#Sherwin Williams – Page 2 – America's Color Consultants

September 24, 2019

Purple is the color of royalty, dating back for centuries.

But why? Was it the vivid hue, the stately but sedate shade? Or was it simply a matter of rarity that made purple exclusive only to sovereigns?

Back before modern paints and dyes were discovered, the only way to get that signature purple color was to open up a rare sea snail named the Bolinus Brandaris and extract the purple essence- it can take over 250,000 of these mollusks to get one ounce of usable dye, making clothes dyed with ‘Tyrian Purple’ cost more than most people earn in a single year. This trend continued throughout the years, with other restrictions such as Queen Elizabeth the first forbidding anybody other than royalty from wearing purple.

It was only in 1858 when a synthetic purple dye was created by accident, when a chemist was attempting to find an anti-malaria drug, only to realize that the compound dyed clothes in a purple hue. This allowed the market for purple to spread like a drop of violet dye on a white cloth. But the connotations of purple being a rich color reserved for the rich remained.

Nowadays, you can simply buy purple paint places such as Benjamin Moore, Sherwin Williams and local hardware stores, for that touch of nobility in your house.

July 25, 2019

Color Wheel

Growing up, we all learn about the color wheel in art class- the way all the opposite colors complement each other, like green and red or orange and blue. The way they contrast each other can be vibrant and beautiful if done right, and jarring if done wrong. However, there are other ways that colors can mix beautifully besides opposites attracting.

Analogous colors are colors that are similar to each other, and they are next to each other on the color wheel. They use their similarities rather than the contrasts to create a well matching color scheme.

Blue, teal (blue-green), and green are a good analogous set, as are red, orange, and blood orange (red-orange). It’s a good, very natural set up, although be careful to stop these from matchingtoowell and blending the colors together.

Split complementary is a mixture of complementary and analogous colors- it uses two parts analogous colors and one part complementary colors. Purple, indigo, and yellow would be a good example. It softens the edges of the complementary paint colors and is a good pattern for beginners.

If you want to be daring and use four colors at once, then the rectangle and square patterns can be wonderful- the rectangle or tetradic color scheme uses two complimentary sets of colors to match each other, such as green and red, plus blue and orange. The square color scheme are colors evenly spaced around the color wheel, such as red, green, purple, and yellow.

These are only the most basic color patterns, and there are a multitude of other patterns to use- however, those should be left to professional – like a paint color consultant!

May 1, 2019

What Color to Paint Your Bedroom?

The bedroom is one of the most important rooms in your house. It’s where you start and end your day: and, the first and last thing you see is your bedroom walls. While it may not seem important, the color of the walls you stare at as your drift into sleep can change the way you sleep. Not all colors are created equal when it comes to helping you sleep, and some colors can even hurt your chances of getting a restful slumber.

When it comes to calming colors, blue is the best for sleep. Studies showed that people with blue bedroom walls get 7 hours and 52 minutes of sleep a night on average, and 60% of the people in the study found that they woke up happy. Gotta love that! Pastel shades of yellow, green, silver, and orange are also good colors for sleep. There are other ways to prep your bedroom for sleep. Flat paints are also good for sleep, compared to a glossy finish, and complementary colors are the best when choosing accent colors.

Research says that the color purple may inhibit sleep. While it stimulates creativity, purple also causes more nightmares and only gives an average of 6 hours of sleep. Grey, brown, and red are also poor choices for a bedroom, although there is nothing wrong with these colors for other rooms in the house. For those of you who love purple use it in your bedroom in a pastel shade, such as Sherwin Williams (SW) Silver Peony SW 6547 instead of SW Clematis SW 6831.