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.

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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

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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.

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Synesthesia is a condition in the brain processes that describes when the brain  mixes up the senses – taste, touch, smell, hearing and vision so that the person with synesthesia may experience a taste as a shape (for example) or a number as a color.

Though modern scientists first documented synesthesia in the 1880′s it wasn’t until recently with the aid of brain scans and other technology, that science has found a way to ascertain that synesthesia is not just a gift for metaphor, but is an actual brain condition.

In the article, Hearing Color, Tasting Shapes, by Vilayanur S. Ramachandran and Edward M. Hubbard, published by Scientific American, the authors discuss the phenonmenon of synesthesia and explain the possible reasons for the condition.

“Our insights into the neurological basis of synesthesia could help explain some of the creativity of painters, poets and novelists. According to one study, the condition is seven times as common in creative people as in the general population. . . . In addition to clarifying why artists might be prone to experiencing synesthesia, our research suggests that we all have some capacity for it and that this trait may have set the stage for the evolution of abstraction–an ability at which humans excel.”

Blue and yellow together create green. In this progression of colors from the master bedroom wall through the bathroom, blue and gold give the sensation of cradling the green. It's a comforting yet interesting arrangement of color.

When I walk through a client’s home, the colors, shapes and textures speak to me kinesthetically  as well as visually. And sometimes I get the sensation of a taste or sound, depending upon how the colors in the room interact. I never gave much thought to this ability until I read Ramachandran and Hubbard’s work. Then a way of experiencing the world that I had considered a personal idiosyncrasy  was suddenly something with a name that I now know is experienced by others.

When science “proves” something that artists have been perceiving, the necessity of the arts in education is even more apparent to me. People who have neurological wiring that gives them problems or  idiosyncrasies  such as dyslexia or synesthesia don’t often fit into the standard learning and teaching styles enforced in the average school. Including the arts in school curriculum allows these people to succeed and flourish and maybe someday, even become artists of one kind or another.

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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.

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Cross of marigold petals adorns this grave in the cemetery in the town of Ocotopec, Mexico. I took this photo with the scent of copal incense threading through the air in smokey streaks mixing with the sounds of mariachi musicians. Yellow flowers are for the mature souls of adults.

The mystery of life and death and spirit, the reality of change and the beauty of everything is a defining aspect of Mexican culture. Throughout Mexico and most anywhere a significant number of Mexican-Americans live, altars adorn public & private spaces. This spirituality with ancient roots is most visible during the Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) festival  November 1st and 2nd.

Dia de los Muertos  (the Day of the Dead) is celebrated in Mexico and by Mexican Americans living in the U.S. As a holy day it is connected to the Catholic holy day All Saints’ Day, but is actually much older and pre-dates the Aztec. The celebration is spread through various other countries in Central and South America.

I saw this woman in the market in Cuernavaca. She carries the flowers for Dia de los Muertos altars. White is for the souls of deceased children.

Through the month of October, people prepare for Dia de los Muertos by preparing altars (ofrendas) to honor the dead. Depending upon the family or community traditions, altars can be elaborate rooms with effigies of the deceased surrounded by beauty, food and candles, or simple altars with a picture and a few items.

Brilliant colors and stark value contrasts between dark and light with the addition of warm earthen tones make up the complex palette of colors associated the Mexican Celebration of Dia de los Muertos (the Day of the Dead). Not only are these colors seen among the flowers and decorations that make up the various ofrendas  (altars), foods and decor that are part of the celebration, the colors metaphorically and symbolically mirror the mystical underpinnings of the Dia de los Muertos celebration.

Because the veil between the living and the spirit world thins at this time of year, the colors of the Hispanic celebration of the Day of the Dead are both strong in hue and in contrast. Bridging those

Images of bones emerge from the warm skintone browns of this traditional Day of the Dead bread proffered by a street vendor in Ocotopec. Called Pan de Muerte (Bread of the Dead), the bread is sweet without being overwhelmingly rich.

strong colors and values is the warm brown color of pan de muerte, the traditional bread of Dia de los Muertos. Motifs of crossed bones emerge from small loaves the warm color of brown skin. What a beautiful metaphor and visual symbol of the ephemeral quality of life expressed through color meanings and symbology.

