You know I think that “Color of the Year” proclamations by Marketeers are baloney — they are just trying to sell this year’s color to replace last year’s color. So, instead, I’ll point to a color from our mid century past that was pretty darn good enough all along: Retro Renovation First Annual Color of the Year: Orange. There’s plenty of vintage available in this color — give it a look and if you like it, snatch it up for a fraction of what it would cost to buy new accessories in whatever “today’s must-have color” is. Of course, my fundamental color advice is: Use whatever color you like. Colors are wavelengths of energy and affect people differently. Find the ones that tickle your electrons and don’t look back.
Why orange? Well, it’s just continued to grow on me these past 9 years of living in my mid century house. It is a color that plays very nice with others: Orange looks good with blue in a midcentury interior. Orange looks good with green. Orange looks good with pink — yes, it does! And with banana, of course. Orange you glad I said banana?
Orange is a dynamic color — often called “the color of change”. It can be brought into an interior pretty easily. All the photos above are from my living room — as you can see, I’ve brought in orange with textiles like my beloved vintage bargello needlepoint pillows. Oh – and I guess those 1960s chairs have a bit of orange in the upholstery. When I bought them at an estate sale, the chairs had slip covers on them. I peeked under and – bingo! – it was orange velveteen stripes for me! I also have some orange Stangl. Isn’t my vintage afghan gorgeous? All the handiwork that went into it — my! — and I got it an estate sale for like $10. These things are out there — they are Golden Treasures!
I also have spotted kitchen cabinets available in orange — see my post on these “Mod Squad” (as I call them) cabinet doors. If I had the house for these — I would do it in a heartbeat!
Of course, what’s good on the inside (of your house) is also fab when you’re out on the town. Maybe I need this 1960s vintage orange leather coat from Retro Genie’s after all.
Cyndi says
Our house was ALL orange growing up, orange carpet, couch, wallpaper, drapes, chairs…you name it…orange. I don’t think I could go back!
TappanTrailerTami says
Dang – I guess I’m not really thinking very clearly yet today…..no really bright orange in my house, but yeah, I guess my entire bedroom is gold and coral, and my favorite antique china lamps in my bedroom have orange hand painted flowers (along with some purple/lavender flowers) on them. Duh! Not enough coffee yet I guess.
TappanTrailerTami says
Love orange! But alas, my decorating style is more 20’s, 30’s, and 40’s….orange wasn’t big during those years for the most part, so it doesn’t play a factor in my home decorating, which leans more greens/reds/pinks/golds.
Instead: I have an orange car and an orange motorcycle! I don’t think I’ll ever have a car that is a different color…..mine is NEVER lost in the sea of white / black / silver / grey cars at every shopping center parking lot 🙂
Jane / MulchMaid says
Great post, Pam, and so nice to get some peeks at your living room. You clearly practice what you preach!
I love orange to accent my mainly blue, aqua, chartreuse and olive living room furnishings. My orange pops include a wonderful 60s lamp with a base that looks like orange melted lava, and a bunch of those huge plastic grapes. I also have a small orange resin cube table that looks sort of like a die but hollow. It’s very mod.
JKaye says
I was going to say that the only place you’ll find orange at my house is in my pink bathroom. I have orange and yellow touches in there which look good. The rest of my house is in harvest gold/green/blue/red, and orange doesn’t seem right with that scheme. But then I walked into my light blue kitchen and spotted a bowl of oranges on the counter. That was a nutritional choice, not a decorating choice, yet the orange really does go well with the wood cabinets and the blue walls. Since red is only used in my house in pillows and dish towels and such, now I see that maybe I can trade the red out for orange without much expense, and have a fresh new look. Fun!
Julie says
Orange is my favorite color right now and I think a better question would be where don’t I use it! I’ve got an orange accent wall in our living room behind our 60’s wall unit, we have a 60’s orange wood chair with fake leather cushions (the $8 garage sale purchase that started it all), as well as pillows, art and vases all with orange. Did I mention the orange knife block? The orange canister set? And yes, we’ve got orange with robin’s egg blue in the kitchen and avocado green in the living room. It’s such a fun color!
kate mckinnon says
I love orange, and was so taken with the Orange Jacket that I magicked one up out of the Ether for myself- I found it at the Savers the day after you posted this one. I danced with joy in the aisles, and in fact just wore it in San Diego for a NY weekend, and was literally stopped on the street by people who were so excited to see an orange leather jacket they could hardly contain themselves.
