All research points to nature

By Dani Sheehan. 

When you want a natural look without the expense or environmental impact of natural materials, look to the Sherwin-Williams newest color line of metal coatings. 

Mountains or ocean? Small town or city? Morning or evening? People usually have very strong opinions on these choices, but there’s one thing most people agree they want more of: nature. As the need for cities and housing continues to infringe on the natural landscape, the built environment is attempting to bring nature to the concrete jungle through sustainability efforts and improving energy efficiency. What if you could get the look and feel of nature too? With the launch of Sherwin-Williams Emulate™ Architectural Metal Coatings, now you can. In a recent episode of Roofing Road Trips®, Heidi J. Ellsworth sits down with Brynn Wildenauer and Kiki Redhead to learn how this hot trend is changing the architectural market. 

Kiki, the global color material finish and trend manager for Sherwin-Williams, tells us a little about this new series: “There's three different collections of different prints and patterns, and they're essentially made to mimic natural materials. So, within the series we showcase a curated assortment of popular woods, stones, metals, different color ways that would make a color scheme. This collection is all about taking inspiration from nature and giving inspiration to architects.” 

The key here is the ability to mimic that natural look without the weight, maintenance, expense or environmental impact of using the actual materials. Aside from being environmentally friendly and inspired by nature, the decision to develop this series was a calculated one. As a global company, Sherwin-Williams has the advantage of accessing extensive data and they did a deep dive into researching how this color series would be adopted.  

Brynn, the architectural and color designer for the coil business, shares, “We took the granular approach of what specific part of the veining we need to focus on, how bold the veining needs to be and that type of detail. But also, how can we have the biggest impact and the biggest reach for all [markets]... We wanted to have the biggest reach and expand our offering to appeal to as many people as we could.” 

For more about their research process and the newest Sherwin-Williams Emulate™ Architectural Metal Coatings, Read the transcript or Listen to the podcast.