Well, I saw an article about that on Thursday. So on New Year's Eve for our theme drink we had lime ade with grenadine and vodka to ring in 2011!

Julie - Perfect! I had diet gingerale & pomegrante/cranberry...I'd guess that counts, too!

I already wrote a blog post about Honeysuckle shortly after it was announced. Title is "And the 2011 Color of the Year is Prison Pink". Cracked myself up a lil with that one, have to admit. :)

I can't help myself - every time I see this color all I can think of is Prison Pink a.k.a. Drunk Tank Pink. The color from the infamous Baker-Miller 1939 study by Dr. Alexander Schauss, Ph.D., director of the American Institute for Biosocial Research in Tacoma Washington.

You say honeysuckle, I say raspberry. Either way, this is my favorite color: I've worn and used it for years!

This is my living room, I painted the two IKEA Lack side tables BM's Pink Ladies. Love them!

And our powder room:

This is a color which delights my soul. Yea 2011 for me!

Happy New Year, RM. I immediately thought of you when I read this. I adore and wear this color, but, sadly, cannot work it in decor-wise here. Not yet, at least. So alive and joyous!

Am I the only one who thinks pale yellow for Honeysuckle?
Although I do have two varieties of red honeysuckle in the yard.
I'm indifferent though. I'm still trying to incorporate the 2010 color of turquoise into a basically blue, red and gold scheme.

That pink would match half my clothes.

It'd match for me too Bumble - clothes that is. While I love pink, I do not have much in our home, mainly because I have a manly man living there too. LOL I used to have a good pit of pink in our sunroom, but recently redecorated in there.

rmkitchen - I do love your pink tables with your black toile!

tina

I've worn Honey suckle perfume since the 70's.. I have Honey Suckle shower gel; body spray & candles. They are all yellow. lol

When I clicked the link; I expected to see yellow lol

Would I use the color? No, too pink for me. My favorite pink is a mauve; which looks like it's coming back.. with pocketbooks anyway. lol

What an interesting retort to Restoration Hardware's funereal palette. Pantone pushes for brights, RH bets the farm on drab. Who will win the Color War of 2011?!

bumblebeez - I, too, was expecting to see a shade of yellow. I got thrown off while reading a blog entry about honeysuckle - wondering why all her room design examples were shades of pink. When did honeysuckle become pink?

I LOVe pink but I think my husband would really be unhappy if I used it the way I'd like to around the house. Pink will be relegated to my daughter's room. I may still do pink in the laundry room as he's NEVER in there. ;)

Well, I am going to incorporate some pink (and purple) into our home this year, but it's not going to be that pink, which is a tad too Pepto-Bismoesque for me (not to mention mr. sandyponder).

I'm toying with the idea of either a pink room (downstairs pool room/office) or the family bath upstairs (gray marble tile, white and chrome fixtures), but if either get painted pink, it's going to be deeper and more peony like. BM's Gypsy Pink, FPOE Susan Sargent colors Posy, Rouge, Geranium and C2 Fetish are currently in the running, but since the project is several months away, I have lots of time to obsess.

WRT the color of honeysuckle, the plant I know as honeysuckle in the far Northeast of the US, is pink, so maybe there are different variations in different parts of the world. Or, since I am not a plant maven, I probably have been calling honeysuckle the wrong name!

Thanks for posting, binsb.

sandyponder

Our wild honeysuckle is a creme color and yellow. I have a climbing honeysuckle that I purchased and the name is "pink lemonade". It's that pink with a bit of a pale creamy yellow.

awm, since when did RH make the decisions? The more I look through the recent catalog, the more I hate it for it's pretentiousness.

rmkitchen - also meant to say that I really love your pops of pink and your pink powder room.

RMkitchen, I too love your hot pink tables with your beautiful toile sofa. That's a great look. Just the perfect pop of color!

I use a soft, blush pink in my lr/dr which is nothing like honeysuckle. I can't see the two working well together, so I think I'll pass on using the color of the year!

I expected either yellow or even the green of the leaves. I did not expect pink!

I'd be upset if my color choices were listed as the color of the year. I would hate to see them overdone and copied everywhere.

As for pink, I now own 2 pink shirts because dh likes them on me, but until recently, could not have found any pink on my person or in my house (except for a KA knife that the proceeds went to breast cancer). Of course, laundry mishaps notwithstanding, lol.

