Greetings from New York! Richmond designers, shop owners and buyers have once again invaded the showrooms and Jacob Javits Convention Center to find the next great thing for their clients and customers. I’ll be reporting in over the next few days on who I’ve run into and what they’re into.

First Up: Interior designer Kathy Corbett

Corbett sat in on a morning lecture called “The Influence of Color” put on by the International Furnishing and Design Association (a group she’s a member of in Richmond). The managing editor of Veranda Magazine and a color forecaster from Design Options shared their thoughts on where color is going this year. Here are some points that resonated with Corbett.

• Gray is still replacing brown. Once again gray is big in home design (as it is in fashion), but this year it will be combined with pinks, purples and rusty oranges.

• The oh-so-popular sky-blue-and-brown bedroom is shifting slightly to aqua and gray

• All shades of blue are hot right now. Blue is being mixed with the jewel tones that have been hot in fashion

• The eco-friendly look is just getting more and more popular, but now we’re seeing it with pinches of color. You don’t have to stay neutral to get that “green” look anymore.

• In the last five years home design and fashion have paralleled each other much more closely than in the past. Corbett, who used to work in fashion, liked this quote from the color forecaster: “Home design is what fashion design comes home to.”

Also Corbett noticed a shift in the industry’s emphasis. With so many home furnishing stores closing in the last year she’s noticed a renewed emphasis on catering “to the trade,” or to interior designers like herself. Since interior designers’ clients are still the segment of the population buying, companies are now making changes to make things easier for designers to buy, and make a profit on their goods.