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March 25, 2010

Colours of the Sweet Sixteen

pantone mugs It’s the second half of March, and that means the madness is in full swing — March Madness!! For NCAA hoop fans, it’s three straight weekends of basketball excitement. Overtimes, upsets, buzzer-beaters… and lots of ripped up brackets this year when the University of Northern Iowa took down the top-seeded Kansas Jayhawks in the second round. There goes my $5.00, but who cares, I love seeing the underdog win :-)

Everyone has different methods for choosing their brackets. Some take a scientific approach and choose their teams based on a thorough analysis of all the season stats. Some have connections to particular schools. A friend of mine only chooses teams that have an animal as their mascot. I tend to go for teams that wear pretty colours :-) I know, weird!! But I just can’t get behind dark green or gold teams, or teams with colours that just don’t look good together. Like the Baylor Bears — their school colours are dark green and gold.

baylor bears logo no pantone

And the Michigan Spartans don’t do it for me either in their dark green uniforms with the condom logo ;-)Michigan_State_LogoOn the other hand, I love huskies and I love purple, so go Washington Huskies!!

washington huskies logo pantone

All the team colours for the universities in the Sweet Sixteen are colours from the Pantone Color Matching System. From what I read doing research for this post, probably most, if not all, sports team colours are Pantone colours (to see a partial list, click here).

Since this a home decor blog and not a sports blog, let’s switch gears and look at the colours of the Sweet Sixteen teams from a home decor perspective…

Blue and white have been the University of Kentucky’s official colours since 1909. Their blue is Pantone 286.

kentucky athletics logo

duke bedroom country living

Kansas State University’s purple athletic logo is the Powercat in Pantone 266. I’ve never seen a purple room I didn’t like!!

kansas state logokansas state LR thelennoxx

On the other hand, it’s hard to find a green and yellow combo that I do like ;-) Here’s a house exterior that’s similar to the Baylor Bears colours, Pantone 560 (green) and 1235 (yellow).

baylor bears logo no pantone baylor yellow_house_green_shutters scotland painting co

Let’s get the greenies out of the way… the Michigan State Spartans are Pantone 567. The trim on this house isn’t quite as dark, but it’s close…

MSU greenMSU green trim flickr

Xavier University’s official school colours are Pantone 288 (blue), 123 (yellow), and 424 (grey). The colours in this living room aren’t exact matches, but you can definitely see the grey, yellow, and blue combination.

xavier logo with pantone xavier blue grey LR decorpad

Pantone 514 is the colour of the Butler Bulldogs. Can’t go wrong with blue and white when it comes to basketball or decorating!!

butler bulldog logo butler living-room thelennoxx

Duke is another blue & white team. Every year when they blow it in the tournament, I swear I’m going to find another new favourite team. But after 20 years, I just can’t do it!! They may not have won the tournament since 2001, but they’re one of the most consistent teams in the NCAA, missing the tournament only once in the last 27 years. The Duke Blue Devils are Pantone 287.

duke pantone logo

duke Living-Room-Nautical jf heart clinic

The Ohio State Buckeyes red, white, and black logo was developed specifically for the university’s varsity teams and the Department of Athletics. The red “O” is Pantone 200.

ohio state logo

ohio state beach-house-bedroom country livinggggg

West Virginia University’s colours are Pantone 286 (purple) and 124 (gold). And yep, I found a purple and yellow room. Two rooms, in fact — one for West Virginia…

west virgina logo

   UNI dining room odi et amo

…and one for the University of Northern Iowa. The Panthers wear Pantone 2617 (purple) and 124 (gold).uni logo

UNI color_yellow_blind_purple_room curbly

The Syracuse Orangemen are orange, of course!! And blue. Hmmmm… are female athletes at Syracuse Orangewomen?? Orange Ladies?? Well, they all wear uniforms that are Pantone 1655 (orange) and 282 (navy blue).

su-logo  syracuse markham roberts1 alicia b designs  

Cornell University teams are called the Big Red, so of course their official colour is red.  Pantone 187 to be exact.

cornell-university logo

cornell red and white kitchen-coastal living

The Purdue Boilermakers are Pantone 1245 (metallic gold) and black.

purdue logo

purdue LR decorpad

Saint Mary’s Gaels are red, blue, and white. Pantone 1797 (red) and 540 (blue).

SaintMarysGaels st marys redwhiteblue coastal living

Tennessee Volunteers are very, very orange — Pantone 021 orange, to be precise.

tennessee logo

tennessee dr colin justin

And last but not least, the purple Washington Huskies, Pantone 5265.

washington huskies logo pantonePurpleRoom roxxn

So there you go — the Sweet Sixteen meets home decor :-) Will you be watching this weekend?? What team are you cheering for??

sig new

All logos from the respective school web sites.

13 comments:

Anonymous said...

Kelly, my husband says THANK YOU for figuring out a way to get his wife interested in sports! You are a genius :) Seriously though, what a fun and creative post. And if we are going with the superficial, I'm putting my money on Xavier for the simple reason that it's my fav image out of the ones you posted!


Karla
blog.kerrisdaledesign.com

Kat said...

Now this was a fun post Kelly! UT didn't make the Sweet Sixteen, I would have loved to see what you came up with for Burnt Orange :) I love the "Butler" room. Nice, creative post! Kathy

"Yeah, that works..!" said...

What a wonderfully creative and fun post!!! Thank you :)

Nancy@marcusdesign said...

Love this fun post Kelly!!! And I have to agree with you that I have never seen a purple room I didn't love either :) LOVE watching the games, but I actually don't have a fav team yet.

Did you hear about the young boy who has picked ALL perfect brackets so far?? He and his brother entered their predictions on Yahoo (which is a site you can't win money from), apparently if they had actually bet money they would have won 13 million dollars thus far....CRAZY!

Sharon said...

What a fun way of looking for color combos!

Linda @ theLENNOXX said...

HAHA! Best post ever! The Cornell Bears image really hit the spot, I think the table resemble the bear in the logo! But since primary red is one of my least favorite colors, I'll go with Syracuse Orange-hermaphrodites!

Oh, and I would love to see a disco version of the shell chandelier!

HAPPY FRIDAY!

Christy said...

I'm not a sports fan in general - basketball makes me yawn. But these rooms are certainly inspiring. I can't believe you found not one but TWO purple and yellow rooms!

Good luck with your bracket and hope you have a fabulous weekend Kelly!

Unknown said...

great job matching up logos with rooms- that must have been some challenge!

Dumbwit Tellher said...

Based on colors alone, I'm now a fan of Tennessee! I dislike the UW Huskies, the school just rejected my teen daughter. She doesn't cry often but cried last week when she got that letter.

You are so clever Kelly, this post is one of a kind. Very, very fun.

Happy weekend to you xx

Lisa said...

Wow Kelly this is great! I can't imagine how long it took you to find all those photos. Great inspiration!

Anonymous said...

Never was a big sports fan, but this is something I can get into!

Love the rooms, you did a great job matching the colors.

Paul Anater said...

What's March Madness? Is it like cabin fever? ;)

mrsben said...

Very clever Kelly. GREAT and FUN Post!!!! -Brenda-

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