Bringing your space up to date
The Pantone color trends have been major influencing trends for design, fashion, homewares, and all things color for many years. And we must be honest, we think they get it pretty right most of the time. Each year their team introduces a new set of colors that inspire both independently, as well as when they are together as a colorway. “So, what are the 2021 colors this year?”, we hear you asking. The colors announced for 2021 are Ultimate Gray and Illuminating. Colors that are both solid, uplifting, optimistic, and warm. All the things one needs – read on to see our Pantone inspired Office Objects.
The whole thing got us thinking, and you guessed it, we got inspired. The result was a Pantone-inspired colorway project in celebration of the 2021 colors. And of course, you can also find similar colors within the Montana color ranges in a variety of their paint lines. We chose Montana METALLIC Silver, Montana GOLD Asphalt, Vanilla, and Easter Yellow.
MATERIALS USED
- Montana GOLD (in the colors Asphalt, Vanilla, and Easter Yellow)
- Montana METALLIC (in the color Metallic Silver)
- Ceramic planter pots
- Wooden desktop organizer
- Hole punch
- Wooden board
- Sandpaper (optional)
- Masking tape
- Gloves
- Mask
- Drop Sheet
How It was done
The European winter is ending, the sun is shining again, and the new 2021 Pantone colors have been announced. What a great opportunity to update our office or our workspace. Or any other room you think needs it. Our focus was on the ceramic planter pots that housed our little cacti, a wooden desktop organizer that was begging for a facelift, a hole punch as we hadn’t thought of that before, and a complimentary piece of a wooden board (or MDF particle board) for general decoration and surface protection.
Ceramic Planter Pots
The small white planter pots were ambient decoration on our desks up until now. Therefore, it occurred to us to bring them to the fore a little. Starting with the biggest one, after it was cleaned and dried, we applied a complete coat of Montana GOLD in the color Easter Yellow. Inside and out, we sprayed one side while in a standing position, the other upside down once the inside had dried. We then allowed the whole pot to dry and then masked the top half off with our masking tape so that it would stay yellow where covered.
While we were using the tape, we also masked triangular shapes into two of the small pots which we were going to spray a different color each. One pot was left completely white as a complementary color to our wooden board, which we will get to later. The remaining half of the big pot was sprayed with Montana METALLIC Silver, and the two smaller pots had their triangles painted in either Asphalt or Easter Yellow from the Montana GOLD range. We left them all to dry overnight.
Wooden Desktop Organizer
Our wooden desktop organizer was one of those classic must-haves that gets daily use on our desk along with the other Pantone inspired Office Objects and was more than overdue that we gave it a little color. Ours was smooth and clean, but you may need to lightly sand with fine sandpaper, clean, and dust off in preparation for painting. And the rest was easy. Take the draws out, place it all on our drop sheet, spray, let dry, turn, and repeat. You can do multiple coats if desired. Let it all dry overnight, place the draws back in, and it’s ready to go.
Hole punch
the hole punch is one of those instruments that always gets looked over. Not this time! We removed any loose parts that could be re-applied, gave it a clean and a dry, and then sprayed it with the Montana GOLD color Vanilla. Once dry we re-applied anything we removed, and it was ready to go back into service.
Wooden Board
Our little wooden board was a logical add-on to our new look workspace. Ours was a piece of MDF that was clean and smooth. This or any other clean and smooth wood could be used. If required, give it a light sanding with some fine sandpaper and then clean it off in readiness for painting. You can either spray the whole board the color you want to start with on both sides and leave it to dry or mask off the area you want to seal off and apply your first color to the unmasked section.
Once dry, repeat this process by covering the already painted side and cover the side you want to apply the second color onto. We recommend coating the whole board once on both sides if it is thin, to avoid it warping if only one side is covered. Our color combination was Montana GOLD Vanilla and Asphalt.
Naturally, remember to shake all cans well for 2-3 minutes before use so you can hear the mixing ball moving freely. If required, turn the can upside-down and remove the nozzle, allowing the back safety ring to fall out. Re-apply the nozzle and do a test spray in a direction away from everything.
The Pantone inspired Office Objects is an easy project that is ideal for any level. There is about an hour of work involved to complete all pieces, but it could be faster if you chose straight color applications rather than masking and creating application shapes. You can increase or decrease the difficulty by doing simple or complicated masking work.
When it’s all done, you can look at your fantastic handy work and feel like a Scandinavian designer in your own home or office. Well done and Happy Crafting.