I’m not sure how to embed a photo in a comment here, but here is a link to the orange gloriousness. I keep my hair orange, too, because why not? The colour makes people so happy. I am overjoyed that you have chosen it as the Colour of the Year.
Link:
http://katemckinnon.files.wordpress.com/2010/12/orange-jacket.jpg
You might also be interested in the photos in this post- I was just in New Orleans, photographing doors and paint colours on houses, and in this post are deep burnt orange stairs, with a hot lime green door, and one of the most mindbending pink doors I have ever seen. It makes me want to paint something, anything, that colour of pink immediately. Because like you say, orange and pink together…bliss.
http://katemckinnon.wordpress.com/2010/12/28/a-lovely-day/
pam kueber says
I actually emailed Jeannie yesterday — she is holding the vintage orange jacket for me!
Lynne says
Excellent choice on the color of the year, Pam! I just bought an orange sofa for my family room. It was called “paprika”, but I suppose a swatch called “orange” might scare people away. Most of my walls are paneled in Philippine mahogany, so shades of orange are a very nice accent. I am using spots of orange throughout the main living areas to make everything look like it belongs.
I am even considering a salmon-y/coral orange as an accent color in my aqua kitchen. Do you think that would be too much??
pam kueber says
I think the accent color for your kitchen sounds great! My husband really wanted the coral boomerang countertops in our kitchen, but I went with all aqua and then introduced the strong red as my accent. Honestly, I think you just gotta get a piece of the color, put it in there, and see how you like it…
Trouble aka Shane says
I don’t think it will be too much. I just painted the bathroom Pearl Gray, and am hunting for coral tile (Salmon, I guess – kinda like that one Lite Brite peg that didn’t match the orange OR the pink!). Also the shelves I’m building will be painted coral inside (found 1950 knotty pine that a woman was selling. It’s going on the wall around them) and seafoam green shower curtain and bath rug.
I think orange and aqua/turquoise will look killer!
denise says
Lynne! Orange and Turquoise? ABSOLUTELY wonderful together.
Jenny says
Right now, I’m in the process of painting our basement family room orange! I love orange. It really fits our home and makes everything warmer, brighter and happy.
50sgal says
Wonderful, I adore orange! Having an old home with a lot of wood (post and beam exposed ceiling and floorboards) orange does wonders. And it is the perfect pairing with my other favorite decorator color: Robin’s egg blue. I often feel like Mrs. Blanding in my favorite movie, “Mr. Blandings Builds a Dream House” when she is talking to the painters and asking for paint the color of butter and to match a piece of thread. “Red, not as bright as a Winesap, but closer to a johnny red” or some such.
One of my favorite chairs is a French Bergere’ covered in a floral on an orange background with robins egg blue and touches of pink!
A great color to start the new year.
marta says
Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House is one of my all-time favorite movies. Whenever someone I know gets ready to buy their first house, I make them watch it. Myrna Loy giving the painters her orders with all the vivid details, and the minute she walks away, they translate it to ‘blue, white, red, yellow’. Priceless. And the leftover piece of slate she asks be put down in her little back porch flower room so she’d “have a nice, dry floor” turns into a $1,500 cost overrun (in 1936 dollars) because they have to tear the room out and run plumbing for a floor drain—doesn’t that sum up the joys of remodeling!
Ann-Marie Meyers says
That’s my favorite movie, too. My late husband and I always quoted the strangest lines from that film.
I keep hearing him in the back of my mind saying, “Tear it down,” when I look at old houses looking for my perfect mid century home.
I bet if Pam did a survey, she would find most of us are Mr. Blandings fans.
pam kueber says
See this post: https://retrorenovation.com/2007/11/23/1948-was-a-very-good-year-awesome-retro-kitchens-and-cary-grants-dream-house-too/