Start randomly choosing colors that attract you and after you’ve made 50 to 100 selections, there will be a pattern to your color choices. Guaranteed. I see it with every client.

Following the inspiring color choice can entice us to try a new flavor. The Nespresso company has made an artform out of color choice as it affects product packaging and display placement. (And I love the coffee!)

You can’t escape your own context whether you know it or not.  No matter how “objective” we try to be, or think we are, our perceptions of color are contingent upon who we are. We can’t escape it.

And no matter how forward-thinking or retro-minded we may be, we are still in the present moment. Which is why we need to repaint, remodel, re-brand, etc. Time is marching on and change is inevitable. Colors go in and out of fashion because pushing the changes of fashion is the flow of time and perception.

That said, can a color choice be out of context for a particular project or a particular room? Absolutely, if that project or room already has a defined color scheme. Choosing colors that integrate into an existing color plan has a different set of parameters than creating a completely new color plan.

If you want to know what you really think and feel about color, pay attention to what inspires you and look for patterns as your choices add up. Inspired, sensational color can be yours!

www.CristinaAcosta.com

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

Some paint brands like Benjamin Moore have thousands of colors to choose from.

The Benjamin Moore line alone has over 3,600 colors in their paint line. Paint companies have developed marketing tools to help you choose color,  but you’ll quickly discover that placing those colors in your home can result in a new level of confusion. Calling a expert color consultant will help you cut through the confusion and get to your best color plan.

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.

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.

And, all of those tidy spaces make it much easier to change the wall color when I get the urge!

Here’s a peak at the piece I wrote for Latina Style magazine titled, Clearing Spaces:

Dear Cristina,

During the winter my family and I were stuck in our house more than usual. Now that we have time to relax, I’m looking at a lot of clutter and mess and it’s making me loca. I don’t have any money to remodel, but I want a fresh start on a budget that’s mostly going to be hard work rather than cash. Where should I begin?
Ana Louisa P.

Have you ever moved and noticed that after you unpacked your things and put them in your new home, you saw your belongings in a new light? The process of moving is all about preparing for a change. You probably had a garage sale or giveaway before you left your old house, taking a look at your things with the view, “Do I really need this?”

The good news is that you don’t have to move to get a new view of the same old stuff in your life. The easiest way to focus your vision is to clear out the clutter. Without the distraction of clutter you’ll be able to see what you have to start with so you can determine the best way to begin a big change.
This change won’t have to cost you a dime, though you will have to work hard. You may even make some money if you sell your discarded items.

Working from where you are and with what you have can bring about amazing results, whether we’re talking about fitness, emotional growth or home décor. You always have more than you think – just not in the way you usually think about it.

Focusing on what you really like and want to continue to live with won’t stop at your home décor. Even more surprising is that changing your home on the cheap can be a creatively challenging project that will not only result in a “new” way to live in your home, you’ll discover talents you didn’t know you had. You’ll quickly realize that refining your focus will extend to other areas of your life, maybe even including your work and personal relations. . . . READ MORE

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

White comes in many colors from warm beige whites to cool blue whites.

Crisp and fresh or harsh and sterile, a laundry line of contradictory meanings flap around the color white. How we understand color is based on who and where we are. And the meaning color has for us can change along with changes in our lives and our location. White on a tropical island is a very different experience from  white (as snow) covering a northern winter landscape.

I was looking at the color white  last week and realized that for me, white had became a symbol of global interconnection. How did a color I see every day suddenly have a new meaning? Here’s what happened.

Last week an early season snow of over 5 inches fell around my home in Oregon. As the snow piled up (and the shock wore off!) I noticed a strange thing about the color of the snow. It was tinged a warm white. At first the warm white color of the snow wasn’t noticeable, but as the layer of stained snow thickened, it was obvious that something unusual had happened.

Poking my fingers into the top layer of snow, I could remove that soil tinged beige layer of snow to reveal the cold blue-white layer of snow beneath that had fallen earlier as part of the same storm. It was a beautiful contrast of whites.

The next day the news reported that a dust storm in the neighboring state of Washington near Moses Lake over 300 miles away from my  home in Bend, Oregon had tinged the snowfall with the warm red topsoil from Eastern Washington farm lands.

Mother Nature was giving us a lesson in whites along with a reminder that the borders we humans put around our cities, states, territories and countries are invisible to her. During those moments I spent looking at the subtly colored layers of white snow, white became my new “green”.

The idea of white as a unifying color isn’t new. The color white is regularly used in home decor as an interior or exterior paint trim color that repeats often enough around a home that it unifies a variety of other colors. White is so popular in architecture that some paint companies such as Benjamin Moore, Pittsburgh Paints and Sherwin Williams have over one hundred whites in their paint lines to choose from.

White is everywhere from underwear to outerwear. It’s in most everybody’s closet and has been for decades. White dress shirts have been a mainstay of men’s business fashion for over a century. From baby diapers to bed sheets, the color white in some variation is one color I would bet most people on the planet have. Billions of people and the color white. The meanings will keep on.

www.CristinaAcosta.com