 Welcome back to Afternoon Express. Now, it's that time of the show. It's time for Winner Home on Afternoon Express, where we follow our three talented young design contestants as they turn three empty apartments into dream homes at the Polo Village at Valdivia State in the Cape Winelands. Now, the best part is that you, the viewer, stand a chance of winning one of the completed apartments valued at over three million rand. Now, week two has come to an end. This week, we learned about the benefits of a state living and we were creatively inspired by architect Shark Van Emden and interior designer Tom Dixon. Our design contestants got their first glimpse of their empty white apartments, but what colors will they choose to brighten them up? Our guest for today has some ideas. Excitement is running high for Winner Home on Afternoon Express and our minds are thinking in bright colors about all the ideas and possibilities of decorating those incredible apartments. Today, we have the color expert in the loft and result global color manager at Plaskon is here to give us a color forecast workshop on how to go about deciding on the perfect colors for small spaces. Good to see you again, Anne. Good to see you too. I'm really excited to think about the color schemes of what these apartments are going to look like and I'm sure they're going to be so diverse in so many different ways and paint makes a big difference to any space that you walk into. What are you hoping to see happen with these apartments on Winner Home? Well, I'm really excited because as you say, paint and color really makes a huge impression on the look and feel of a space. So I'm really excited to see the designers really push the boundaries and show us what is possible when you brave with paint and color. Everyone talks about these sort of forecasts for the seasons and it's always changing and I really find it overwhelming sometimes. What are some of the color forecasts that we can expect in 2016? Well, that's why we actually do the forecast. We do the research for you to show you what sort of stories are coming through, what colors are coming through to try and make the paint, choosing paint and color a little bit easier for you. And in our 2016 forecast, we've actually selected four trend stories that we've seen coming through quite strongly. The first one is called Element and it's inspired by natural landscapes and earthy colors. You know, that never goes out of fashion. But what we've seen is we've also seen pinks sort of from rose quartz and ice blues coming through included in this earthy palette. And I think that's just showcasing the fragility of earth. So our natural colors have changed a little bit to pinkies and blues coming through in that natural palette. Our second theme is called Discovery and it's inspired by all the space travel. You know, we're all fascinated with what's happening in space. What is out there? And then what happens is designers get inspired by that. You've seen Valentino come out of this galaxy inspired fashion range. So that also, it goes through all fields of design. So we've got those sort of colors coming through in our Discovery theme. Then our third theme is called Air Loom. And it's sort of a luxurious and indulgent colors from our past. Colors you know already like red wine and moody dark navy blues that are coming through. Any paint that's got red wine in a time hat. Those are colors that people are familiar with and feel comfortable with and nostalgic about and like to surround themselves with especially in times like this when the future seems a little bit uncertain. And then our fourth theme is called Connect and it's really a palette of bright colors and it's just optimistic and we can't all be sad and we want some fun and we want some optimism and that's a trend that we've seen coming through a lot in arts and crafts. I think I like that one of Connect. I think Connect is such a nice one especially in the world that we're living in where everyone's like dark and there's so much stuff going on around the world and families. It's nice to brighten up a space to at least give you a different perspective on the world. But that's the one that people are most scared of. Yeah, it is daring, it is daring in so many ways. But you've mentioned sort of themes and the way that you can tell stories of different rooms but what about specific colors? I mean if I'm going into a sort of Plascon store and I want to go and buy myself colors where do I find these specific colors? Which one should I try and choose? What are the trending colors for this year? Well you're not the first person to ask that. Lots of people want to know what are the colors happening now? So that's why we actually bought our Plascon Spaces magazine to show people what are the latest colors and how to use them. So in there in the latest issue we actually highlight four colors. One of them is called Ravine and I spoke about neutrals but there is also a contemporary neutral. So we know beige and we don't want boring beige and gray is also giving a bit too much now. What Ravine is, is it's a mixture of gray and beige so we call it grayish. Oh grayish. So