Color Watch

To which hues will the marketplace hew in 2008? Paint makers and other professional prognosticators are forecasting these color trends for the coming year:

Tranquil, Organic, Opulent. Benjamin Moore's new palette adds 21 colors in these three collections, designed to be therapeutic, natural, rich and mixed among groups. Color and Design Director Doty Horn predicts the most popular will be Peacock Feathers, Split Pea and Gypsy Pink.

Cool grays and silvers. The Color Marketing Group forecasts browns with blues on a downward trend. Instead, browns will pick up more warmth and more yellow to pair with silver finishes and cool grays, which CMG calls "key new neutrals."

Chameleon colors. Colors that change with the light are on the uptick; CMG says new technologies are making this possible in everything from fabric to flooring to tabletop items.

Elegance, Crewel colors. From the Rohm and Haas Paint Quality Institute, a nod to black and white, silver metallics and high-sheen finishes, as well as the rich cranberries, warm browns and deep blues of needlework handcrafts.

Destinations. Sherwin Williams groups its picks in four themes -- Around the World, Fork in the Road, No Place Like Home and Expand Your Horizons. The overall palette is bright and saturated; my favorites: Tupelo Tree, a dusky apple green, and Ceremonial Gold, a rich, warm shade that would flatter a dining room.

STORE NEWS

Duetta Fine Finds has just opened at 5005 Penn Av. S. in Minneapolis, offering a mix of antiques and new items, including one-of-a-kind jewelry pieces, handmade pillows and vintage ribbon. Longtime friends and owners Tabitha Courtemanche and Julie Louris have backgrounds in retail and custom design, respectively, as veterans of businesses including Room & Board and Pillsbury Theatre. Look for the boutique's grand opening festivities in November. Open Tuesdays through Saturdays; 612-929-2325.

A new roof is going on at the Round Barn Potting Co. in Andover. Lori Miller, who took ownership late this spring, has also put a fresh coat of paint on the former Round Barn antiques and redesigned its logo.

Miller says the reborn Barn is not an antiques store. Instead, home decor, garden pots, statuary, urns, gates, architectural pieces and seasonal items dominate the mix. Shoppers can enjoy a cup of coffee while strolling the structure's 3,600 square feet, which also holds vintage pieces, jewelry, gifts and purses. www.roundbarnpottingco.com.

ON THE WEB

A new site, www.designmyroom.com, lets users create a room "collage" by pasting in name-brand products, from rugs to accessories, lamps and appliances, into a choice of more than two dozen stock pictures of empty rooms. Though not to scale, the piece can be worked and reworked at no cost.Users pay for upgrades. Upload photos of your own rooms for $25 each; $4.95 monthly lets you work on as many as five projects at once, or 25 for $9.95.

Want to solicit feedback? A "community" function lets you share your design if you want.Also included: "inspiration" room designs and advice from decor headliners Eric Cohler, Laura Kirar and Benjamin Noriega-Ortiz, among others.

Also of interest:

• ikeahacker.blogspot.com: Pictures of bloggers' best "hacks" of Ikea products, with instructions on how they did it. A personal favorite: how salvaged Imfors coffee table legs got new life as a sleek sofa table.

• www.calicocorners.com: Users can now purchase fabric and order swatches from the redesigned site.

in print

Dwell magazine's October cover features the Minneapolis home of Christian and Karie Dean. Inside, a 10-page spread with interior and exterior shots is part of a feature on top residential design.

Metropolitan Home said it has slated Minneapolis interior designer Connie Lindor as part of its November feature on "the newest crop of breakout architects and designers."

SHOW HOMES

Headed to Chicago? The Merchandise Mart's annual DreamHome opens Friday and is free to the public (although a $5 donation is suggested); among the designs featured is a bedroom by Matt Lorenz, the Comfrey, Minn., native who won Bravo TV's first "Top Design" competition. Ends Dec. 1; details at www.merchandisemartdesigncenter.com.

newsletter

The focus is obvious: Some form of the word junk appears 42 times on the first page of JunkMail, the premiere issue of Sue Whitney and Ki Nassauer's newsletter. It's part of the Long Lake entrepreneurs' online American Junk Club, which carries a $25 membership, www.americanjunkclub.com. The club is the castoff queens' latest bid for world domination; they have already spread their philosophy as authors, columnists and national junk show impresarios. The first edition's best bit: a table centerpiece made by attaching old bedsprings to raw artichokes, then adding glass electrical insulators to hold candles or flowers.

Tell us about your new store openings. Releases must be mailed to What's New, Home and Garden section, Star Tribune, 425 Portland Av. S., Minneapolis, MN 55488-0002. Please include an address and phone number.

Kim Yeager • kyeager@startribune.com