The Power of Color

Why should a wood product manufacturer pay attention to paint color trends?

Lauren: Creating color harmony is the best way to pull all the segments together in one space. Wood product manufacturers are often looking to deliver complete solutions for their customers. One of the great things about working with Sherwin-Williams is that a manufacturer can offer a customer kitchen cabinets or flooring finished with our coatings, and they can also work with us to identify the right wall colors to complement those finishes– sending their customers to their local Sherwin-Williams store to complete the look.

Sue: When manufacturers pay attention to color trends, they gain continuity within their product offering. The colors we showcase on the architectural paint side can help drive consumer demand for wood coating applications, like cabinetry and furniture. It’s important to meld the work on the architectural and wood finish sides, whether it’s aligning architectural coatings with flooring products or helping kitchen cabinet and furniture designers with palette swatches. The color selection process for both wood OEMs and homeowners is complex, but when product lines are designed to complement one another, they build confidence and increase customer satisfaction. Consumers want to know that these products will coordinate and work together in a space.

Lauren: At the Global Color & Design Center (GCDC), wood stylists take the information we glean from our architectural sales and use that knowledge to support our industrial wood customers. The most powerful way to open a conversation about color is to show them the top 50 architectural colors from our 4,500+ retail stores. We use sales numbers to follow what is going on at the retail level and apply that to color work and assessments across all wood segments, considering all of the wood products from the front door to the back deck.

What tools and resources can help wood manufacturers consider color from a holistic point of view?

Lauren: Our new Industrial Wood Color Visualizer tool is an excellent place to start when it comes to helping your customers envision color holistically. Sherwin-Williams offers a unique color visualizer for manufacturers and end-consumers that allows them to envision what architectural paint and wood colors will look like together in kitchens and on home exteriors.  When they can envision what their home will look like with your products on or in it, they can start to consider what the walls beside those products look like and how paint colors interact with the finishes. It’s a great way to allow them to see the full picture. 

What can wood product manufacturers do to learn more about color?

Lauren: Manufacturers can partner with our color teams.   We directly interact with interior designers, merchandisers and others in design-based professions who work in the product development process. We understand that people can’t know what they don’t know, so our team at the GCDC makes it a priority to offer the resources to help customers understand the power of color.

To learn more about the services we offer, contact your local Sherwin-Williams representative or visit our GCDC page.