Natural Living

Like fresh air spilling through open windows, this collection floats across the threshold separating inside from out. A natural extension of gardening fervor, the blurring of lines brings organic materials, wicker furnishings, floral prints and weathered copper indoors, and takes furniture, textiles, carpets, kitchen accoutrements and lighting out. So comfortably appointed are today's backyards, says Sheri Thompson, director of Sherwin-Williams' Color Marketing and Design department, that traditional outdoor staples are landing at garage sales. "Picnic coolers, gas grills and redwood tables seem almost prehistoric!"

The impulse to transform grass or garden into living space fills the book "P. Allen Smith's Garden Home" (Clarkson Potter, 2003) by the well-known garden designer and author. "A lot of Americans have their interiors where they want them, "Smith notes. "Now, they're looking outside and saying, 'Hmm. This has some possibilities.'" Smith advocates using color to unify home and garden. When an interior room opens directly into a garden enclosure, he takes the opportunity to extend a color theme from one realm into the next.

The palette veers toward jewel tones, but not those from the 1980s, which shared one look and value. Today's Fifth Avenue hues are about stark contrasts: from very pale Gray Screen to seriously dense Quixotic Plum and Turkish Coffee. The latter foretells black's likely homecoming, says Thompson.

Building on that, Sherwin-Williams blows through the color wheel, splashing ocean into rooms using Candid Blue, capturing the night sky with Indigo and tapping an orange suggestive of Aztec clay. (Orange, by the way, is "the color that makes everything feel new," says Michelle Lamb, senior editor of "The Trend Curve," "Everyone said orange wouldn't sell, and they were flat-out wrong.")

"We're promoting these colors for use indoors or out," says Thompson. Wherever and however applied, they're nature's ambassadors, erasing the divisions between interiors and exteriors.

Due to individual computer monitor limitations, colors seen here may not accurately reflect Sherwin-Williams paint colors. To confirm your color choices, visit your neighborhood Sherwin-Williams store and refer to our in-store color cards.