When working with clients to develop a color palette for their homes, I am often met with the sentiment “I don’t want my house to look like a clown house.” These clients fear color. As a trained artist and color expert, I use the four S’s to help them select what will be their ideal color solution.
Simplicity, Strength, Sizzle, Sophistication. These Four S’s have been used for decades as the foundation in graphic design, interior design, architecture and most creative fields. In each category the S’s might differ somewhat, but the general idea remains the same.
Simplicity – The simpler something is, the longer its life. When things are simple we do not tire of them as quickly. If you do not plan to paint for another 20 years, consider choosing this path. An example of this is a monochromatic color palette. Simple does not necessarily mean all white or beige.
Strength – This can mean something different for each person. For paint it means a bold, saturated paint color.
Sizzle – Some people just like things that are exciting – colors that create energy. Complementary and analogous colors can also create this color energy.
Sophistication – In the paint world this can also be defined as classy, refined or elegant.
Sophisticated color does not shout at you, and does not stand in opposition to its furnishings. These colors usually fall into the mid-range of intensity.
From Left to right: Bohemian Lace (HGSW-4052); White Diamond (BM-OC-61); Pure White (SW-7005); Alabaster (SW 7008).From Left to right: Mindful Gray (SW-7016); Revere Pewter (BM-HC-172); Classic Gray (BM-OC-23); Collingwood (BM-OC-28).From Left to right: Antique Glass (BM-CSP-695); Sea Salt (SW 6204); Borrowed Light (Farrow & Ball); Aleutian (SW 624l).From Left to right: Full Moon (SW 6679); Napery (SW 6388); Behr P270-2 September Morning; Kilim Beige (SW 6106).From Left to right: Urbane Bronze (SW 7048); Grizzle Gray (SW-7068); Stargazer (SW-9635); Lichen (Farrow & Ball). From Left to right: First Light (BM 2102-70); In Bloom (Magnolia), Dune Grass (BM 492); Behr RD-W14 Aria Ivory.
Sherwin-William paints are indicated as SW, and Benjamin-Moore as BM.
Happy New Year! It’s that time when all the new paint “colors of the year” have been revealed. And there is a hue for everyone! There are soft, muted colors, colors born in nature, bold colors, and dark, moody colors. You can easily Google “Paint Colors of the Year 2021” and find links (and lengthy tomes) from all the popular paint manufacturers. Some of these colors will prove to be trendy – lasting 4-8 years in popularity, and several will prove to be a fad – out of favor in just a year or two.
Many of the shades you see among the major players were developed in coordination with the home decor and furnishings industry several years ago. That’s why you find lots of items that “match” among those manufacturers in any given year. The past several years have seen the continuation of the neutrals trend with the current favorite, gray, now moving from the cooler shades toward the warmer ones being referred to as “greiges”.
America’s Color Consultants often work with people who have had their current furnishings from “a few” to “many” years and more often than not, want a refresh as opposed to a total home redo. Consequently, we are working with fabrics and colors that are not currently “on trend.”
When a client wants a more “modern” color (currently meaning gray) we see which of the beautiful neutrals on the market will work best with their rugs, drapes, furniture, light sources, etc. Because grays are actually black and white paints tinted with color, there is a gray shade of every color.
Over the past 15 years ACC has consulted hundreds of times with homeowners and small businesses and enjoyed the insights of national paint manufacturers and local paint stores, realtors and home owners. We have put together our first ACC Collection of Real Life Favorite Paint Colors (ours and our clients!). A few are personal favorites and colors we would love to spec for someone with bold ambitions; others have proven to be very popular for those planning to sell their properties in a few years; changing from a bright to a neutral; and several are those colors that have proven time again to be both popular and tried and true for clients on the east and west coasts.
Color is SO subjective and there are many factors that are considered when searching for a new paint color. We never push our own personal preferences, but when asked we certainly offer them! Our job, of course, is to educate our clients, guide the process, and assist in identifying the color that makes them say “YES – that’s it!” Experience, product knowledge and industry familiarity make us a valuable tool in your home improvement arsenal!
