Paint color sample swatches can be overwhelming. Take time to create a color plan and choosing all of your paint, textile and surface colors will be easier.

There is nothing wrong with white walls. Let’s just get that out there. Though white isn’t a “color” on the color wheel, it certainly is a paint color, and one that many people love. But if the only reason you have white walls is because you’re afraid of color, you may have a touch of chromophobia or “fear of colors”.

Or maybe you just have a fear of making expensive mistakes with paint color. That’s more often the case.

Although paint is often touted as a cheap and easy interior design fix, in reality painting your home can be a big and messy project. With paint prices between $20 – $60 per gallon, plus the cost of application, color mistakes add up fast.

And now is where I usually say, “Which is why you need a color consultant.”  But not everybody can afford or find the right color consultant.

So, what should you do if  you are determined to create your own paint color plan? Here are some color choosing tips if you’re looking to freshen a room with color:

• Take time collecting samples of colors you love. Look outside of paint store swatches to the ordinary things in your life that you enjoy. The color of your morning latte may be your best soothing warm brown color.
• Assemble your samples of the colors you love with samples of the colors in your room that you have to live with, like that ugly tile or flooring you can’t afford to replace.
• Now, using a paint store fan deck, look for a way to bridge the colors you love with the colors you are stuck with. A “bridge” color is my way to describe a color that is a version of what you love, that will work with what you have.
• Give yourself time with your color choices before you ask for anyone elses opinion.
• Life is short, live with the colors you love.  (And that includes white!)

www.CristinaAcosta.com

Most people have a lot of questions around hiring a color expert. If you don’t have a personal referral, you might wonder if the person you’re calling is qualified. Hiring a color consultant to choose paint colors for your home can feel like a toss of the dice. You might wonder: Will their sense of taste and style be one I share? Will they boss me around? What if I hate their ideas? Etc.

I’ve heard all of those concerns (and more) from my clients. Here’s my advice:

1. Do your due diligence and find out about the color consultant’s education and experience.
2. Call them up and ask them about their process.
3. Ask to see photos of their projects so you can get an idea of their level of expertise.
4. Ask for testimonials or references.
5. Ask them about their pricing and how they estimate the time and cost of the consult.

Remember, anybody can call themselves a color consultant. Just because somebody “loves” color or happens to be standing in a paint store, don’t presume expertise.

Read more about what to expect from a color consult with me.

I mixed acrylic paint with water to create the neutral color of these suede shoes. The original suede was a light pearl gray. Notice how the paint settled after a few days to reveal the amount of identifiable hues in the taupe color. Shaking the jar resulted in the neutral shoe color of these oxfords. See the note below for directions.

Tan, taupe, beige, mushroom, sandstone, putty and stone are just a few of the names for light neutral colors. Think of a neutral color and if you are new to color mixing, you might think of a neutral as brown mixed with white. And you can get a typical version of a neutral from that combination.

But here’s the thing about a neutral color. Neutrals can be the result of a surprising blend of colors. And a “good” neutral, one that works with or complements a wide variety of colors often has some distinct colors as part of the mix.

The photo of the suede shoes with a bottle of paint shows you the neutral paint color I obtained after mixing together a variety of colors then painting them on the suede.  After painting the shoes I saved the remaining color in a bottle. A few days later I was surprised to see how much the colors had separated within the water mixture. Note the small layers of red and gold at the bottom, then the majority of green-brown earth tone with a blue layer topped by a beautiful light bright layer of sky blue.

This example showing the color ingredients behind a neutral paint color is a visual explanation of the mixture of colors that can be present in a lovely neutral. This quality is especially important for neutral wall paint colors as they are exposed to different levels and colors of light throughout the day and their base colors can become more or less prominent depending upon the light quality.

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Directions to Color Suede Shoes at Home

Note: Embrace the randomness of this process and hope you like the result (or learn to) as it is PERMANENT. You may get permanent water stains or blossoms (as some watercolorists call them) on your suede item.

You will need:

• Artists acrylic paints (in the tube or jar)
• palette knife (for mixing paint)
• stir stick or kitchen whisk (for mixing it with the water)
• water
• painters tape to mask off areas you don’t want to paint (find this in any hardware store)
• a large soft brush and a fan brush for applying the color (or whichever type of brush you prefer)
• Note: Acrylic paint colors I used are: White, Cadmium Red Light, Thalo Red, Ultramarine Blue, Yellow Ochre, Quinacridone Gold, Thalo green, Burnt Sienna
• New (or very clean) light-colored suede item.
• Hairdryer to dry shoes.

