Life stresses: Marriage, new job, choosing paint colors
The holidays are over and a new year is upon us. Time to paint the walls, right?
Some people are surprisingly afraid to make a paint color decision and struggle with the weight of it all as if failure to choose wisely would lead to negative eternal consequences. St. Peter at the pearly gates: “Well, I was going to let you in until you put Calico Cat on your ceiling…”
If you are planning to sell your house, slap a neutral on the walls and call it good. Staying put? You can pick up a copy of the latest home magazine brimming with advice on the hot new colors and bring it to your local paint store. Or, heaven forbid, you can have a nice conversation with your spouse about paint preferences and see who wins.
My wife, Judy, usually has a color direction in mind when she’s ready to paint a room, but makes the final decision by having a half dozen quarts of varying shades mixed with which she splashes the walls, creating large splotches like she’s covering graffiti, and lives with it until one of them speaks to her. (Another way to do this would be to buy large pieces of white board and paint them with your alternatives rather than defacing your walls, but that’s one of those battles not worth waging and I don’t want to mess with tradition.) But if you want your home to be warm, or bright, or make a statement, and can’t make a decision, call your designer.
There’s usually a reason somebody is really good at what they do and sometimes it goes beyond passion or desire. Ted Williams, arguably baseballs greatest hitter ever, said that he could see the pitch so clearly he could tell you if he hit the ball on, over, or under the seam. Pretty amazing when you consider the ball is traveling nearly 100 mph and is spinning. Talented designers have a similar ability with color. I’ve heard that they have highly active or sensitive cones in their eyes, allowing them to see color at a much higher level than us mortals which explains why I’ve seen designers return to our studio from a client’s house and pull their colors out of a paint palette with perfect accuracy. Do you have any idea how hard that is?
So, why all the stress? Certainly nobody wants to go to all the effort of painting a room only to be unhappy with the results. It’s not always obvious to predict what will happen when an entire room is painted based off the color selected from a little sample chip. I think that’s why some people are more comfortable borrowing colors they see on the walls of a friend’s house. But that strategy isn’t always foolproof and the reasoning lies tangled in the web of color theory.
Without getting all professorial, the same color can change appearance depending on its environment. Did you ever do that experiment in art class where you took two swatches of the same color and surrounded them by two other colors, or black and white? The very same color could be made to look remarkably different when given a new background. They call this spontaneous contrast, I think. So maybe your neighbor’s walls looked really cool painted in a crispy Pinot Noir, but that may have had something to do with the color of their furniture and carpet, the amount of natural light, the interior lighting, the shade of tinting on the windows, the window coverings, the wall color of an adjoining room, blah blah blah. More stress.
Speaking of lighting, did you know that there are many choices of fluorescent lighting all using various combinations from the color spectrum? We have some in our studio that seem blue and they match the color of natural light. They use a different color at a butcher shop, probably with more red, to enhance the color of meat. Seriously!
Oh, and the color of natural light in Georgia can be different than, say, Colorado. In the summer the skies are white here and crystal blue there.
Back to your walls. I haven’t helped much yet, have I? If you are going to paint a room and not change anything else, your job should be easy if you are wide open to color selection because the right choices should reveal themselves when you look at the tonality of your carpet, furnishings, window treatments, etc. A designer or an expert at your local paint store should easily be able to help. The key is not to fall in love with a specific color and force it into your home, but rather to choose a general color and allow the room to determine its perfect shade and tone.
If you are redoing a room, please fight the urge to start with the paint. Paint should be THE LAST decision you make. Moving into a new home and need to have fresh new walls to erase evidence of the previous owners? I don’t care. Arrange your furniture and then choose your paint. If you have money to burn, go ahead and paint the house neutral, arrange your furniture and paint again.
Many designers start a new room by choosing an area rug. Can you believe that? Then they choose the upholstery fabric, then the window treatment fabric, then the paint. Why? It’s easier to move in the ascending order of choices available. What? There is a finite selection of rugs, much narrower than upholstery grade fabric, so it would stand to reason that you would have better success finding a sofa fabric to match a rug than the other way around. There are even more fabric options available for window treatments which make it easier to marry them to the new sofa. Paint color options are infinite, which is why you should make that choice last.
As my dad would say, “thus endeth the lesson”.