Dh is lucky that I only subject him to purple and lavender when I am feel like decorating "girly".

I love this color, and the best part for me is that before the end of the year, TJ Maxx, etc., will be packed with accessories at marked-down prices because the powers that be will have chosen another color. I stocked up on lime green when it was the color o' the day, and b/w toile in it's time. When the pendulum swings to old rose and teal, I can stay home with my out of date junk.

I'm happy that my favorite throw is now in!

I was SO disappointed. That warm soft honeysuckle off-yellow is one of my favorite colors and what I also assumed, even though there is a reddish-pink one too in my garden. I was already looking forward to gathering up armloads as it and variations hit TJ Maxx and Craig's List. There's so sadly little of the luscious yellows out there.

Ideefixe, just a friendly warning, my DIL will be there snatching up everything too.

Dianalo, funny you should mention your dh being lucky you don't subject him to pink. My dh loves our pink! I've had my moments of ambivalence about it, but he hasn't! When I think of changing it, & bring home swatches or paint sample boards, he always tells me to re-paint it if I want to, but always adds, "I think you got it right the first time, if you ask me!"

Other men seem to like it too. None have ever reported that it felt girly or made them uneasy. More than one man has commented that it felt "warm." Maybe men gravitate to the warmth? I don' know, just thought I'd throw this out there...your dh may not dislike the color as much as you suspect!

Funcolors, this one's for you:

[Caption: "It's spinach, dear." "I say it's broccoli and I say the hell with it."]

...not only one of my favorite New Yorker cartoons ever but also an accurate depiction of how I too feel about the Pantone color of the year!

Ann

OMG, Ann that one had me ROTFL! :)

Thing about Honeysuckle is I got all the numbers and swatches and blah, blah, blah. Because online it's hard to tell what color it *really* is. Even after checking all that stuff out, I still just cannot get myself past the association.

Good news for Pantone is that only really old people like me who have been up to their eyeballs in all things color for two decades are likely to make that connection - associate Honeysuckle with Prison Pink.

The range of pink for Pantone's Honeysuckle seems to keep getting bigger and bigger with every day that passes. It's hilarious. My favorite is a few other blogs who have gone out of their way to single themselves out as early adapters of Pantone's Honeysuckle. Highlighting in detail every use of any color that could remotely be construed as "just like" the newest trend color.

When in actuality, the color they used isn't really a pink. Arguably, what they've used is more in the berry red range. The desperation I read between the lines for these poor bloggers to feel like they were "so on" the next color trend is palpable. Do they blog all year long hoping they can guess the next trend color correctly so they can write an "I told ya so" post?

Probably need to quit thinking about this so much 'cuz really who cares? A brand new trend color will be announced any second now anyway and we won't even remember Pantone's color of the year 2011.

In the mean time, the rest of the world will can remain blissfully unaware of the fact that Honeysuckle could double as Prison Pink. Except, of course, for the few thousand people who read what I what I wrote about it on my blog, forums, etc. ((grins))

Hey Funcolors, since I don't bother to get the swatches, can you tell me what the Honeysuckle looks like in Ben Moore or SW or P&L? Just curious.

I do agree with you that it is hard to discern online.

Back in "my day", it was called Hot Pink.
Too pink for decorating for me.

Also back in "my day", we wore Hot Pants(with boots), thinking I had a pair of Hot Pink.

My sister had a hot pink Thonet desk chair and wastebasket in 1969.

In 2008, I used velvet pillows in a very similar pink on a *Man's* bed :) because he has a fair amount of original abstracts with that color in them. Readily available from Crate & Barrel. One of my ID instructors maintained that men don't care about "feminine" color as much as feminine textures bugged them--shiny, frilly, lacy, sparkly.

The ____ of the year is mostly marketing and to keep things stirred up.

Well! I'm always either ahead or behind!

I chose a pale teal for our bedroom (just because I liked the color) then found out it was a "hot color."

I recently bought some hot pink face towels for the hall bath, because 1)the pale blue and white scheme needed a bit of a punch 2)pale face towels seemed to always look dirty after a few rounds of washing off makeup, and 3)I had other accessories/art that had that color.

I also just bought some hot pink paint for some furniture, and added hot pink trim to some lampshades.

