Pantone Colour of the year 17-5641 Emerald

As you may have heard by now, Pantone's Colour of the Year is 17-5641 Emerald and inspiration for this jewel tone seems to be popping up everywhere.

Over the holidays, while shelling pistachios for a chocolate treat, I was inspired by its beauty and its array of vivid and jewel like tones and had to whip out my camera and take a few shots. As a designer, I'm inspired everyday by all things that surround me, this one really excited me because of how beautifully the colors blended together and especially knowing this years colour. While putting together a colour scheme inspired by my chocolate treat, I had a sense of energy and life and could imagine how well the bold colours would play off of each other. I definitely think when designing with this colour you gotta go bold or go home. Mixing in other rich tones whether it be fabrics or accessories will compliment the already luxurious colour and certainly make an elegant statement. Its bold, its rich and It's definitely not for the colour challenged.

Take a look at some inspiration images featuring "Emerald" I love below. 

The Photos below were sourced from Pantone's own Pinterest page.

Open your eyes you never know where inspiration is waiting to be discovered!

Classically Inspired Kitchen-Countertops

When selecting new countertops it's important to weigh all your options and get the features and benefits of each surface in order to decide which is most suitable for your lifestyle. For this project in particular, we specified quartz countertops because of its low maintenance properties. Quartz Countertops are made from 93% Quartz and the remaining 7% is made up of other resins and glass, it's essentially a man made stone. The benefits of using quartz is that it's a non-porous material, meaning you don't have to seal it every couple of years like you would granite or marble. It's also stain resistant, scratch resistant, and heat resistant. One of the things I also love about this product is that the consistency of the grain in the overall slab. 

 For this project, Caesarstones Oyster 9601 was the stone of choice.

 There are many quartz manufacturers on the market, when selecting a quartz surface the process in which the stone is prepared is similar from manufacturer to manufacturer, the main difference is the selection of colours and finishes, also there are a few manufacturers who offer jumbo size slabs to be used for large islands. It's very important to do all your research before you commit to just one type of stone.