Tags: choosing paint, interior designer, paint, paint colors
If you are living in a home, paint the walls whatever colors that you wish, BUT be prepared if you are going to sell your home, paint your home in neutral colors. The same goes for , we all live in our home and show our home differently. If you are planning on moving, you need to take half of the things you have out to show the home. Ask the experts at Designs of the Interior!! They can help you in either stituation
In my line of work I have come to realize that “color” often shapes the publics opinion relative to the viability of a business concern. Interior colors and furnishing are one of the first things clients use to guage where the business has chosen to position itself in their market segment. Surely, the same applies to the individual. Painting last makes complete sense to me but all too often people work this in reverse. Excellent tip for those who have not made the mistake of painting first. I would be interested to hear from others about their favorite paint colors for restaurants, professional offices, and retail establishments.
This is a wonderful piece of advice. I don’t know how many times I have done the paint first, and then had to redo it when the room came together. Also, I have leanred that a color that “speaks” to you in the store can “yell” at you on the wall at home. So, finding a way to experiment is another way to avoid mistakes. Go by and see Alan’s store. It is awesome and the staff their is so accommodating. When I am ready to redecorate my house for the 15th time, I know I will start there.
Great lesson on choosing a paint color Alan! I usually prefer to have neutral shades on the walls and use splashes of color with the accessories. I guess that is the safe layman’s approach.
Great Blog!
-Joan
The ability to choose the right color is definitely a talent! Unfortunately, I am color challenged! I have such a difficult time picking the right color, but I immediately know when I have picked the wrong one. Then I am speeding off to the paint store, again, since I can not live with my “color mistakes” for very long! Our last home was located on Los Angeles and the previous owner was an interior designer. The home had a beautiful neutral pallette that I loved. After we closed on the home,, she gave me a color formula spreadsheet for each room. I told her I thought all the rooms were the same color. She laughed and said that she had ajusted the formula to account for the daylight exposure of each room. I thought she was really out of her mind. Then we moved into our current home in Atlanta. The interior is all the same paint color. In the great room and dining room the color is so beautiful. But in the study and hallway the wall color looked dirty. I thought it needed a fresh cote of paint,so, I got out my paint roller and went got to work. After it dried it looked absolutely the same. Then I tried a few different paint colors, but no luck yet. I truly envy the talent of a good interior designer! I should have started there and saved myself a lot of trouble!
These are definitely words of wisdom. Your professionals are so good at looking at the way the “color story” flows throughout the home. So many times, the colors in the adjoining rooms will also have an effect on the tones that are chosen. It is important to step outside of the room that is being designed and evaluate your options from all different vantage points in the home. Good job. . . I completely agree with everything you said. Kass http://www.kasswilson.com
I like the advice, and will immediately start using the “splash” technique when picking colors…Good stuff. Question though,
If I am looking to change the granite in my kitchen should I throw different color rocks at the walls to see what sticks?
Seriously, I like the site and advice. Thanks Al and Judy
Joe,
We’ve all heard stories about using soft pastels in prisons to keep the inmates calm, but there is a lot of truth to the psychological impact of color. I was talking with an assisted living developer this week and he said that he cannot use the color blue on the walls of an Alzheimers wing because some patients think it is water and become afraid.
Larry Larry Larry,
I think you just invented a new niche. Xtreme Granite Design. Just remember the old saying about people who live in glass houses. Let me know how it goes and please send pictures.
Well, good comments all. I am somewhat color challenged and definitely am in troubled waters when I try to mix more than one color in the same room (or within view to the next room). A friend of mine gave me a suggestion that has worked well for me. Pick the color you want from a color wheel – you know, the strips that fan out – each one containing the same basic color in different shades. Then just move up or down the strip to select lighter or darker shades of the same color, typically going at least 2 shades away from each other to create a contrast. I just did this in my foyer and kitchen (darker shade below the chair rail in each room, then 2 shades lighter above the rail in the foyer, and 3 shades lighter in the kitchen). I know this is probably color 101 for most of you, but there you go.
Interesting comments, I two have been guilty of telling my clients to get the painting done first, because that’s what I do is pick colors. My husband and I own Riverside Paint & Decorating in Lawrenceville, and Gregory’s Paint & Flooring in Johns Creek, your local Benjamin Moore dealers, so I know something about this topic. However it is always great to have an “inspiration” like a rug, or a treasured painting, to give direction. The 2 oz. color samples are great for testing color, and everyone knows Benjamin Moore colors are the best!!
Rebecca Dumas
Alan,
I have enjoyed reading your post! Thank you for telling me about the website and the store! I hope to get some help from you all in the future.
Your Favorite Neighborhood Dental Hygienist (I Hope ;o)
Laura V.