I don't *want* to be trendy at all. I want my house to not look like anyone else's, and I want my own personality and style to show, not look like I just ran out the local home dec store and bought some things, or got my inspiration from the latest decor rag. I don't/won't care when it's all declared "dated" and whatever the new best thing is introduced.

Pfft! I'm just going to keep on buying what I like and it can either be in or out or dated, or whatever!

Funny, but I am even less a fan of pink than dh, lol.
I was glad to have boys and avoid the whole Barbie pink thing and all the pink clothes....
The only pink I can appreciate is a really washed out vintage pink. The rest just does not work for me.

franksmom - I completely understand what you mean. We got married in 2002 and I chose my favorite color combos (red/fuschia/burnt orange with bamboo/lime accents) only to find it plastered all over wedding magazines a few months later. That in combination with getting married at my parish church and having our reception at what turned out to be places some LA celebs had chosen as well (although on a much, much grander scale) suddenly made what I thought an "original" wedding into a trendy one. Bah!

Sounds to me like you're ahead of the crowd. ;)

I remember when that color was called mauve. :)

In the right setting almost any color is beautiful... I realized that when I saw a soft lilac room that I liked, although I don't officially like purples. If pink is back then lucky for me, as my living room sofa is a small green and pink check, two side chairs are upholstered with an oriental print on a pale pink background, and our daughter's bedroom still has her childhood furniture painted with wide pink and white stripes and flowers. I knew if I waited long enough . . . plus ca change, plus c'est la meme chose...

I, too, was surprised that pantone's honeysuckle is a shade of pink. The only honesuckle I know about is a creamy soft yellow color with light green stamen. That said, I don't associate it at all with prison pink as it's not the same shade IMO. To each his own. I Love this statment from someone above: "What an interesting retort to Restoration Hardware's funereal palette." I also
think kswl said it well: "in the right setting almost any color can be beautiful." Like mrkitchen, I need HAPPY colors in my home that satisfy my soul. I don't want to walk into the house after work to beige, greige, gray or monochromatic tones. I want to see happy and lively colors. Color..used well, doesn't have to be loud, garish or tacky. Happy colors can succesfully be used with lots of white and a little black to ground them. There are tons of examples on the net and in decorating magazines. Maybe it's my NOLA upbringing and exposure to such a strong caribbean / French /Spanish influence that makes me love color so much. Color and lots of it is very common in NOLA interiors. A lot of it is on walls. A lot of it is in art and quirky finds mixed in that make a home so individual, as opposed to looking like a home that could be an example in a pottery barn or RH catalog. I own a
PB sofa and a couple of accessories so I don't hate PB. I just don't think a home that completely looks like a mass market product is very interesting or fun. If you successfully include enough negative space with bright colors it keeps things from being loud too. So, I can totally appreciate rmkitchen's love of that happy pink shade. I like it too and planned to do my office or powder room in a happy pink shade (with blue undertones) before the pantone color was announced. I never have considered colors trendy. I liked red before it became Nancy Reagan red. I liked turquoise before it was pantone's 2010 color and the same is true for pink. Yellow is also a favorite. how can anyone not like the color of sunshine? Parrot green is also beautiful if done well. To the mass marketers turquoise or pink may be the focus now but they've both been around for eons in many cultures so I don't see color as a completely mass market tool in the same way I see a certain "look" in the catalogs with regard to furniture and accessories. I think the best designs / colors are those that make us happy. So..RMkitchen...i love your pink table in the LR and your pink powder room. Powder rooms are made for drama I think. I also LOVE your wall of art in both rooms. It is very well done...very eclectic...and shows lots of character and personality. Nothing about your home says "trend" or "mass market" to me.

Yep -- thats "hot pink" for me too! LOL! In 1967 my bedroom had hot-pink bedspreads on the twin beds and hot pink groovy posters from Pier One. Cooooooool ......

And yes! -- I DID think that a color named "Honeysuckle" would be a pale yellow ..... funny ......:)

Since my sofas are plum in my one-and-only living room -- I MAY stick to just a few flowers on my mantel in that dashing color! :)

Of course -- the drinks sound wonderful! :)

These pillows were close, because the art all had pinks in it.
I post this not because I was ahead of the curve but because this is a man's bedroom and I don't think the pink looks "too" feminine in this context.