I didn’t grow up with the actual Dia de los Muertos celebration. Instead, when I was under the age of 10 my family celebrated a unique combination of All Saints Day and Halloween with a piñata (a Mexican tradition of a paper effigy of an animal or object that is stuffed with candy and then destroyed by children to release the treats). It was the type of culturally morphed celebration that fit into the surrounding neighborhood of Palos Verdes, California during the 60′s and 70′s.

Since then I’ve explored how the holiday is celebrated in Mexico and incorporated some of those ideas into my personal life. Being that I love making retablos (altars) with images of the divine feminine, such as the Guadalupe and Conquistadora, and have those retablos all over my house, decorating an altar for the season comes naturally.

For me personally, the time of Dia de los Muertos begins in October and continues to about mid-November. This is a beautiful season and  a time that I  specifically ask my ancestors and deceased friends and relatives to visit me with their gifts of wisdom and love. I usually get some sort of revelation or enriching experience during this time that especially helps me for the ensuing year.

Here are some guidelines to the symbolism of the items on a Dia de los Muertos ofrenda (altar):

Composition of a Dia de los Muertos Ofrenda (altar of offerings):

• Water – Source of Life
• Salt – Purification
  

  An effigy of the deceased (in photo) made of loofas draped in her clothing is the centerpiece of this huge ofrenda (altar) taking up an entire bedroom. I visited this home in Ocotopec and the family allowed this photo. Note the beauty and care put into every aspect of the decorations and offerings.

• Candle or light – Eternal love
• Copal or incense Offering to the gods -  Transmits prayers
• Flowers — the yellow flowers represent the sun, wealth and light to help souls find their way. The white flowers represent purity and often represent children.
• Mat, bed, table — a symbolic place of rest for souls. This is often the surface on which the altar rests.
• Toys — for young souls.
• Bread, tamales — sustenance
• The neck and the canes (bones) in the form of a wheel — this is the symbol on the Pan de Muerto, the traditional bread for Dia de los Muertos
• Items that pleased the deceased person and usually a photo, sometimes an effigy draped in
  

  Candy skulls made of sugar or chocolate are traditional food items for the Dia de los Muertos altar. I took this photo detail of the food offering at a public ofrenda (altar) in Tpotzlan, Mexico.

  the deceased’s clothing.

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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.

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The gold paint color reminds me of the sand of the beach near my childhood home. The addition of blue and green create a graphic triad of landscape colors in this stairwell area.

Visualize “fire engine red” and the color red rushes to mind with or without a vision of the wheels. It’s the same for “grass green”, “sky blue” or “chocolate brown”. Seeing color is such a natural condition that we often don’t question why we see colors and we presume that everybody sees the same colors.

Though most of us do see the same colors, some people can’t. Men (about 5-8% and about 1% in women) with congenital color-blindness may not even know the exact extent of their color blindness until professionally tested. And seeing the same colors is no guarantee towards agreement.

When I was a painting student in art school my professor asked me to randomly choose “Coca-Cola red” from a group of red color chips. I confidently picked a red, sure that it matched my memory of the color. When the professor produced a bottle of Coke and had me put my sample up to the logo, I was surprised to find my choice, though close, was not completely accurate.

Since then, decades of working with color and honing my color sense have increased my understanding of how precise the eye can be. For years I’ve mixed color as an artist, continually refining my experience with both the components of a color and how it appears next to other colors. I’ve also realized that my memories of  colors are only broadly accurate.

The color of the beach sand near my childhood home in Playa del Rey, California, is golder to me in my memories than the actual vial of sand from that beach that I collected for a keepsake. That’s because the expanse of sand and the light of the day make the color experience.

So, when I incorporated the gold of the sand into my home interior design color plan I went with the color that best bridged my color memories, the vial of beach sand  and the reality of my living room walls. I compromised between the color I held in my mind and what my  brain and eyes were telling me.