America’s Color Consultants Real Life Color of 2021 is Agreeable Gray (SW 7029).
While the name of this shade may elicit a yawn, and suggests it is neutral to the point of non-existence, nothing could be further from the truth, in our opinion.
This versatile shade of greige is happy to play with everyone. A medium light shade, it has an Light Reflective Value of 60, so it reflects a fair amount of light, but won’t wash out, and looks great with white or natural wood trim. It works well in any room with any furniture style and loves complementary earth tones. It can stand up to bold accent colors, too. It can comfortably be used in one room or the entire house. It has been a popular choice for all these reasons for the past 10 years with our clients and shows no sign of slowing down any time soon.
With design trends that are more modern and neutrals maintaining their popularity, accent walls are a good way of accentuating artwork or a fireplace or just adding a surprising jolt of color. An accent wall is a wall painted in a different color than the rest of the room. Usually a contrast to the predominant room color, it could also be a similar color but with a different pattern. Wood, tiles or wall paper can provide that beautiful contrast. There are numerous products on the market now that can serve the purpose.
Random Lengths Butternut Brown Vintage Shiplap Planks
Be careful though – an improperly created accent wall could make the room feel smaller. It’s a safer bet to use accent walls primarily for living rooms or family rooms, rather than smaller rooms such as bedrooms. However, a properly done accent wall behind the headboard of the bed can work very well. An adventurous homeowner could even choose to have two accent walls: multiple accent walls create an accented space. But it would be best to make sure the colors work particularly well together: if the accent colors are fighting each other for attention, then the effect could range from odd to atrocious!
The legend of Haints Blue: In the south it was common to paint porch ceilings blue to protect the house from evil sprits. The Gullah people passed along this tradition. In the Gullah culture of the South , ceilings and sometimes doors and shutters were painted blue to symbolize water or sky. According to folklore evil spirits and haints, pronunced “haunts,” would be either be tricked by the sky or the blue symbolized water which they could not cross. Blue glass bottles were also hung in trees to trap haints.
In the past Haint Blue was mixed with milk paint formulas using lime and crushed indigo plant pigments. Today many people use pale or dusty hues but there is no standard color. The color ranges from light blues and blue greens to darker shades and gray blues.
The beauty of brick is that it is a maintance free building product. It is expensive and the life span of a brick house can be 100’s of years with little or no maintance. Then why paint it? Sometimes we are forced to paint a brick home. An addtion is added and matching brick cannot be found or it is too expensive to use additional brick for the addition. Sometimes after adding an addtion there is very little brick still exposed resulting in very little sense to keep the natural brick.
Lately we have seen a trend to paint brick. Like all trends this one will pass. In 10 years when the paint is peeling and the brick needs to be repainted, you will ask yourself – why did I paint this brick? Before deciding to paint brick ask yourself a few questions. Why am I painting the brick? Does it need to be painted? Is my property historical and will it effect the historical value of the house in the future? Am I OK with repainting it in 10 -20 years. If I am reselling will it be an improvement or not?
Once painted, you can only undo the paint by sand blasting. The cost will exceed the original paint job. An alternative to painting brick – dye it. https://www.dyebrick.com/product/colour-panels. This technique does not give you 1,000’s of color choices, but it does retain the maintance free quality fo brick.
Hint: It’s not cheap! As members of the home improvement industry, we at America’s Color Consultants (ACC) are very lucky to meet and exchange ideas/information with people across the region, country, and even other parts of the world!
Below you will find a link to an extensive overview/analysis of the steps and costs of redoing plaster walls provided by a new colleague, Jen Miller of Jen Reviews. While dry wall is now the most common type of wall surface found in ACC’s work areas, those with older homes (and/or high budgets) should find this well-researched piece of interest. We would venture to say that lath and plaster work (found in most 40’s/50’s built North Arlington homes) is now considered a specialty field and prices for these vanishing plasterers’ expertise will reflect that.
