The Design seeker colour focus: Greenery

I find colours generally come in huge tides on Pinterest and just as I might be coming around to the colour because its every other image I see, it’s disappeared. Pantone’s annual Colour of the Year stays prominent a lot longer because they’re the colour gurus with kudos (even if I find their reasonings behind some colours incredibly verbose and sometimes obscure).

Pantone's shade of 2017 as we all know by now is Greenery, which blends lime and apple green. I like lime and apple green especially in holiday locations and bright airy flats and definitely in fashion, but I confess to putting up a bit of resistance to Greenery in interiors. I tried to get my head around Pantone's theory (above) that if my living room walls were zingy green, a sense of emotional grounding might be created in our frenetic social media and political world..... Hmmm....

There is a 'however' coming and I have taken to it now I know the tips & tricks to mastering Greenery.

The first tip is to look at the natural light in your space before you create your scheme with Greenery. If you have a light, open space, I can't recommend a monochrome palette of greenery with either white or off-white/palest pastels, more. The contrast is refreshing and zingy, a little bit like when you pop your cucumber in your Hendricks ;-) The combination of natural light and expanses of neutral tones is a lovely, calming look, but strategically layer bright shades of green as well as foliage and you will add the fresh contemporary edge, which will transform the room from mmm, lovely to oooh wow. 

On the other side of the coin is using Greenery where you don't lots of natural light or if you like a moodier palette. Here is where I think Greenery really comes into its own as the dynamic pop in a way that in the past fushcia and red was used and now are the too obvious choice. Greenery has a richness and zing to it that lights up beautifully with slate, navy, teal and moody shades. Rather than a startling contrast colour (e.g. red, yellow, white etc), Greenery adds colour and focus without throwing the palette up in the air! 

Greenery is a trans-seasonal shade that and adds vibrancy and life to any decor so if you thought that it was best suited to holiday pads as I wrongly did, don't worry about upholstering large pieces. I actually think Greenery looks best on individual pieces where it can stand out proudly. I have seen these pictures of this green velvet sofa and it's to die for. I'm a fan of colour blocking rather than scattering a few colours here and there, and Greenery is certainly a colour to go loud and proud with.

 

Essentially Greenery symolises the outdoors so there are 3 brilliant ways you can work this colour into your home to great effect. One is working the forest combination of green palette into a room. Unlike archetypal dark interiors, which can be dramatic, brooding and it is difficult to build up layers because navy, charcoal and the like absorb light and are quite 2-dimensional; tones of dark green have depth, richness and light. Think of a woodland and the way all the tones blurb naturally from lime and olive through greenery to bottle and the deepest greens.

The last and most obvious way is go big on the grass pot plants, get a Birds of Paradise plant or cluster huge banana leaves in a vase. Scale is key.