colour you should choose for your folding arm awning

What colour should you choose for your folding arm awning?

“There is no accounting for tastes.” This well-known proverb also applies to choosing the fabric for your folding arm awning! And aesthetics is paramount, although it's also important to ensure that your awning fabric meets the visual comfort, thermal comfort and solar protection criteria you have set. Let's dive into the world of colours.

Technique: understanding the influence of colour when choosing your folding arm awning

Vous trouverez plus de 200 références de coloris parmi les toiles de store Dickson : des unis, des texturés, des rayures, des jacquards... The collections are very extensive et vous offrent la possibilité de trouver le coloris qui s'harmonisera le mieux avec vos besoins et vos goûts. Pour bien choisir la couleur de votre toile de store, tenez compte dans un premier temps de l'environnement et de l'usage que vous ferez du store. Votre jardin est-il très arboré ou situé en zone urbaine ? Aimez-vous l'ombre et la fraîcheur ou souhaitez-vous conserver un maximum de luminosité à l'intérieur de votre habitation ? Vivez-vous à l'extérieur dès les premiers beaux jours, et même si le temps est maussade ?

The importance of climate when choosing a folding arm awning

Depending on your region's climate and the amount of sunshine it gets, you can make a shortlist between light and dark shades, considering the direction your house faces:
• If your facade faces south to west: dark shades are ideal as they provide better protection from heat and light. Dark colours block more sunlight.
• If your facade faces north to east: choose a lighter colour to increase the light under the awning as well as inside the house.

Colour resistance to light

Colour fastness to light and sun is also an important criterion to take into consideration. You don't want your folding arm awning to lose its shine after the second summer! That's why Dickson has awning fabrics made of solution-dyed acrylic fibre, with the colours retaining their intensity for years. Orchestra fabric, which is guaranteed for up to 10 years, is specifically treated for outdoor use and offers excellent colour fastness over time, as well as good resistance to water and dirt.

Aesthetics: understanding colour combinations when choosing the shade of your folding arm awning

The importance of light

The perception of colours varies when exposed to light or transparency. Light shades become brighter while darker shades become deeper. Depending on its colour, your awning fabric will change the ‘colour temperature' of the natural light to create a special atmosphere inside your home. It is therefore important to see a fabric sample in the light at home.

The perception of colour determines the patio atmosphere

But the perception of colour also depends on our culture and our surroundings. In general, cold colours give a feeling of freshness and calm. Green, which can be cold or warm depending on whether it is blue or yellow, creates a sense of calm and reminds us of nature. Yellow creates a friendly and stimulating atmosphere, orange or red bring energy and warmth, while white creates a calm, soothing and chic atmosphere. So, the choice of fabric colour will be closely linked to the atmosphere you wish to create on your patio.

Choosing the right colour combination for a folding arm awning: taking outdoor surroundings into account

Another way of choosing the colour of your folding arm awning fabric is to match it to your surroundings. So, take the time to look at the external environment around your house, its colours and materials: your facade, window frames, shutters, tiles, whether or not there is greenery, sand, gravel, paving near the patio etc. Consider your house as a whole as well as its surroundings (garden, nearby buildings etc.) You can then choose a tone-on-tone match or contrasting tones.

For example, your facade has black tones, and you want your awning fabric to blend in with the decor. You can choose the Orchestra Poivre Piqué folding arm awning fabric for a tone-on-tone match.

You can also match the colour of your awning with an element of your facade: your tiles, cladding, window shutters etc. For example, on a traditional house with red tiles, you can choose a product with ochre or terracotta tones.

You can also choose a contrasting tone. For example, for a white, modern facade, you can choose a green fabric, which will give your patio a ‘botanical' touch.

There are several possible combinations for each house and surroundings.

Choosing the right colour combination for a folding arm awning: taking your interior design into account

Your patio becomes an extension of your house, a real additional living space! What if you matched your awning fabric with your interior decor? Here again, start by observing the materials and colours of your home: the colour of the floor, the walls, the decoration, dominant materials etc. The atmosphere of your interior will guide you:

you can choose to match your awning with the dominant colours of your interior
or you can opt for a bolder tone, to clearly define the space under your awning.

How do you choose the shade of your folding arm awning?

Therefore, in addition to the technical considerations, the aesthetic choice will be decisive for the shade of your folding arm awning. Your protected patio will become a real additional room in your house, a living space in its own right where the atmosphere and design will be a source of wellbeing!

Choosing the shade of the folding arm awning is a carefully considered choice, but above all a choice of the heart! And although awning fabrics are highly technical fabrics with certified high performance, it is mostly your desire and your taste in terms of decoration that will tip the scales for one colour or another! So treat yourself!

Are you still struggling to decide? Your blind manufacturer is a professional who will be able to give you the best advice on how to make the right choice of colours for your folding arm awning fabric. Dickson has an inspirational software that will allow you to project any of its fabrics on your style of living and decoration. In just a few clicks, select several Orchestra fabrics, order several samples or ask for a quote from your nearest approved distributor !