Emerald - Color of the Year

Ways to Bring Pantone Color of the Year 2013 - Emerald - into your life.

Emerald - vivid, strong, evocative of luxury as all gemstone colors are, richer and bluer than Kelly Green but certainly not approaching Teal - we can be sure of one thing: this is not a neutral.

One of the great things about Emerald is that it's trans-seasonal. That makes it very versatile, and it can slot right in to the other color stories and trends throughout the year.

I've created a Pinterest Board where you will find examples of Emerald in home decor, personal style and beauty, and accessories, gathered from all over throughout 2013.

Meanwhile here are some DIY ways to add a touch of emerald luciousness to your life.

1. Makeup

I've never been one to use a lot of bright colors in my eyeshadow, instead favoring warm browns, greys and deep purples. But a touch of emerald on my lids works great with my hazel eyes, and enhances most eye colors and skin tones. Younger folk might enjoy the fun of Emerald eye liner or mascara as well.

Another place to enjoy emerald: nail polish, temporary and fun.

2. DIY accessories

Pick up a quarter yard of emerald colored cotton or silk blend - plain or a small print. Cut a few 1.5 inch wide strips across. Wrap a couple of plastic or wood bangles in the cloth - stitching or gluing the end on the inside. Sew on some glass seed beads if desired.

Cut wider strips - about 7-8 inches wide - from the rest of the fabric, join two short ends for a long strip then hem the ends and long sides, if you wish, for a simple scarf to enliven your spring pastels and summer gelato colors. Plus it will be a lovely focal point for neutral grays.

Caution: Emerald looks great with navy and white, but be careful that you don't end up looking like a flight attendant if you are wearing something like a structured navy suit and white shirt. Going with a multi strand bead necklace or whoppingemerald rhinestone pendant could be better than a scarf.

3. Mat your pictures.

Emerald home accessories look beautiful popping from a neutral background. One way to bring in the color without painting walls is to frame artwork in creamy whitewash or black frames with emerald mats. These would look especially chic in a wall collage grouping, when the emerald mats would become the unifying element.

Caution: Emerald and red oak or mission brown wood frames tends to look a bit like a family restaurant at the holidays, and can feel dark. Putting emerald with the warm or cool whites is much more modern, especially for Spring.

4. Spray your troubles away.

Create a collection from a disparate bunch of glass and china items with spray paint. This technique looks great in any color, so for this year why not do emerald? Clean your items with windex, or dilute ammonia, rinse well and let dry fully before spraying with emerald spray paint. Cluster these or line up along your mantel to create a sweet vignette.

Tips: For no mess spray painting set a large cardboard box on it's side and set your item inside. The box will catch the overspray. For ease put small 3D items to be sprayed onto a lazy susan dedicated to crafting. Always remember to clean your nozzle by turning the can upside down and spraying for a moment until the stream is just air.

Spray paint wicker with emerald. Consider spraying just the inside of a wide bowl shaped basket.

5. Add textiles to your home decor.

The first and easiest way to add emerald is to cover some throw pillows with fabric. There are plenty of patterns online, but I find the easiest is to sew around three sides of a square by machine, and hand stitch the final side once the pillow form is inserted. Make it more interesting by using two coordinating fabrics on either side.

A set of four art canvases covered with simply stapled printed fabrics makes easy art.

How about a garland of small triangles from remnants of all these other prints?

6. Dye your way to fun.

Grab a couple of packages of emeraldgreen dye and revitalize some of your white, cream or other light colored garments. Ideas include socks, tees, or white shirts. Dying patterns and prints can result in some nicely unpredictable results.

Textured denims and colored jeans are in for spring and summer. A retro inspired trend is to overdye indigo denim. Use a strong concentration of dye to get a good color.

7. Beautiful papers

Expect to see emerald appearing in scrapbooking papers. One of the trends in paper crafting is to make highly embellished single photo 12 x 12 layouts which are then framed as wall art - with or without glass. Try using lush emerald paper as the background for a collection of shadow boxes.

For an unusual way to bring emerald into your decor, consider covering books in wrapping or scrapping papers, to bring unity or highlights to your book shelves. If you use magazine boxes to hold your subscriptions, decoupage the spine end with emerald paper. Add origami paper boxes to hold trinkets or keys.

8. Serendipity

Once you start looking around your house, you may be surprised at the number of things that you find that are emerald in color. Think of leafy flower arrangements, sitting in a glass vase filled with water colored with green food coloring. Maybe you have some green candles (for good fortune and prosperity) or some stones or crystals (like malachite) in assorted green colors. Bring these scattered items together and they become a collection.

You may have some glass or plastic ball ornaments amongst your Christmas tree decorations that could be repurposed in a large bowl as another touch of emerald.

If you happen to have any peacock feathers, you will be embracing two trends at once - jewel toned emerald green and feathers.