What colors are they predicting we'll fall in love with?

Let's see what the Color Marketing Group (CMG) tells us. First, let me tell you that the CMG is the leading international nonprofit association of color-design professionals, and has been accurately predicting color trends for more than 45 years. The predictions seem worth looking at.

Purple is a hot fashion color this year and has been in the limelight since last fall. Grayed-out violets are in and they work very well as an accent or as a neutral. Some redder, plummier purples are making an appearance. The CMG tells us that purple is the "must have" color in 2009.

Green was the big deal in the past with all the green-living push we've had, but now it's blue. And the blues that are popular include watery blues and sky blues mostly, but just about any blue you might choose will fit into the color trend for this year and a few more years to come.

Grayed-out browns and plain old grays are the new sophistication in color. The reason given for the craving for these hues is the economy. An economically challenged economy begs for complex grays. These grays also bridge the area between black and brown where black is too harsh yet brown is not strong enough.

Yellow is popular again. After all, yellow against gray is eye-popping. Here again, the droopy economy begs for vivid and energetic colors to lift us up. Remember back in the '80s when gray and yellow were very much "in"? It wasn't so much a result of the economy then, though.

The new business color is white. Even corporate boardrooms are showing white in their decor. Technology has given us practical finishes, allowing us to use white in just about any setting. We are seeing matte instead of gloss. We see textured whites instead of smooth whites. And all the finishes are washable and cleanable. The psychological reason given for our new craving for white, particularly in business atmospheres, is that white represents purity of thought, motive and result. Something we crave and are looking for in business more than ever now.

Mauve is back. Say it ain't so! The CMG tells us that this old color looks new again in dusty violet shades.