January 2005
For Immediate Release
Paint Colour Cues for 2005
Choice, choice and more choice. No longer content to simply run with the dominant trends, we are all interpreting the
trends in our own unique manner. As savvy consumers we are seeking options, personalised to our own tastes, our own
lifestyle, our own moods. This personalisation has resulted in an explosion of colour and finish options that may be
mixed and matched in an infinite array of combinations to create something truly personal, truly unique. The Range 2005
collection encourages this personal interpretation offering suggested combinations on the back of each chip as starting
points for blending the trends presented to suit your style.
Colour is more powerful than most of us comprehend. We are surrounded by it and our moods and behaviours are influenced
by it every day in everything that we do. Colour is a tool available to all of us.
Lifestyle is driving colour and design, underpinned by a focus on healthier lives and the importance of the home as a
source of security, a base for entertaining and for many, a source of income. This need for multi-functionality drives
home layout and colour selection to suit the spaces and feeling required in each, whether convivial in entertaining
areas and trustworthy and honest in work spaces. Disease and terrorism are encouraging many to stay close to home,
driving the popularity of Pacific hues of blues and greens in favour of the generally warmer European trends.
Metallics and pearlescents, such as Resene Quicksilver and Resene Vault, remain popular but are becoming standard
decorating options combined with solid hues, rather than options only for the brave at heart. Bright clean metallics
give way to antiqued metallics such as zinc and pewter. Careful touches of these effects finishes adds dimension without
dominating the room. Solid colour hues take on new depths softening to suggest inner light. Coloured lighting offers
immediate colour change with the flick of a switch. Often combined with metallic finishes, the coloured lighting plays
on the metallic flakes and other light sources to create an everchanging finish.
With the world growing ever unpredictable, seemingly trivial touches are capturing our imaginations – whether the subtle
glint of a metallic flake, the deep red undertone of our favourite blue or the subtle combination or two finishes - we
are learning to appreciate the fine details of the elements we see around us. Heralded as a new sensitivity, our
imaginations and emotions are opening up new fantasy worlds. Sensitivity and sensuality are not new concepts, but are
becoming increasingly mainstream. Rules are relaxed, boundaries blurred – the rule, if any, is to simply choose elements
that suit you, your style, elements that you love. This relaxed environment sees unexpected combinations of hues and
materials – sometimes stunning, sometimes strange, but always personalised. Edging toward cleaner, clearer hues than the
2004 palette, evolutionary colour redefining classics.
Colour perception of necessity varies from individual to individual being purely the way one views reflected light. The
experience of a highly colour aware individual will be vastly different from one whom is colour blind. This variation
ensures that all of our experiences with colour are unique to ourselves and cannot be wronged by the perceptions of
others, as they may not be seeing it as we ourselves do.
Pinks, traditionally scarcely used in Australasia, are a popular means of portraying optimism. Typically embued with
warm undertones, pinks, such as Resene Cabaret, are best used in small doses or in cooler rooms to avoid perceptions of
raised temperatures in already sun-dosed rooms. Purples are gently waning, with remaining hues, such as Resene Dotcom,
being complex rather than clean and bright. Taupes find themselves substituted by mushrooms and greyed lilacs.
Copper and spiced hues continue from previous The Range collections in colours such as Resene Rust and Resene Moroccan
Spice, cementing their importance as a means of adding a tangy edge to schemes.
Chocolate and coffee brown hues emerge signifying stability and comfort. Anchoring and dependable, browns, such as
Resene Caffeine and Resene Barista, are a versatile solid base for neutrals and brights and are starting to cast their
influence over developing hues.
Yellows move away from the purely bright sun yellows of the past to be merged with neutrals. Gold touched with copper,
yellowed neutrals – sheer, warm and full of inner shine. Yellows, particularly citrus based hues, while still not
dominant are making a new entrance following a subtle presence in 2004 and are influencing the orange palette moving it
away from the 2004 coppers.
Blues continue to be popular, whether watery, atmospheric or dependable. Tending towards a red edge to give a warm
undertone or flowing towards airy atmospheric blues, the pure honesty of blue appeals to a wide range of tastes. Whether
dark or light, we place our trust in increasingly complex blues, such as Resene True Blue and Resene Breakwater, to calm
and relax the tensest situations. Most greener blues have become green.
To tone with the red edged blues, reds, such as Resene Pirate, are soaking in blue undertones. Reds are predominantly
finding their way into schemes as one element rather than the bulk of the scheme, softened with sophisticated
combinations of neutrals or cooled complex hues. Reds range from burnished roses to coral hues melding into the orange
palette where melon and burnt copper with peach tints re-emerge.
Whites, neutrals and greys are responsible, the essential backbone of scheme development. Greys range from deepest
charcoals through to weathered and atmospheric greys and hues of molten metals, such as Resene Jimmy Dean and Resene
White Metal. Neutrals touch on cool and warm and include new flesh tones, a safe option to anchor a scheme or be the
scheme. Complexity encourages a chameleon like nature, allowing the same neutral to change to suit the hues it is teamed
with. Green edged greys, charcoals with chocolate undertones and champagne whites dominate the new neutrals that are
warm, natured derived and infused with colour.
Drawn from its grounding role in Mother Nature, green continues as the new neutral – grounding, optimistic,
regenerative, vital – an asexual colour that moves through soft neutrals to dark olives and citrus tones such as Resene
Middle Earth and Resene Hermitage, to provide balance.
2005 colours are affected by the human response, adding spirituality and refreshing, rejuvenating and cleansing the
palette. Deep yearnings for desire comfort, stability and security are balanced by desires for optimistic hues to lift
spirits. Colours continue to be infused with multi-tones enabling them to transcend from one colour group to another as
adjacent colours change.
Looking for inspiration? Check out the Resene The Range 2005, brimming with colour choices awaiting customisation to
your project. Whether you are seeking colours to lift or calm your spirits, Resene is confident you can find a Range
2005 colour to suit your home, your mood and most importantly, your lifestyle. The Range 2005, a collection of 185
classic and contemporary colours, metallics and wood finishes designed for the year 2005, is available from Resene
ColorShops nationwide. Call 0800 RESENE (NZ), 1800 738 383 (AUST) or visit www.resene.co.nz (NZ), www.resene.co.nz
(AUST) for the Resene ColorShop nearest you.
ENDS