Saturday, June 2, 2012

Not Just A Door

Who's that knocking at my door?

Picture a sun bleached & faded gray, metal, cold, less than happy, tired door as your entry to your home away from home ~ work. Blah! Just a week ago the employees of a local restaurant/brewery that is full of life, warmth, fun, excellent food and service were trudging up to this uninspired entry I just described.

However, now they are greeted with a fresh coat of paint on the exterior walls and a new warm gray door, in Benjamin Moore's Silhouette AF-655

Employee Entrance

The painter had approached me for help on what to do with the tired, faded door.  Patrons do walk past this door if they park in the West side of the parking lot, so he thought the door could 'disappear' as the employees know where it is, but patrons wouldn't notice it.   This works great in areas that have a lot of angles or non-primary doors that make the space look chopped up if every door jam and door are not the wall color.



Since the painter was meeting with the owner the following day to make a final color selection I suggested three options:
  1. Paint the door the same color as the walls to make the door disappear. 
  2. Paint the door a shade (darker version) of the wall color.  I picked out a brownish orange color so it didn't read dark orange. 
  3. Paint the door a gray.  That's where my color expertise came in. 
A traditional metal gray would have felt cold and more strongly contrast with the warm orange wall.  A stone gray would be warmer, but may not stand strong next to the amount of orange. I found a gray in-between these characteristics that looks gray, but warm, but not too soft. 

Before I got to stop by for the 'after' picture the painter called me to say my color choice "gives the door a designer touch".   I'll take that complement :0)

Hopefully the employees feel a welcoming to their home away from home.


Have door or angled architectural details you can't decide if you want to accent or make disappear?  Contact me for a consultation and I will ~Make Color Personal~ for you!

Best,
Jill



1 comment:

  1. Great job Jill! I love the term, “make it disapear”. I like to make wall vents disappear instead of leaving them white and sticking out like a sore thumb. Many people don't think of doing that! (waving magic color wand and it disappears)

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