Color Trends for 2006

What colors will our homes be wearing in 2006? Color expert and forecaster Aimee Desrosiers gives us a peek at the colorful future.

Color expert and forecaster Aimee Desrosiers says shockingly bright hues like the greens on this snowboard are heading our way at home.

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If you want to see what’s happening in the color world — home fashion or otherwise — where do you look? Well, hold on to your chair, says color expert and forecaster Aimee Desrosiers of California Paints: today’s (and tomorrow’s) colors are heavily influenced by the youth market. Think skateboards, snowboards and Japanese anime. "Just take a look at the designs on a snowboard and you’ll see some of the dramatic colors, like a toxic green, that are heading our way at home," Desrosiers says.

Some very in-your-face colors are already showing up in shockingly bright clothing, from Kelly green jackets
from Abercrombie and American Eagle to recreation vehicles in startling shades of blue. Some of California Paints' new offerings, Frenzy, Hyper and Lava Lamp, for instance, echo that trend. They’re pumped-up edgy colors that are definitely not for the faint of heart, says Desrosiers.

Not only that, it’s flashback time—to the '80s, no less. "Just like in that decade, we’re seeing yellows and grays together," she says. "Gray is being paired with a lot of colors. And the blue and green combinations are a lot like the '80s, too." And that color we used to call mauve? It, too, will be back, but with a new hip name (Thistle? Violet?) and in combination with some new colors.

Here, Desrosiers comments on other color trends:

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