Make 2018 a Colorful Year

Feb 28, 2018 | AVA Blog

Guest AVA Advisor

Melissa Quick

Melissa Quick

Commercial Product & Marketing Manager North America, AVA® by Novalis® Innovative Flooring

Melissa Quick has over 30 years of experience in the commercial flooring industry and she attained her LEED GA to gain general knowledge of green building practices and how to support others working on LEED projects.

Reference Images

AVA SPRK Colors

AVA® SPRK™ features 38 color ways.

AVA SPRK

The start of every year brings out two things: New Year Resolutions and new discussions about color and 2018 is no exception! Color is so very important to design. Most would agree that it’s the foundational consideration to approaching a space. But as we all know, color is more than just warm and cool tones. Color can have a tremendous influence on the mood for those in the space itself.

Even Swiss psychologist Carl Jung used color to define human temperaments: Sunshine Yellow, Earth Green, Cool Blue, and Fiery Red. He actually built this model on what Hippocrates of ancient Greece devised to group personality types.

According to Jung, these four temperaments or “Color Energies” are defined as follows:

  • Cool Blue: Shows no bias, objective, detached and analytical
  • Earth Green: Still, tranquil, calming, soothing
  • Sunshine Yellow: Cheerful, uplifting, spirited, enthusiastic
  • Fiery Red: Positive, decisive, bold, assertive

Until recently, flooring has often played a minor supporting color role in interior design (think the omni-present beige carpet in the home). However, the “5th Wall” (as flooring is sometimes referred to) is being rediscovered as an expressive canvas for design and color integration into the entire home, office, or restaurant. So as you think of the space you’re designing, think of the role color plays in expressing and reinforcing the desired temperament of the room—and how the color of flooring can play a role!

Color, Biophilic Design and Flooring

Naturally occurring earth colors and tones are a key element of the biophilic design trend (see our article here) and provide a soothing “connectedness” of the interior space with the surrounding exterior world. Such design and color in flooring can be a welcome approach to spaces intended for inspirational or restorative places for the mind and body, from churches to retreats to healthcare facilities.

Color, Fashion and Flooring

For spaces intended to be stimulating or invigorating, such as schools, and some forms of retail or hospitality, expressive flooring often makes a fashion statement by the use of bold and daring colors. For example, we couldn’t help but notice the similarities in colors from our SPRK™ and SNSE® LVT collections and the Pantone® “Spring 2018 Top 12 Color Palette” just announced. Here are some amazing similarities:

Color as a Trend Setter

Color also plays an enormous role in defining what many consider to be important, emerging design trends for 2018. In a recent article entitled “5 Design Trends That Will Dominate 2018” in Interior Design by Ali Morris, color essentially defines four of the trends such as “Terracotta,” “Maximalism,” “Comfort Spaces,” and “Monochrome.” In our AVA® collections, we have several styles and colors that support these 2018 trends beautifully.

This year, resolve to use color more effectively in your designs … starting from the floor up!

Questions or comments? Let us know by going to the contact page!