Business Edition #05 Interior and Color Part 2

In Interior and Colors 1, we focused on conventional colors that are often used in interior spaces, and introduced seven basic interior colors that appear most frequently. Specifically, they are common colors such as white, ivory, beige, light brown, dark brown, gray, and black, but identifying and using these common colors will lead to mastering the use of color in interior spaces. The first time we talked about the differences in white, but this time I would like to focus on the color of the flooring, which can be said to determine the taste of an interior space.

Flooring color range

When considering color coordination in an interior space, the most important thing to consider is the wood grain color of the flooring. In terms of fashion, it's easier to understand if you think of suits as suits, wallpaper as dress shirts, and sofas and accessories as ties. In the interior, the color of the flooring determines the color of other interior materials, and ultimately the color of furniture and accessories.
Now, let's take a look at the flooring colors that have appeared in model rooms of condominiums and housing exhibition halls over the past 10 years that NCD has investigated.

The hues are concentrated in a narrow range of R, YR, and Y (red, yellow-red, and yellow), and the redder the wood grain, the darker the color, and the yellower the wood grain, the lighter the color. Recently, there has been a tendency for more than 90% of customers to concentrate on the YR series.
On the other hand, when looking at the tone, there is a variation in brightness, from a bright tone close to white to a tone close to dark brown. Applying the wood grain colors to the currently most orthodox hue 7.5YR tone diagram, light wood grains are L tones and Lgr tones, medium light wood grains are Dl tones and Gr tones, and dark wood grains are Dk tones and Dgr tones. , the flashy wood grain is located approximately at the Dp and S tones. Among them, L tone and Dl tone, which have a lightness of 4 to 7 and a saturation of 4 to 6, are the most orthodox wood grain color range. (See Figure 2)

When we conduct wood grain preference surveys, we find that there are various wood grain color preferences, but when we ask, ``What kind of wood grain gives you an eco-friendly feel?'', people choose light wood, and when we ask, ``What kind of wood grain gives a sense of luxury?'', people choose wood grain that retains its natural feel. The color of the wood grain you choose will largely determine the spatial image you can express, so you need to carefully choose the wood grain color to match your interior concept.

Flooring trends and accent colors are linked

It may seem like it has nothing to do with trends, but in fact, the wood grain color of the flooring is the easiest to understand trendiness. During the simple modern era of the early to mid-2000s, spaces that expressed modernity through the contrast of black wood grain and white walls were mainstream, but since the mid-2000s, as interiors have become more natural, traditional light wood grain volumes have become mainstream. has increased, and spaces that emphasize ecology and coexistence with the environment have become mainstream. In terms of wood species, it is a light-grained wood such as oak or maple. On the other hand, authentic spaces with dark wood grains such as walnut were often proposed for two-family homes and to promote the luxury of condominiums. Authentic spaces were the two major trends.

However, recently, high-performance printed flooring has become mainstream rather than veneer sliced from real wood, and low-saturation colors that cannot be expressed with real wood grain have become trendy colors. This is a particularly noticeable trend in apartments. However, if you combine colors of the same brightness, the entire space will look dull and lack sharpness, so you will need to change the tone of the fittings and furniture to create a light and dark effect.

The two photos below are both interiors of family apartments. Look closely at the changes in wood grain color and accent color.

Accent colors in spaces will also change to match the wood grain color trend. For example, in order to create an eco-friendly and healthy space that used bright wood colors, which were common in the mid-2000s, a clear green color that evokes the image of plant green was proposed. Currently, muddy colors such as blue-gray and grayish pastel are often used to match gray and grayish wood grain colors. In this way, colors that look beautiful when combined with the wood grain color of the flooring are used, so in order to identify the trending colors of furniture and fabrics, it is important to always be aware of changes in the wood grain color. This is a hint.

October 20, 2015

Text by Japan Color Design Institute