Thank you, Jen! Jen Reviews are packed with lots of good information and excellent research on a wide variety of food, fitness and home products. Jen’s team of reviewers are all experts in their sometimes-niche fields. Check it out. The referenced article was originally published by their sister site, Happy DIY Home.
Going into a new decade, I am observing a strong movement towards “creativity”.
We are living in the Modern Era, which has included the Space Age and the Dot Com era, both based on science and technology. During the last 20 years I feel the Arts have been disregarded. Five years ago a guidance counselor at my son’s high school told him there was no point in taking an art class, because there are no jobs in art. I was horrified! Everything around us is, was or will be created by an artist: the computer you use, the car you drive, and even the label on the can of tomatoes you buy, all were designed by an artist.
Lately we are beginning to recognize this creativity. You can see it all around you. Paint colors for homes are no longer just shades of white or beige. Paint manufacturers are putting more time and money into promoting paint colors: everyone has a “Color of the Year.” We are seeking out more creative and unique products for our homes. Food products are more creative in stores, and presentation, in addition to taste, is an important element at restaurants.
In our era of shrinking job stability and stagnant wages, people are finding ways to generate additional income through their creativity. A “side hustle” is a common second or even third job. Creative sites such Etsy.com offer unique creations such as this Starry Night Birdhouse or Fantasy Hoof Boots . Visit your local farmers market and you will see that we are even becoming more creative in our local food products such as Immortal Mountain Chocolates.
If you have a creative urge, but don’t know where to start, a subscription to a site like mybluprint.com might be the answer. With on-line tutorials in everything from quilting and photography, to jewelry making and cake decorating, it is a fun way to exercise your creative muscles. Perhaps you caught the competition “Making It” hosted by Amy Poehler and Nick Offerman. The goal of the show was simple: to encourage everyone to “Make It”! It was a “Project Runway”-styled show for crafts people with different skills and backgrounds in which the makers were given projects to create each week. The variety of creative skills and imagination on display was staggering: both impressive and inspiring.
Why all this creativity? Perhaps it is the resurgence of concepts such as Ikigai that are driving this new age of creativity. This Japanese concept means “a reason for being.” The word “ikigai” is usually used to indicate the source of value in one’s life or the things that make one’s life worthwhile, the word translated to English roughly means “thing that you live for” or “the reason for which you wake up in the morning.” Read more at en.wikipedia.org.
America’s Color Consultants franchise model fits perfectly into this new trend. We offer a home-based business which you can pursue part time as your “side hustle” by adding creativity back into your life. A great way to start the next decade.
Fall is a very busy time of year for my business: lots of people are sprucing up their homes for the holidays. My appointment schedule is booked two weeks out, which I note to potential new clients when they call.
Recently, I had an appointment with a new client. The day before our appointment, she called to cancel saying that her painter had a color consultant who he would send over for FREE. I told her I understood and wished her well. A week later I received a desperate call from the same woman telling me that the house was half painted and it “looks awful!” and can I come right over?
Sadly, I had to tell her that I was booked for the next two weeks! She also told me a bit more about the painter’s “consultant”, who did not ask her anything about her own preferences, didn’t look at her furniture or use any kind of process to help with paint color selection. No samples were provided and she felt strong-armed to use the colors they recommended.
I hoped I could fit her in, but the timing for us both couldn’t be worked out.
Over the last 15 years as a paint color consultant, I have developed a personalized process to assist my clients with their selections, so that they love the colors that they paint. My system is now used by all our America’s Color Consultants franchisees and we offer customer satisfaction. What does “customer satisfaction” mean? After your paint color consultation you can text or call us and we will continue to help you tweak the color selection until it is perfect.
Painting your home is an expensive proposition. While there may be painters with a very good eye for color, there are others who are just excellent painters. Paint color consultants are talented experts who are specially trained professionals – and do the job right the first time. Take your time and don’t feel rushed to make a decision.
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.
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!
