Muttontown designer Kim Hendrickson-Radovich's room at the 2008 Mill Neck Manor Designers' Showcase

You've already seen it this season on fingernails, eyelids and handbags. Now the color purple's expected to make its way into your home.

This is not the harsh "Barney" purple that was popular in the 1980s. This is violet and plum, lavender, and deep rich eggplant - all of which made a splash within the past year at show houses around Long Island.

W hy purple? Designers and color experts say you need only look at the times. Purple symbolizes both luxury and fun - both things that people may feel they could use more of these days, says Ann McGuire, co-author of the ColorBuzz blog and lead designer of the Beehive Studios group of interior decorative painters based in Buck Hill Falls, Pa.

Purple can be calming, if there is a lot of blue in it, or uplifting, if the shade has a lot of red. You can add it to a neutral color like gray or white to warm up a drab wall, or make a statement by drenching a room in a range of deep, lush shades.

There are endless ways to use the color, from adding just a touch of it to a gray wall to warm up a room, to drenching every part of a room, from carpeting to molding, in a range of deep, rich hues.