Sherwin Williams 2013 Color Trends - August Sponsor

Sherwin-Williams Announces 2013 Color Trends

Submitted by:  Matthew Heald, Sherwin-Williams
Written by: Jackie Jordan, Sherwin-Williams

Sherwin-Williams has just unveiled our Colormix 2013 collection, which embraces the dueling influences competing for attention in today’s hyperkinetic, vividly saturated world.  From exploring the dichotomies of simple versus complex to mystery versus certainty to light versus dark, you can use the palettes of Colormix 2013 to help clients embrace their inspiration and navigate a project’s design direction.

While people gravitate to personal preferences, we are being shaped by the divergent energies pulsing around us.  Colormix 2013 embraces these conflicts and shows how colors are about a process of combination, and creating unexpected harmony.

The 40 colors selected by our color experts for Colormix 2013 are grouped into four palettes: Midnight Mystery, Honed Vitality, Vintage Moxie and High-Voltage.

Midnight Mystery

The colors of Midnight Mystery are moody, the vibe is masculine and the aesthetic is both Victorian and futuristic.  The shades of this palette range from Earthy Plum Brown, absinthian Bottle Green, the metal gray of Outerspace, and Rustic Red evoking the houndstooth cloak of Sherlock Holmes.

We’ve embraced the intoxicating allure of our dark side. It gives us power as we navigate a choppy economy, escaping to the futuristic Victorian vibe of steampunk design that offers a theatrical feel.  This palette is a declaration of independence—a statement of luxury and purpose that pairs warmly with textured fabrics and collections of curiosities.

Honed Vitality

The Honed Vitality palette reflects the interplay of time and nature, taking inspiration from the layered hues of mineral deposits, sea-buffeted stones and the weathered shutters of a rustic farmhouse. The colors are chalky greys and blues, and earthy cider-colored browns. Finishes are matte with an organic, textured feel.

The colors of Honed Vitality create a softened beauty that is restful, comforting and embraces furnishings with natural textures for décor you can feel with your eyes and it folds in the energy of the Earth. Think of the ‘magic hour,’ those minutes after sunset and before dark when shadows compete with rays of sunlight in an epic battle that washes the Earth in a warm glow.

Vintage Moxie

Representing midcentury demure with a new, modern edge, Vintage Moxie is a pretty palette in which the retro glamour of pearls, florals and classic feminine silhouettes is tempered by funky accents and attitude. While the Honed Vitality palette is more subdued, these classic colors are a bit more vibrant. 

Glamour has become much more free-spirited.  It’s softness emboldened; golds infused with semiprecious citrine, violets that are bit more vivid, an almost black that you might not expect, all set off by gauzy white.

High-Voltage

The electricity of Vegas neon inspires this palette, which plugs in to a digital stream of electric limes, phosphorescent yellows and feverish reds. It’s consumerism as self-expression, giving the bold and the not-so-bold equal permission to be nonconformists.

But those bold hues need a palette cleanser, bringing black, white, gray and clear acrylics into the picture to offset the electric feel of the brighter neon shades.