PEI

'Awe' of P.E.I. National Park inspires paint colour

P.E.I. National Park now has its own paint colour — a green-blue titled "awe" — as part of a series of paint colours by Home Hardware meant to evoke the colours of Canada's national parks.

Home Hardware launched series of paint colours inspired by national parks to celebrate Canada 150

Bev Bell says the colour 'awe' combines greens and blues inspired by P.E.I. National Park. (Home Hardware)

P.E.I. National Park now has its own paint colour — a green-blue titled "awe" — as part of a series of paint colours by Home Hardware meant to evoke the colours of Canada's national parks.

"It's a colour that works everywhere," said Bev Bell, the creative director of Home Hardware's paint division Beauti-Tone. 

"You know when … you're standing in one of our Canadian parks, and you see something and it just takes your breath away. You feel this feeling of awe, or it's just a power that you can't explain that just gives you peace and kind of beauty all around — and that's what we feel when we're in the P.E.I. park."

Bell said the colour is complex, blending greens and blues inspired by the water and grass in the P.E.I. National Park.

Different colours in different lights

"When you look at in different lighting, you'll see different colours," she said. "In some lights it will have this very ethereal blue, yet in another it will be very deep rich green, and it's slightly powdered down … so it's very soft feeling."

The P.E.I. National Park-inspired paint colour is meant to evoke the feeling of being at peace in nature, says Bev Bell. (Home Hardware)

While the rust colour of P.E.I.'s cliffs, or the green of the grasses might be the first colours that come to mind when thinking of the park, Bell said her team wanted to go in a different direction with the colour.

"[P.E.I. National Park is] so well known for their sands, and we wanted to bring another of the park to people," she said. "We wanted to open it up a bit more, explore more of the beauty of the park.

Janine Gallant with P.E.I. National Park calls it a "beautiful colour."

"P.E.I. National Park really has a colourful palette and that really evokes the contrast of the white sand beaches, with the red sandstone cliffs, the blue sea and then you have that really green, lush marram grass, grasses, mosses, trees that are all along the national park."

Bell said the national park-inspired collection was inspired by Canada 150 celebrations.

"We realized that nature is the master at colour, and where better to get that but from our national parks," she said.