The nuance, the detailed color character will change depending on the material or 'format'; talking about cotton, silk, paper, plastic, sRGB or RGB, etc.

Paint color references range, in BenM color preview for example, would be bottom three colors on leaf #001, 002, 003, and 006.

BenM's Deco Rose 1328 has long been associated as being a close "match" to early versions of Prison Pink. It's on leaf #003. When the color was announced, just about every online reference or example reminded me of #1328.

Present tense, I think there is more of an effort to push it toward a hot pink or fuchsia instead of just pink like in the beginning.

The color psychology slant Pantone has tagged to this color is a whole 'nother area for debate. Arguably, that's as off the mark as calling it hot pink.

The thing that I keep forgetting to say is that a lot of ready mades and gadgets and such will be made in this color or its variant. So if you want an Umbra plastic wastebasket, or inexpensive hand towels, a potato peeler, or a flyswatter in Pantone Honeysuckle, 2011 is your year.

I was at Hobby Lobby yesterday (I'm making tutus for a niece's bday) and heard no less than 4 different people talking about/looking for honeysuckle with their shopping companions. They were talking about the pink (not yellow) and how to utilize it. I felt like an eavesdropper but found it amusing considering the discussion here.

Wow. When I read the title, I was expecting a very creamy, light golden color.

There is a conspiracy.

Neither is exact, but these were in development before "color of the year" was announced.
Silestone Energy
{{!gwi}}

Silestone Love Neuvo
{{!gwi}}

This opened in London in September. Definitely an energetic color! And definitely a conspiracy. This arrived in my in-box shortly after I looked at this thread.

Selfridges Shoe Gallery

"This opened in London in September. Definitely an energetic color! And definitely a conspiracy. This arrived in my in-box shortly after I looked at this thread.

Selfridges Shoe Gallery"

I read that & thought you'd written "...this arrived in my shoe-box shortly after...".

I was wondering where you might order your shoes from! :)

You made me laugh binsd! Let me think....my last pair of shoes came from Marshall's of London:)

Glad I gave you a chuckle deedee!

______________

I just came across this blurb in www.saffronmarigold.com blog:

As a matter of fact, the lovely (and very natural) Pink Lemon-aid Honeysuckle flower above is the inspiration for Pantone�s latest "Color of the Year".

Now it makes more sense to me.

Link to flower below.

Here is a link that might be useful: Pink Lemonade Honeysuckle Flower

I bought a corduroy jacket this past fall in that color...when I saw it in the store I was drawn like a magnet.
I had no idea it was the "it" color!
Or more relevantly, so sadly drawn to trends without even being aware of it.

Binsd, it always amazes me that people would actually buy a color just because it's in style.

Well, I guess I'm in style then! Below is a nice size basket I received as a Christmas gift, and I had planned on leaving it out all year when I find the right spot. It has one handle so it's meant to be hung on a wall.

My guest bath has a lot of pink in it, so this will look nice with a few hand towels inside the basket.

Yes, I realize it has a Christmas theme, but I don't care!

Oh, my Honeysuckle is cream also.

{{!gwi}}

And from Villeroy and Boch:

Love the color, no way. If you look at me and that color at the same time, I look embalmed.

Here you go:

This was after the first coat of paint, so it ended up being a bit richer (and more fushia than pink, I think) after the second coat. Behr's "Hot Pink." Who knew I was so trendy?!

I absolutely love it! Most of my Christmas ornaments are bright pink, used with lime green. I'll put *anything* on my tree, or use in decorating the room, that's bright pink(not the same as fuchsia)and lime green.

I'm jealous of those of you who have used it in your home~~just don't have the guts! ;o)

Franksmom, that's for the guest room thats relatively quiet otherwise right? I like it:)

Yep. I put them in the corner, and it absolutely glows like it was radioactive. Sweeeeet! Even DH, who said "Oh..." when I told him I was using that color gave me a big grin and said "Very cool" when he saw it finished. That room is VERY close to being (mostly) done. I just have some small painting projects, and I'll post pics of the whole place.

I meant I DO love the color. Forgot the word "but" after that, sorry. Wonderful, happy color. I've put some gorgeous rooms in the Gallery that used that color as an accent and WOW.