Day three of Blogtour brought our group to the 100% Design show at Earl's Court, a great big trade show venue in London. Taking a break from walking the show, we stopped to hear from Mark Woodman, a trend consultant and the North American representative for British-based Global Color Research and Mix Publications. Mark presented a fascinating presentation on color trends for Autumn/Winter of 2012/13. Although they say that these colors should be in full force in a year or so, there were some early signs of these trends coming through at the London Design Festival shows.

Boston-based interior designer and blogger Andie Day tweeting live from 100% Design

The four color story trends that we should be seeing in Autumn/Winter 2012/13 are called Shanty, Ember, Tender and Bleep. (LOVE these names...the bloggers started seeing these colors and calling them out throughout the week.) Each of these color stories below shows the UK versions of the color trends. Revisions of each "story" were presented for the US and China. For the most part, these colors were slightly muted and softened for the US; and brightened for Asia.

Issue 25 of Mix goes into a bit of detail about the Ember and Shanty color stories, below.

Time worn, weathered by sea side elements, "Shanty" is a mix of blues and greens from the sea, greys and muted colors from stormy skies and pops of maritime reds and pinks.

Burnt, smoldering and metallic, "Ember" mixes the deep greys and blacks of charcoal. the reds, yellows and oranges of flames and the browns of burnt clay. Keep an eye on home decor trends during the next year to see if these trends end up translating into reality! Remember, you heard it here first! > Images of Issue 25 of Mix courtesy of Mix Publications. All other photos by Mollie Magill