What to do:

• Use the painters tape to cover and protect any areas of the suede shoes you don’t want to paint. This only works on things like the soles or hardware. The color will bleed under the tape if you try to section off parts of the suede.
• Mix together a color you like. I began with artists acrylic paint, creating about 3 or 4 tablespoons of color. I mixed the final color with about 20 ounces of water.
• Note: when mixing the color, keep in your mind the color you are covering as it will effect the outcome. Do a small test if possible.
• Saturate your brush with the watery color mixture and apply from one end of the suede item to another. BE SURE to not be too wet as this may cause watermarks. Too dry and the color won’t be even on the item. Applying the color is tricky. The idea is to not go back and retouch an area, but to get all of the color down the first time and dry it all at the same time.
• NOTE: The paint MUST be very watery to not negatively effect the texture of the suede. Too little water will result in smoothing out the texture of the suede.

That’s it!! Hope it all works out. I’d love to hear from anyone who tries this.

www.CristinaAcosta.com

Taking a walk through the Portland, OR, city neighborhoods I found this example of color choice confusion. ©CristinaAcosa

Have you ever found the perfect house paint color only to put it on the wall and discover that it isn’t so perfect after all? Then, you try again, and again . . . until maybe you just stop trying.  Choosing exterior paint colors can be especially scary. Your process and progress is there for all the world to see. Not only do you have to decide what you think about each color choice, well-meaning neighbors may feel compelled to offer their opinions and suggestions. It can be  nightmare.

So how does a person pick exterior paint colors? There are a variety of color solutions to this question ranging from the custom to  off-the-rack choices. As a color consultant, when I work with a client to choose colors, the process is completely custom. Together we build a color palette that works with their personality, architecture, environmental setting and possibly the local neighborhood association.

If you don’t have access to a color consultant or color coach of some type don’t despair. Most paint lines market groupings of exterior paint colors specifically to homeowners. If you are completely without an idea of what you want, studying color sample groupings is a good place to start the color choosing process.  You can find these samples colors at any paint store or building materials store. The paint store employees can usually send you home with samples.

If you aren’t shy, check out a paint color fan deck from a paint store and start cruising neighborhoods looking for color schemes that appeal to you. When you find colors you like, stay in your car and find an approximate match. In my quest for a perfect color I have been caught red-handed with a color fan deck against a garage wall by surprised homeowners. I wouldn’t recommend that method. I’ve surprised more than one sleeping dog!

Here are a few exterior paint color choice tips:

• Pick three to four colors for your house: The Body color (main color). The trim color (around doors and windows). A fascia color (the fascia is the board that edges the roof).  And a door color.
• Paint the garage doors the body color of the house (unless they are natural wood) so that they don’t stand out and compete with your front door as a focal point.
• Use good quality paint that has built in  UV protection.
• If you paint your house yourself, ask the paint store employees for a few application tips, you’ll almost always learn something useful.

Enjoy!

www.CristinaAcosta.com

Traveling to Germany and not knowing German, I wondered how easy it would be to read the signs and get around. I laughed when I saw this sign my first day in Heidenheim, Germany. The language of color spoken internationally! Photo credit: ©Cristina Acosta

Color communicates. Any color expert, designer or artist will agree with that statement. But ask those creative types what exactly a color is communicating and the answers you get may have surprisingly little in common.

Here’s why: Color is a language that continually evolves with the cultures that contribute the shades and tones of meaning each of us sees. And, each individual brings their personal biases and perceptions to the mix, further complicating things.

Yes, you can open most any home decor magazine and read at least one color experts’ opinion based on a study about the calming effects of green – or beige – or . . . whatever the next color may be. But the truth is, the focus group that decides green is calming one year, may decide that mauve is calming next year. And, one more thing to keep in mind,  the experience of an individual and the particular mix of individuals in a focus group is always changing.

Consequently, the meaning of a color is a moving target. One person’s irritating red is another person’s energizing red. It’s all about time and place, people and perception.

So what do you do with this information when you’re standing in the paint store looking for an idea or some advice? Here’s a few tips:

• The first thing to do is to choose a group of colors you love that you think might work for the project. For example – If you’re choosing exterior home colors and are looking for 3 colors, pick at least a dozen that you think will work.

• Then (ideally, take some time with this step) clip the color samples into individual pieces and spread them on the table. Start choosing your favorites.

• When you’ve narrowed it down to at least 4 choices, THEN start choosing where the colors go. Such as this color for the body, this for the trim, this for the gable trim, etc.

