So it looks like it's not liking '1px solid' in my data object value. If I change things to:
var zip_data = { no_error: { border:'#e1e1e1', background:'#f2f3f2' } } zip.css({ 'border': '1px solid ' + zip_data.no_error.border, 'background': zip_data.no_error.background }); It all seems to work, but unfortunately, '1px solid' is hard coded several places instead of inside the data object where a global change can be made by editing it once.