Tangerine Tango Color of Year 2012

Pantone has announced it...this year's color of the year is Tangerine Tango. Hooray...let's dance, or decorate...

Tangerine tango and variations on it are already popping up everywhere in home decor, clothing and household items, so jump on the band wagon and feel the warmth of the fresh new color. To see the perfect rendition of the color, go to http://www.pantone.com/pages/pantone/category.aspx?ca=88.

It’s pretty easy when someone says the word tangerine to think about orange colored food…pumpkins, oranges, carrots, or tangerines. Shades of orange can be exciting and invigorating or warm and cozy. Your eye perceives orange as a very hot color, so use it in decorating to give the sensation of heat or warmth. If you are decorating a cool North-facing room and need to warm it up…bring on the tangerine, orange, and all flavors around them!

I've always been a fan of shades of orange and red in decorating and have used it in many projects as well as my own home. Here are a few ideas of how to incorporate this juicy 2012 color into your life.

How about an invigorating start to the day in this luscious bathroom fit for a Tango? The combination of the limestone tile, black lacquer vanity and custom red glass sinks make a sensational start and end to the day.

Turn up the excitement in a teenager’s room with tangerine or orange tempered with white. This teen’s room has basketball colored walls, the team jersey as art, and a floor that encourages dribbling! Orange in nature is vibrant and enticing and fresh and exuberant…so use it in interiors in its most intense value when you want to create those feelings in a room, as in this teenager’s room in the colors of the North Carolina Bobcats! Orange increases oxygen supply to the brain, produces an invigorating effect, and stimulates mental activity. It is highly accepted among young people. The color used here is Benjamin Moore Fiesta Orange #084

http://www.benjaminmoore.com/en-us/paint-color/fiestaorange

Can't take an entire room of tangerine....how about a happy accent rug and linens to Tango on? This teen's room is too nice not to keep neat and clean!

This is a wow in any book and incorporates the compliment to tangerine...turquoise. This room performs double duty. When not in use for pool, a removable top converts the pool table into a dining table. That cool fireplace is wrapped in stainless steel pebble tiles to complete the contemporary look. Stainless pebble tiles are from www.Solistone.com

This cozy den has virtually no natural light, so don't fight what you cannot change...embrace it!We painted the ceiling a diamond-pattern semi-gloss and flat black punctuated with recessed cans. The walls are alternating horizontal stripes of flat and semi-gloss dark orange. This Benjamin Moore color is called Fire Dance (2171-20). http://www.benjaminmoore.com/en-us/paint-color/firedance

So...is this all too warm...too hot for you? Consider these images that invoke relaxation but are steeped in shades or tangerine...orange...hmmm!

The softer combinations of orange and turquoise bring to mind the sunset I see from my office and my kitchen deck in the evenings that begin in August and continue through October…the colors beginning with intensity and then slowly melting together as only Mother Nature can do!

The saffron robes of this monk in Laos with the backdrop of a pale blue building make you want to just sit in a quiet place and contemplate...and they said orange is invigorating...? Sometimes not...