Color Buzz

Goooooal!! Colors of the World Cup

The eyes of the world are on South Africa for the next several weeks.  As a color expert, I'm not only enjoying the great soccer, but also the endless parade of great colors.  Everywhere fans are cheering on their teams with the help of colors.  For the most part, the colors of countries are primary or secondary colors.  With a few exceptions, we see a color combination play of red, blue, yellow, green, white and black. 

I love how each country takes full ownership of their combination of two or more of those six colors.  Red, white and blue are not just ours, but the Netherlands, Australia, France, England, Paraguay, New Zealand, Slovenia, Slovakia, and Serbia.  Greece seems to be the only one taking a step back, preferring a soft blue.

The Olympic Colors

Bursting with lush greens and vibrant blues, the colors of the Winter Olympics are anything but frosty.   Every time I look up to see one of the world class speed demons race across the finish line, the colors of the Vancouver Olympics are there cheering them on.

If you want to your home to take on this invigorating freshness you can try these Valspar colors:

                            

                   Awakening 6006-10C                Peek A Boo Blue 4007-10C

                                   Water Fountain 5001-10A                Spinach 6004-10C

This image was found on Tidbit.  This living room totally captures the bold spirit of these colors. The crisp white is a great way to break up the intensity.  This room would cheer you up even on the most dreary winter day.  Being in this room would probably also help you cut back on your coffee intake.

Here’s a small vignette from Blogspot.

This corner is crisp and modern.  I love this photo because it shows how the right color can deliver so much excitement.  The other elements, with their clean simple lines, pop against the bold backdrop.  It’s a great way to get a lot of bang for your buck.

Here, Coastal Living takes a rustic breezy direction with these colors.

The addition of creamy yellow adds warmth to the lively combination. Can you imagine a rejuvenating stay in this little corner of paradise?

This color combination provides a great backdrop for the athletes' uniforms. Of course, the U.S. team’s blue uniforms looks nice with the Vancouver colors. I also like the way Sweden team's uniforms pair with this backdrop. What are your favorite Olympic colors?

Wrigley Field

Wrigley Field is the home of great history, culture and, of course, one of America’s favorite teams, the Chicago Cubs. The venue is our country’s second oldest active major ballpark. Many of the greatest players in the game have graced its field. It’s fitting that a Valspar limited edition color collection was developed. The colors are: Ivy Green, Marquee Red and Pinstripe Blue.

    
    Cubs Ivy Green        Cubs Marquee Red      Cubs Pinstripe Blue 

For those of you unfamiliar with Wrigley Field, one of its signature traits is the Boston Ivy that covers the outfield walls. The ivy starts leafing up over the course of the early spring. Baseballs in play often get lost in the deep, green leaves. When this happens, the play is ruled a ground-rule double.

Wrigley Field’s bright red marquee is famous, not only in Chicago, but throughout the world, as it has appeared in numerous movies and TV shows. Wrigley has set the scene in such films as: Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, Rookie of the Year, Bleacher Bums, The Natural and A League of Their Own.

          

 The Cubs’ blue pinstripes are simply classic.

To celebrate the majesty of Wrigley, Valspar is holding a raffle this Sunday, July 12th at the doubleheader between the Cubs and the St. Louis Cardinals. The winner of the raffle gets to throw out the first pitch at the September 3rd game against the cross-town rival, the Chicago White Sox. If you’re at either game this Sunday, you can enter the raffle by finding the Valspar booth near Gate F, where they will also be taking donations for Habitat for Humanity to benefit the Chicagoland area.

Next week, the raffle will also open up online and I’ll post a link to it when it’s running. Needless to say, this is one opportunity Cubs fans can’t miss!

 Incorporating the three Cubs colors into a room is a great way to celebrate the team and their home field. Try them in a bedroom, family room, study or playroom.

One of best ways to work with these three powerful colors is to give them a neutral backdrop to pop against. You can try: Shoreline Haze, Milestone, Cliveden Sandstone or Ancient Scroll.

                       

Shoreline Haze 6008-1B   Cliveden Sandstone 3007-10B    Ancient Scroll 3008-8B

For an additional detail to add to your baseball room, you can check out one of our recent Friday Project Series: Baseball Shade.

I hope some of you take this on. Let us know what your results are! We’ll be sure to raise a “Cubs Win Flag” in your honor!

Friday Project Series: Baseball Shade

Opening Day is right around the corner. If you have a baseball fan in your house, this week's project just might be a home run.

My son is a huge Yankees fan. He has three very boring lamps in his room. I went out and bought four inexpensive white paper lampshades. I got four because unfortunately, you can't avoid making a mistake on a lampshade.

He had the idea of having his side table shades represent outfielders and the lampshade on the dresser represent the ball that is flying towards the two fielders. 

To paint the “baseball” lampshade, I first lightly drew out the shape of the baseball's stitching. Then I took out a small art brush and painted the stitches in red. It was very easy.

Next, I painted the outfielders’ “shirts.”  Because I wasn't totally confident about getting the Yankees logo right, I photocopied the logo from a hat.

I then transferred the image to the shade by coating the back with graphite from a pencil.

I proceeded to place the image on the shade and trace over it. The pressure from the pencil leaves a light graphite impression on the shade. From there, I painted in the lines with Navy blue paint. To finish, I added lines around the top and bottom to represent the pinstripes. 

He's really happy with the results!!!  He's ready to start cheering his team on.