that's a very trendy neutral palette which is beautiful. Then our second one that we highlight there is this grown-up pink I like to call it. Pink was always seen as a baby color. And so this is a grown-up pink. Pantone named Rose Quartz is the color of the year. So this is just a grown-up one and we show you how you can use it in interiors. Our third one that we feature in there is one that really surprised me. A military green, which you wouldn't expect. Which I've seen happening in fashion at the moment. Well you know what happens? It happens across all the design disciplines. And this one color I didn't expect would look so fabulous on a wall and it really does. So we show you all those trendy colors coming through in the mag. I'm telling you what, I find this all overwhelming and there's so much to think about and so many different colors and stories that you can't tell but it's also exciting because there's a lot that you can do. Exactly. But I've seen homes where people have tried to do it all and I've seen people go from room to room with a different color, especially people who have got newborn babies that want to paint the little girl's room blue and then the lounge is a nice warm beige. Are you allowed to do that? Or how do you go about planning the colors of different rooms in a house? You know, it's so important to actually do that. You must consider everybody in the family. If you've got a teenage daughter and she wants magenta pink in her room, paint that because obviously color also is like a therapy. It has an energy to it. So kids especially often ask for colors that they feel comfortable with and want to surround themselves with and need that energy. So it's very important that your kids have colors in their room that they feel comfortable with. In your family room, of course, go for something that all the family will feel comfortable with and that can be sort of reflect the family's personality. The home needs to reflect the family's personality. But you can still have connection and flow. So either with your flooring and your skirtings and your doors could all be painted the same color. So you still want flow going through your home but definitely let everybody's have a room that they love and feel comfortable. They're safe haven. Yeah. One thing that I've also realized about decorating homes, I mean, whenever you try to do it, your budgets have to get increased and increased and increased and stretched and stretched. So when you're painting different colors in your house and maybe your walls are going to be different colors, you're going to have to re-buy furniture. You have to re-buy some other things, potentially, or if you're starting fresh, you have to buy furniture to match that and that is incredibly difficult. Well, one of the things is, think about paint. A five liter of paint costs around 500 rand and you can totally change the look of a room. Sure. 500 rand. I mean, a cushion can cost five rand. So it is the cheapest way. I know. It really is the cheapest way to re-paint your home but do use a good quality paint because you don't want your paint to look dirty and tidy. So a cashmere or double velvet will look nice and new and fresh for long. You don't want people touching and all of a sudden there's dirty marks on the wall. Going crazy with colors, you also want to make sure that it matches everything else. Exactly. You want to paint at the moment to make sort of new and old. So if you are choosing a weathered look paint effect on your wall, you might want to add to that a nice contemporary piece of furniture. And vice versa, if you've already got furniture and it's got the ball and claw and it's really old, your granny passed it on to you, you know, jazz it up with some color. Paint it in one of those bright colors. You won't believe how fabulous painted furniture looks and it's so contemporary at the moment. So, you know, you can make your furniture look contemporary again. You can make your walls look old if you want to. So basically do what makes you feel good, but at the same time just play. Try something new. Take the experts who have given you the kind of advice. Go and take some reading material. Be inspired and just change up your spaces at home. Absolutely. And thank you so much for doing this. It's such a pleasure. Well, on that note, we have some exciting news. Standard chance to win a golden ticket into the winner home final draw when you buy any Plaskon product, an SMS, the word Plaskon, the last six digits of your barcode and full name to 32979. You can visit Plaskon.co.z for more details on how it all works, as well as much more inspiration on color forecasts and how to go about choosing the perfect colors. Lovely. Every weekday we follow our talented design contestants as they turn empty properties at Valdivia State in the Cape Wildlands into dream homes using finishes provided by Caesar Stone and Plaskon. And the best part is that you can enter the grand prize competition on privateproperty.co.za for a chance to win a finished apartment valued at over 3 million rand. Now, Winner Home is proudly brought to you by Private Property in association with Ned Bank.