you want to match a spa color; take your samples along with you as you shop so you can get a good match rather than relying on your memory. Surprises may not be good!

There is a new green on the technology horizon that is a Kelly green on steroids.  This color will only be used as accents in small amounts since it is so very strong. 

Blue is a constant.  It is almost a classic color in any shade and is well loved by families, suggesting stability and calm.  Right now, the mid tones in blue are selling well.

We do see a dark, inky blue becoming the new black with a very elegant, formal look.  And a new color will be a Prussian blue – a darkened turquoise that will be very upscale. 

Look for the grayed down blues and an almost glacial green.  This is a chameleon color and can be used as a neutral as well.  

I should probably leave our discussion of yellow as a color for 2009 until the end, because it influences many of the colors we will talk about, including the neutrals, but it fits in here as well. 

Yellow is am important color this fall and into the spring.  We have three distinct yellows to lead us. 

First is an Old Flemish gold – or old world gold – and this color is strong in fabrics as well as metallic and matte finishes in drapery rods.  This is a best seller for many industries and there is no movement to change this color.

We will also see a bright yellow-orange color – think of an egg yolk and you will have the picture.  This is a bridge between yellow and orange and keeps the yellow from being too strong and irritating.    Using a bright, strong yellow as the main color in a baby’s room is not advisable since the yellow does not soothe the baby. If you want to use a strong yellow, use it as a smaller accent or be sure it has a little orange in it to soften the yellow.

Lastly, there is a new soft, optimistic yellow on the horizon and will also be used as a neutral.  We will see yellow being added to many colors to keep the colors warm and inviting, even if the yellow is not obvious to our eye.

As we look ahead to the colors this fall and how they will move into next spring, I thought we would start with the reds and oranges.  Certainly the media attention from the 2008 Olympics has made China and red a very important color story.

The reds we see now are highly saturated colors – they are very powerful reds.  You see them in autos and kitchen gadgets.   As we move forward into 2009 we will continue to see intensive reds, but they will have a slightly orange cast.  These reddish-oranges will be very warm colors.

In the red family you will also see hot pink, which is an established color.  It is hot, saturated and works great with lime green, turquoise, and purple.  The new pink will have a slightly orange kiss that will make it more coral.  The pinks will be soft and warm with that orange influence. 

The oranges we see now are more brown that a true orange – much more earthy with the influence from nature.  You might see them also as copper and old world red.  The new oranges will be brighter and saturated. These are strong colors and will probably be best used as accent colors. 

If we wanted to use the word terra cotta for some of the new colors, we could.  And if you are old enough, you have visions of the 1970’s colors when we used terra cotta as a color description.  But as you see from above, orange is not orange.  It has influences of pinks, of reds, and of browns and those combinations make the colors what they are today.  So don’t save your old terra cotta sofa, expecting it to match the accessories available today. It won’t. You are 30+ years out of date! 

Has anyone ever heard of the Color Marketing Group?  This is a non-profit group of color professionals from every industry.  They meet twice a year to validate previous forecasts, to discuss new introductions of color that will be committed to products in the next 12-18 months, and to consider directions a hue might take in the next 18-36 months. 

These industries could vary from cars, to kitchen appliances, to apparel, to technology, and to the home inside and out.  

Now your first thought might be this is a way to control the colors we as consumers have as choices.  Not exactly.  It is a way for the industries to coordinate their color directions, not control, so that the consumer will have the ability to coordinate his/her selections.  Color forecasting is not about the specific hue, but instead it is about the direction a specific hue might be taking – is it getting lighter or darker, is it cleaner or grayer, is it warmer or cooler. 

It used to be that the apparel market would start a color direction, the flooring industry would pick it up, maybe some years later the kitchen market would color coordinate with the flooring industry, and then the fabrics for window treatments and upholstery would finally get involved.  As you can image, it was difficult for the consumer to plan for their interior coordination.

Now, the apparel industry still takes the lead, but due to the color marketing group, the housing fashion industry is close behind.  You can now buy carpet in a color that will coordinate with your window treatments, kitchen appliances, and accessories all in one season.   

If the consumers don’t like the direction colors are moving, then can just hold on to their checkbooks and debit cards.  Then the manufacturers will not validate a color trend and they will move into a new direction.

According to most industry information, over 60% of consumer buying decisions are primarily influenced by color.  Color speaks to our emotions.   In my line of business, I am not surprised. 

Remember, there are no new colors, since we find them all in nature, just refreshed colors with new names!

October is Child Safety Month and what could be more important that the safety of our children and grandchildren.  I find it amazing that parents would put cribs in front of the window and therefore next to the cords on blinds and shades.  But even if the crib is away from the window, children can still get tangled in cords.  So beware and be aware.  Here are some safety tips put out by Hunter Douglas that can apply to many situations. 

• Use window guards on all windows above the first floor.  Screens aren’t strong enough to stop a fall; they are meant to keep insects out, not to keep children in. 

• If it’s necessary to keep windows open for ventilation, install locks that limit the size of the opening.

• For sliding glass doors, install safety glass that won’t shatter.  Additionally, apply bright stickers at a child’s eye level to alert him or her to the presence of glass. 

• Be sure to keep all furniture and cribs away from windows.

• Don’t forget window covering cords can be hazardous.

One of the greatest inventions by the window treatment industry is the cordless blinds or shades.  You just put your hand under the bottom rail and the shade can be gently pushed up or pulled down.  There are no cords on the side to get longer as the shade goes up, so there are no cords for a child or a pet to tangled in. 

And there is always the motorization option.  Don’t you need another remote in your house??

Today I measured an arch window for a shade.  Not everyone knows that we have arch shades that are stationary and arch shades that are moveable.  The most energy efficient arch shades are cellular shades.

If the arch is very high and you don’t need to ever open the shade, then the stationary shade is the least expensive option.  It looks like an opened fan and can be a decorative element in the room with the shade being an accent color, or it can blend away with a neutral color that matches the frame or the wall.

Often the arch window is a bonus with a beautiful view and covering it with a permanent arch shade is not desirable.  But you are in luck because we have moveable arch shades.  They have the same orientation as the cellular shade, meaning the cells run across the window and not in a fan style, lowering down from the top to the bottom of the arch.  This gives you the best of both worlds.  The shade can be up when the sun is hot and bright in the summer or the shade can be down when you want the view and warmth from the winter sun. 

If the arch is too high to reach from the floor, we have poles that hook onto the rail on the shade and you can move the arch shade up or down, just like the pole that can move the skylight shades.