Remember that when you are choosing colors, you are bringing a lifetime of experience to the process. Respect that first with a little exploration, then listen to the advice you get from friends and professionals. You’ll have a better feel for the color choices that are right for you.

www.CristinaAcosta.com

The warm pink wall paint color ties together the variety of pinks in the marble and metallic cabinet faces. Wall paint color: Benjamin Moore - Lake House 1175. (Note: this color works beautifully in this particular light and architectural setting - please test it carefully before using it in your home). Photo Credit - Paula Watts

Mixing metallics into your home design can give a small space a stylish vibe. Put the metallic accents on existing cabinetry and your small space can remain clear and uncluttered – both practically and visually. And when those metallics come in a coppery pink tone, the result is gorgeous!

Metallic finishes can play up modern architecture like this master bath at the same time they link traditional materials like marble with the contemporary shapes of the home design.

The perfect wall paint color brings together the variety of surfaces with a unified color. With that in mind, choosing the color that works with every color in the bathroom is very important. Helping my clients choose the best color for the room meant first determining a few basic concepts. Here’s a list of things I consider and the thought process I went through to arrive at my choice that may help you:

• Should the color function as a warm color or a cool color?

Pink is usually perceived as a cool color. But in this instance, it was important that the pink be perceived as a warm color. By choosing a very warm pink with yellow and earth undertones the pink copper cabinet facing and the warm pink and brownish tones in the marble were “pushed” to the warm side of perception.

• What is the percentage of warm to cool tones in the space?

The warm white of the marble is “pushed” to function as a cool accent color against the warm tones of earthy pink. The cool tone is about 20% of the total color plan. This is a good balance as one color temperature being dominant strengthens the overall design.

Choosing wall paint colors can be complicated. Remember to consider basic concepts like overall color temperature and you’ll be able to make an informed color choice.  If it’s too much for you, give me a call.

www.CristinaAcosta.com

Thank you Paula Watts for your beautiful photo.

One of the unexpected changes that can happen to the aging eye includes the color yellow. For some people the lens of the eye becomes increasingly dense and more yellow with age. With that change, contrast sensitivity declines and dark colors can be difficult to distinguish from each other.

The yellowing effect may not be affecting you personally, but if you are a retailer or manufacturer selling products, how your products are being perceived by the older customer with this condition affects your sales.

The color yellow is common in many natural landscapes throughout the year. I took this photo of bamboo stalks in Bordeaux, France while walking through the public garden in the downtown.

Yellow labels can “disappear” against a bright yellow background. Decreased contrast sensitivity can cause blue and black  or blue and green to appear the same. White or light colored type on a black or dark colored background may be almost impossible to read for that customer.

Colors not only affect people differently because of personal and cultural conditioning and experiences. The visual  abilities of each person affects how and if they perceive a color. Keeping in mind the possibility for differences in color perceptions is especially important for color consultants. Yellow is not always a sunny color.

Read more about the aging eye at LighthouseInternational.org

www.CristinaAcosta.com

Sherwin Williams, Benjamin Moore and Pittsburgh Paints are the top 3 National paint brands. There are also excellant specialty and regional paint brands available. Buy the best quality paint you can afford for the best results. High quality paint has more solids, consistent pigmenting and better wearability.

Here’s why. There are at least 3 parts to how a latex house paint color looks: Base tint, pigment and sheen. House paint isn’t just white paint with colors added. Depending upon the color, the paint store selling the brand uses a particular (there can be several choices) tinted base color to which  they then add measured amounts of their color pigments. Each company has their own group of pigments. And some companies such as Benjamin Moore, Pantone or Divine Paints use very particular pigments.

What this means to the homeowner trying to match a paint color from one brand to another (usually cheaper) brand of paint is that there will be differences between brands.  Sometimes you can’t tell the difference, and you’ll be happy with the result. Other times, differences may include subtle things like sheen changes, and sometimes (especially when using Divine Paints) the difference between the actual brand and the cheaper copy results in radical shifts in how the color actually looks on the wall. Depending upon the skill of the paint store professional who matches the color, the differences between the color specified and how that color looks on the wall can range quite a bit.

So what should you do if you want certain colors but want to save money? The first thing I suggest to clients is that they buy a cheaper product from the line of colors they like. That way, color consistency will be the same across the product line with some exceptions. Benjamin Moore for example, won’t sell their Affinity colors in their lower priced product lines because they can’t deliver the exact match and paint qualities.

