What’s the hot new color? What’s the latest trend in home products and interiors? As a custom builder or designer, you hear these questions constantly. As you know, having the right answers for your clients can translate into quicker sales and more satisfied buyers. Knowing what is hot in the marketplace will set you apart from your competitors.

The one true font of knowledge on this subject is an organization called Color Marketing Group, the international organization that forecasts and tracks color trends. Its purpose is summed up in its tag line: Color sells and the right color sells better.

Twice a year, this group, made up of color professionals from major manufacturers from cars to carpets as well as hundreds of independent color consultants and educators, meets to assess the major trends in the marketplace and the effect of those trends on colors.

Popular colors and finishes are not pulled out of a hat. Rather, they directly reflect the pulse of the people buying them; how they feel emotionally, how positive or negative their feelings are about the economy, and how they feel about their lives in general. For many years, CMG noted how the stress of everyday life affects what people look for in products in terms of their color and how those colors make them feel.

All of us are stressed today by faxes, pagers, cell phones, e-mails, road rage, soccer games and more, so when we finally come home all we want to do is shut the doors, lock out the world, sit in front of the TV and call out for food. CMG members recognize this trend, often referred to as cocooning, as a long-standing driver of consumer choices. You’ve seen the effect of this trend in the prevalence of muted comfort colors, soft relaxed fabrics, overstuffed leather chairs, and other elements in the home that make us feel relaxed and sheltered from the stress of outside life.