Wednesday, August 29, 2012

Pick Me!

'Are people still using accent walls?'

Yes, but not for the sake of just having one because others do.  Some
rooms just don't have the right space or wall to accent.

However.....
On a recent consultation a client had a perfect niche area in the
kitchen to differentiate the eating area.

Niche area as accent wall


All of the rooms were originally off-white, floor to ceiling.  We broke up the
eye strain in two ways: 


To bring a pop of color, an accent, into the space we defined the eating area with a warm browny orange.

In the kitchen we found a soft color to meld in with the tiles, and repeated the color on the upper walls in the two front rooms you see when you enter in the front door.  The wainscoting was painted an antique white in both rooms for balance with each other and the ceiling.




  This helped create a break from the carmel color we used in the foyer.




The great room flows directly from the foyer and has some architectural detail at the ceiling.  For a subtle transition the walls were painted an almond color, which is lighter than the foyer, but darker than the off white ceiling. 



To add some interest I recommended painting the angle section the wall color.

 
 
Color is so transforming.  This house became more of a home when the floor-to-ceiling 'builder white' was switched up by adding an accent area in the kitchen with a stronger, saturated color and defining, yet unifying, the other main floor rooms with a analogous color scheme.
 
 
Need help ~making color personal~ ?   Contact me for a color consulting appointment for your next project.

Saturday, August 11, 2012

That Color Doesn't Look Like That In My Room!

Had a little run in with a color trouble maker, metamerisam (me tam'er ism).

Natural light


Incandescent light

It's not surprising as a color consultant to have run-ins with a color 'changing' under different lighting or in different rooms.  It is our expertise that helps clients find that perfect color in an otherwise troubling room.  It is always interesting when the color change/result is more drastic in a particular case compared to more subtle differences.


The three lighting sources that can 'change' a color are natural/direct sunlight, indirect sunlight and artificial light.  Artificial light adds another level depending if the bulb is halogen (most like, but not the same as, daylight), fluorescent (shows more cool tones), or incandescent (shows more warm tones).

That's why you may pull some paint chips from the paint store just to feel like you are back at square one in finding the perfect color once you get the paint chips home.  Retail/commercial buildings usually have fluorescent lighting, where as your home most likely does not.  Your friend's or neighbor's house may face the same direction as yours, but each room is different.  A blue that looks great in the store looks baby blue at home.  A tan in your friend's great room pulls more yellow or orange than you planned. 

I recently helped a client find a new color for a master bathroom.  It is located on the same side of the house as the dining room, but has a single window compared to a door wall and is on the second floor compared to the main floor. She is keeping the existing earthy brown/terracotta tiles and wants a lighter earthy feel, but not peach or brown.  In the dining room we reviewed a few color chips she had pulled.  Knowing we had to look at the colors in the actual space I added some color chips to our assortment. 

When we moved the color chips into the master bathroom, metamerism went to town taking neutral tans that can look yellow vs. peach and turned them muddy looking.  We switched gears and found colors that looked carmel (in the dining room) held their own and didn't turn muddy in the actual room's lighting.  It was a good challenge to show my client why the color would need some depth, some umph, to not crumble or disappear next to her tile, and more so why we had to look at the colors in the space to be painted, not solely in a room with better seating :)

So now you know the name of the trouble causing, although natural occurring, circumstance.  If you get really stuck and need help finding the color to ~make your space personal~ contact me for a color consultation.

Best~
Jill