If purchasing the color sample paint brand isn’t going to work because of availability issues or some sort of arrangement with a painting contractor, then ask to see large samples (dried) of the colors so that you can be sure the color match is acceptable between brands.

Recently a painting contractor asked me about matching Pantone Colors from the Pantone Matching System (PMS). He said that the professional paint stores he worked with were hesitant to match the colors. When this happens, it’s likely because the paint store personnel does not have a clear sense of the base tint that will yield the best result.

The bottom line is that if you’re not willing to buy the brand of paint consistent with your color sample, you take a risk that you won’t get exactly what you want. Buy the best quality paint you can afford from a professional paint store, and  it’s often not a problem. If you’re trying to save money on house paint it’s important to  make an informed decision that works for both your sense of aesthetics and your wallet.

www.CristinaAcosta.com

The yellow loft roofs the dining area and juts into the space of the living room of this home. The shape as well as the color act as a bridge between the red dining room walls and the green living room walls.

One thing leads to another. That’s as true in life as it is for interior design. It’s especially true if you’ve ever started remodeling or redecorating just one room of a home, then stood back when it was done only to realize that other areas of the house need updating.

And in the same sense, one color leads to another as you walk through any building. Creating a paint color scheme blending good color design with the architecture of your home is like putting together a 3-D puzzle. One part of that puzzle changes and everything changes. And change can be complicated.

It’s easy to think about home color as mostly about the walls, but the reality is that the walls, floors, ceiling, trims and decor are all design elements that combine within the open spaces of the home. Now add to that the thousands of choices you have in most any tile, furniture, lighting and paint store and the puzzle pieces of design that seemed so easy to sort are now in danger of becoming a pile of confusing shapes and colors.

If you’ve ever felt overwhelmed by color, you’re not alone. Putting together entire interior design color schemes can be a lot to think about. But, mixing colors around your home gets a little simpler if you think about those color combinations as a master color plan.

Creating a master color plan is what I do for my clients. They choose the paint colors they like and I help them make those choices (or similar choices) work with the rest of their home decor as well as the architecture of the home.

Here are a few tips I share with color consulting clients to help them organize their interior paint colors:

• Identify the colors in your home that you aren’t going to change, such as the flooring, kitchen cabinetry, window coverings, countertops, etc., and be sure that the paint colors you choose complement the colors of those things.
• Look at the paint colors in natural light and at night under artificial light to be sure the color looks good 24/7.
• Sample your color choices in several places of the room so that you can see the effect of light on the paint color.

www.CristinaAcosta.com

Purple has two "near-complements" which are orange and green. This bathroom photo shows how well purple bridges both the sage green tile color and the "orange" colored natural wood.

Landscape artists often refer to the color combination of violet/purple and green as “Nature’s Lovers”. Not only do purple and green look good together on an artist’s canvas, they can look amazing together in your home.

The beautiful combination of egg carton colors In a supermercado in Cuernavaca, Mexico caught the lens of my camera. Notice how the green is "softer" than the stronger color of violet. Putting a bright color next to a softer color creates interest at the same time it quiets the brighter color (a little). Note how in the photo of the bathroom shower above, the purple is much brighter than the green. It's the same principle.

Purple and green pair beautifully in the garden.

From soft gray violet to deep amethyst purples, painting your walls your favorite shade of purple will go with more colors than you might think. Here’s why. Purple is a mixture of red and blue. That means you can easily coordinate purple with those colors. Green is another color that coordinates beautifully with purple, but not for the same reason. The color green is what artist’s refer to as a “near complement” to purple.

Even though a “near complement” sounds like something socially awkward, in artist’s terms it describes a particular secondary color’s relationship to another color on the color wheel. (If you want to learn more about color relationships including what is a primary, secondary and tertiary color, read my book, Paint Happy.)

Deep grayish purple and medium grass green are natural foils to the outdoor patio furniture in this retail location. Patio World, Bend, Oregon.

If all of this sounds too complicated, stop before you decide that choosing colors is just too complex of a subject. You don’t have to learn any complicated aesthetic terms to enjoy color. Look around you and you’ll see unlikely combinations that are beautiful together. In nature you’ll often see green and purple together at your local farmer’s market or produce section at the supermarket. Eggplants, artichokes and asparagus are examples of vegetables where the colors green and purple exist beautifully together.

Consciously seeing color and noting color combinations you like is inspiration you can bring into your life and into your home. Next time you’re thinking about home colors, look beyond the paint store before you start choosing color chips. You might surprise yourself with the combinations you realize you enjoy.

www.CristinaAcosta.com