Color Of The Year

Not to be thought old-fashioned and out of date,
That Old House has requested that she be snazzed up
with the 2012 Color Of The Year.


According to Pantone, the self-proclaimed color dictators
the company that makes millions selling, well, colors (how do
they do that?), the 2012 Color Of The Year is Tangerine Tango.

Oh dear.

That Old House is 180 years old.

Orange is harsh on an aging complexion.

Does deep orange belong in an old farmhouse?

I made a quick loop around That Old House, checking

if there are already some trendy Tangerine-colored bits and bobs here and there.  

There's this, on the walnut cupboard in the kitchen:

Also in the kitchen, atop Jabba the Hutch, two pumpkin tureens:

I found a hard, dry navel orange, a refugee from the toe of a Christmas stocking.

I guess I can snazz that up for a little orange zzziiiing.

Orange is not an easy color to live with, in large scale.

Especially when it's not Halloween.

In packets of takeout duck sauce, not so hard:

In its defense, as an accent or in accessories, strong orange is striking.

And not in a "strike me over the head with a baseball bat" kind of way.  Striking in a good way.

For instance, this, from Pantone's very own website:

A bergere chair upholstered in that Tangerine Tango color,

which is a very red orange, against a soft blue wall.

Why, hush my puppies, if that blue wall don't look a whole lot like

the color that is Benjamin Moore's 2012 Color Of The Year.

Wythe Blue.

This, from Benny Moore's website: Wythe Blue walls in a dining room:

As luck would have it, we are already on trend with this trendy color.

It's all over the walls of our second-floor hall bath.

 Wythe Blue is easy on the eyes, easy to live with, and while it's been named

2012 Color of the Year by its maker, it's one of their Historic Colors.  Interesting. 

 I have my plan in place.

I will just tell That Old House that she'll have to be content with

wearing at least one of the 2012 Colors of the Year.

What about you?
Do color trends and fads influence your choices in your home?
Do you have plans to incorporate Tangerine Tango in your decor?

There's no right or wrong answer to that; whatever pleases, works.

Have a marvelous weekend!  I'm hoping we are almost done with rain for a few days.

But right now, I'm going to take care of that rapidly drying orange before it's too late.  -- Cass

LINK PARTIES!

At My Romantic Home, it's Show And Tell Friday.  Click here!

Feathered Nest Friday makes its home at French Country Cottage.  Click here!

The Charm of Home features Home Sweet Home on Fridays.  Click here!

It's Vintage Inspiration Friday at Common Ground.  Click here!

LaurieAnna's Vintage Home is the place for Farmhouse Friday.  Click here!

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Benjamin Moore Peeps Into Our Bathroom!

The Color Of The Year for 2012 is
(cue the drum roll here) -- Wythe Blue.

From the Benjamin Moore website:

"We have chosen wythe blue (HC-143) as Benjamin Moore’s 2012 Color of the Year. It’s a beautiful, calming hue that has an element of heritage that offers grounding rootedness, providing comfort and stability.  And it's the color of the hall bathroom at That Old House, so of course we had to choose it."

Okay, so maybe that last sentence was tacked onto the real Moore statement.

By me.

But what is true is that Wythe Blue is the 2012 Color of the Year, and it is the color of our bathroom.

 Wythe Blue walls, and White Dove trim.

I love a bathroom with loads of closets.

This bath is 7 x 12 feet, so there is room for furniture in it.

This was a big change for us; all our former homes had teensy baths.

At our last home, the upstairs bathroom was so small that I was afraid to use it when I was

greatly pregnant for fear I'd get stuck and have to call the Fire Department to extricate me.

True story.

The furniture was my Mother's.

An antique washstand, painted blue by Mom in the 1960s, and antiqued with brown glaze.

The ice cream parlor chair also painted blue; my Mom loved to paint furniture.

The paint on these two old dears is naturally chipped and shabby, and that's fine with me.

Wythe Blue is an interesting color.

I find that most women see it as blue, while most men read it as green.

Benjamin Moore tosses it in with the Green family.

Isn't that just like a man?

It is named for the George Wythe House in Williamsburg, Virginia.

(Which I learned when I visited is pronounced to rhyme with the word "with.")

Mr. Wythe signed the Declaration of Independence, and his house may have ghosts.  It's worth a Googling.

Across the hall back here at That Old House is another historic color

from ol' Benny Moore -- Palladian Blue.

This blue is the slightly more anemic tint of Wythe Blue,

and is named for the great Venetian architect, Andrea Palladio.

Mr. Palladio also lent his great name to a style of curved-top window, flanked by smaller windows.

Palladian windows are often called Palladium windows, which is wrong.

It amazes me that even people whose business is houses often use the incorrect term for these windows.

Let's give poor Mr. Palladio his rightful due:  Palladian windows.

And Palladian Blue in our master bedroom.

Our Master Bedroom was pretty grim when we bought That Old House; the wallpaper made me seasick.

If you want to see its transformation, with all the gruesome in-progress pictures, click here.

By the way, Benjamin Moore, about that statement regarding Wythe Blue . . . "grounding rootedness?"

Really?  It's a gorgeous historic color; don't go all touchy-feely new-agey gobbledeygooky on it, please.

It's a shame I don't have any opinions on things, isn't it?  Happy Friday, folks!

I'm picking up a Craigslist desk today.  Pictures to follow!  -- Cass

Link Parties!

At My Romantic Home, it's Show And Tell Friday.  Click here!

Feathered Nest Friday makes its home at French Country Cottage.  Click here!

The Charm of Home features Home Sweet Home on Fridays.  Click here!

It's Vintage Inspiration Friday at Common Ground.  Click here!

Miss Mustard Seed hosts the Furniture Friday Feature.  It's a must visit -- Click here!

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