Selecting “colours of the year” is nothing new for paint companies, but this year Beauti-Tone, a division of Home Hardware Stores Ltd., decided to do it differently and asked Canadians to choose the brand’s 2016 Colour of the Year from a list of four top trend colour contenders.
Choosing from Hot- Cha- Cha collate, a hybrid neutral with grey, brown and red in the mix; Avocado Dip, a yellow-influenced green; Japonica, an emerging chalky neutral dusted with rose; and French Charming, a cool blue hue reminiscent of a well-worn pair of jeans, Canadians deemed that comfy fresh denim-esque colour as their favourite.
“French Charming is a great choice,” says Bev Bell, creative director, Beauti-Tone Paint and Home Products Division, Home Hardware Stores Limited. “It is a perfect balance of blue and grey, making it an incredibly livable colour for any room.” Some of the voters’ responses were, “I can see this colour in any part of my home,” and “It looks like it will work well with all different colours,” and, emphatically, “I just love this colour!”
Voters also loved the concept of being asked, not only for their opinion, but to ultimately choose the winner. Voting took place at the Interior Design Show (IDS), and online at Home Hardware’s Facebook and Twitter pages during the same period. “Canadians embrace great colour and style,” noted Bell. “All weekend we kept hearing how much they loved the concept of crowd-sourcing the Beauti-Tone Colour of the Year. One particularly style-savvy 12-year-old even said she thought it was her duty to tell us that the idea was ingenious, and that we were doing a ‘great job’.”
Of course a lot of the credit also goes to Canadian fashion designer and style expert Simon Chang, since French Charming hails from his Beauti-Tone Simon Chang Model Home Trend Colour Collection. The collection’s seven uniquely beautiful trend palettes recognize that while we each have different tastes in home décor, we all want to feel rejuvenated and happy in our surroundings.
