Colour trends and do we care about them

Today is one of those moody misty spring days that thrill me because they mean melted snow and velvety soft breezes and lighter layers.  Unfortunately this one is also disappointing me because it is SO bad for photography.  So instead of showing you pretty new Viola yarn, let's talk about colour in the context of the furniture we sit on to knit things.

I've been illogically proud of myself for having a colour palette for the new house, because normally how I decorate is to go to the discount fabric store, find the quantity of curtain material I need in a print I don't hate, and then riff everything else off of that.  We have to combine too many different hard elements for me to get away with that, so I had to start with the furniture, none of which was discount, dagnabbit.

Still - choosing upholstery first just felt very grown up and luxurious.  Also, because we picked a moody blue/teal low-pile velvet, I felt I was really breaking the mold of my usual cheery bright colours.  Going off-trend, if you will, and choosing pretty much the same timeless colour combination my aunt and uncle have used to advantage for all 60 years of their married life together.  I was so happy to have picked a trend-neutral combination after reading so much about the now-outdated 'beige trend' and the soon-to-be outdated 'grey trend' (which makes me nervous about the grey tiles I found for our master bath at the condo we won't be living in forever, even though Pete and I both really, really love them even a year later.)

But this week I've been reading some home decorating magazines and a store catalogue, and thinking - oh.  Notice the blue accents on both covers up at the top of this post?  Our blue upholstery isn't quite so innovative after all.

Blue upholstered chairs, orange-brown leather chair.  Check.  That's what our living room will look like when I bring in the leather-upholstered dining chairs for extra seating.

Oh and look! there it is again, complete with a stone-coloured sofa and a rug that combines blue and stone.  Just like the stone-coloured armchairs we really have to take delivery of soon (still have no idea where to store them!!)

And here they all are together, with a graphic black and white piece of art.  All our hardware and light fixtures are going to be black.  How free-thinking of me!

It kind of reminds me of a scene from The Devil Wears Prada, in which Meryl Streep explains the filtering process whereby a genius designer's decision about what colour is 'in' trickles down to the colours that become available to everyday folk, such that while they may think they used their own judgement and style sense, they are really only bowing to what somebody better than them thought of first. 

And yet...

I do love how peaceful these colours look together, and I think we'll be very happy living with them.

I mean, maybe I chose them because they are the colours that a group of fabric designers decided to offer to furniture upholsterers this year.  But maybe I chose them because a nice lady in Waterloo with a gift for dyeing fiber sold me the raw material to spin yarn for a pair of mitts.  Like, five years ago.

Just as good a story, don't you think?

Okay, time for me to go mark locations for a bunch of electrical outlets.  SUCH an exciting life I lead. Hope your day is the right kind of exciting and I'll see you tomorrow!