Travis Neighbor Ward

By Travis Neighbor, Special Correspondent

(CNN) -- As we approach the last year of the 20th century, one thing about the home seems certain: There's a move toward making it more fashionable, especially when it comes to color.

"All of the fashion colors have really hit the home market," says Gail Secular, vice president of Archipelago, a home design manufacturing firm based in New York. "Consumers have gotten bolder. Colors they were afraid of in past -- lime green, orange, pink -- no longer scare them. These aren't safe colors, but nowadays people are more willing to take risks. Things are really changing."

"Bright colors are definitely becoming more acceptable in the home," says Giovanni Pellone, president and lead designer at Benza Inc., also based in New York. "People are using them as accents, instead of only using colors that will blend in."

Pellone, who was born in Rome, says lime green has been his bestselling color this year. His firm has used it to color everything from unusually shaped containers to wall clocks. "It appeals to a very urban, contemporary audience," Pellone says. "It balances the simple forms of contemporary design, especially all of the minimalist shapes."

"There's much more responsiveness to bright colors now," says Susan Sargent, owner of Vermont-based Susan Sargent Designs. Her company designs blankets, pillows and rugs handmade in India and Italy.

"People are more adventuresome and eclectic," Sargent says. "The nice thing about lime green in particular is that it's flexible. It works with neutral colors -- sage, beiges and warm grays -- and ties into the whole range of 1950s colors, such as hot pink, teal, mango and periwinkle."

Lime green: 'You can't keep it down'

Marshall Watson of Marshall Watson Interiors Ltd. in Manhattan says he was stunned by the amount of lime green at this year's New York International Gift Fair. There, manufacturers display their newest wares to the industry. "I was amazed that there was so much of it," Watson says. "You can't keep it down."
Lime green, Watson says, first hit the fashion scene four years ago, when you could find anything from belts and shoes to dresses and bags in the color. Since then, it has become less a wardrobe presence and, as of this year, more a presence around the house.

From an interior-design standpoint, what makes lime green and chartreuse so appealing, Watson says, is the happy ambience they bring to even the plainest room -- something he says consumers long for.

"People want more casual environments, they're tired of being so serious," he says. "They want their interiors to be lighthearted and these are fun colors; they look infinitely fresh and natural." What's more, he says, "There's something strangely elegant about lime green and chartreuse. There's a crispness to them, a graphic quality. Yet they're also shocking."

Watson has used chartreuse to add colorful accents to windows -- silk chartreuse sheer curtains behind white drapery -- and tables: "If you set a table with chartreuse, he says, "suddenly it's an event."

Even a chartreuse wall, he says, can be quite soothing when complemented with the right picture frames, especially black-and-white
ones. "If you have lots of frames, the wall unifies them, makes them stand out more," he says. "It's the height of modernity."

CITRIC SASS

"Lime green is fresh," says Carla Muccino, general manager of California's Carta, which sells fine Italian writing journals made in Florence. "It's both calming and refreshing at the same time. When we introduced it to our collection at the beginning of 1999, I thought it would just be a summer thing. But it's gone right through the whole year.

"I just can't keep it in stock before it's bought out again. Even now, in late fall, it's still hot."

One reason lime green is being used more now for hard goods, Pellone says, is the introduction of new manufacturing materials -- plastics and resins. "With traditional materials such as metal and wood," Pellone says, "you just can't handle these colors in these ways."

But another reason, he says, is that consumers today are simply more responsive to it -- especially in the United States where, he says, "people are just waking up to contemporary design." In Europe and Japan, he says, consumers have always been more color-daring. More than half of Benza's products are exported to those areas.

PERIPATETIC PERIDOT

Even when it comes to glass, both lime green and chartreuse have surged in popularity recently. At Correia, a glass-blowing company based in Santa Monica, California, bestselling items include lime green and chartreuse bowls, vases, and perfume decanters.
At Hudson Beach Glass, located on the Hudson River in New York, "Chartreuse is our most popular color," says marketing manager Janet Griffin, "although we call it peridot." That's usually defined as a yellowish-green olivine shade.

Since the company added the color, she says, "It's taken off like a bullet. Everyone across the board loves it. It's very organic and lively. And it turns out to be a neutral color, like beige or brown. A lot of colors go with it."

Yet as with many things somewhat startling and contemporary, lime green and chartreuse carry a caveat: No one can predict how long they'll remain in style, especially lime green.

Gail Secular says she thinks it will be even more popular in the year 2000. "1 think it will be even stronger in the spring. In fact, it's already very popular in Tokyo and Taiwan."
Susan Sargent says, "It has a few more years of life in it."

But according to Marshall Watson, "It's definitely a fashion color. And while people want to be trendy when it come to accessories, accessories are a temporary thing."