Learning about the neuroscience behind how the brain and the eyes  see color is the topic of Mark Changizi’s book,  The Vision Revolution. It’s a wonderful book from a man who describes himself as a  “theoretical neuroscientist”. Even if your interest in color is currently limited to what color to paint your living room accent wall, you’ll find that Changizi’s book will inform and enlighten your understanding of how the mind works and that how you physiologically perceive color affects your entire life.

www.CristinaAcosta.com Note: I have an affiliate arrangement with Amazon.com. Clicking on the icon for Changizi’s book and purchasing it through this link will result in a small financial support of this blog.

The colors of white and silver (metallic light gray) are reliably at the top of auto sales lists annually. Faithful and reliable are attributes that keep people coming back year after year.

Sam the Snowman had it right when he sang, “Everyone wishes for silver and gold.” Sam, just in case you don’t know, was the narrator of  the 1964 classic Christmas TV special, Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer. But Sam the Snowman was only partly right. Though to be fair, Sam didn’t drive or carry a wallet.

According to Ford Motor Co., and PPG Industries (Pittsburgh Paint), car buyers in the U.S. still vote with their wallets for the color silver as the most popular car color in the U.S. for the 9th year in a row. Colors trailing behind silver are white, then black. The rest of the automobile color line-up varies by city and region.

Sometimes color preferences by region are obvious, like the practicality of owning white cars in hot dessert areas of the country. Sometimes color choices are not so easy to ascribe a meaning. Dee-Ann Durbin, an AP writer recently wrote about the Ford and PPG studies if you want the details.

Despite the apparent popularity of these current colors, you can’t help but wonder if they are as popular as they may seem. If every car buyer could easily custom order a paint color, the statistics might shift dramatically. I own a white vehicle, but only because it was (to me) the least obnoxious color on the lot when I bought my mini-van.

I also considered a white car because I avoid washing my car and white doesn’t seem to show  dirt as much as the other available car colors. My point in telling you this isn’t to share my preferences (or car-washing habits) as it is to give you some insight into the possible reasons behind a particular color choice.

Because silver and white are such popular car colors, car manufacturers will tend to play it safe and make more silver and white colored cars. Is the most popular car color the sign of a trend or a self-fulfilling prophecy?

So how does any of this color talk help you when you’re choosing colors for your home? My advice is to consider color trends with reservations rather than to accept that whatever color is trendy is right for you.

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Painting the garage door and garage door trim the same color as the body of the home subdues the attention the garage door gets (despite it's size) and encourages the eye to travel to the interesting trim color around the windows and entry door.

Put a red tomato on a white sand beach and your eye will instantly focus on the tomato. The color difference (even if you know nothing about tomatoes) will be enough to capture your attention. Not only does this visual attribute help you find a snack or your socks, it’s an important concept to keep in mind when you’re painting your house.

When color consulting with clients who are choosing  exterior paint colors I often suggest they don’t call attention to their garage. This advice doesn’t work for every house or every client, but it’s worth considering. Here’s why:  Many American homes have garages that visually dominate the entrance side of the home. I presume this architectural phenomenon  reflects the reality of most Americans’ relationship to the car.

If you have a home like this, your garage is near your front entrance and the garage door or doors will (all together) visually dominate your entry way. Not only is this iffy Feng Shui, it puts your front door entry way into second place. True, most people will figure out where your front door is and  won’t be knocking on your garage door to get in your house. Even so, downplaying the garage doors in this situation will amp up your home’s curb appeal.

So, how are you going to magically shift attention away from the garage doors and towards the entry door? The answer is a relatively easy and inexpensive  home redo. Here it is: Paint your garage door trim and/or the garage doors the same color as the body of the house. Before you whip out the brush (or google painting contractors), I do have a few guidelines to help you make an informed design decision.

• Paint the trim around the garage door the same color as the body color (exterior wall color), regardless of the trim color around the windows and other doors.

• If the garage doors are ordinary, paint them the same color as the body color.

• If you have beautiful natural wood garage doors that enhance your home don’t paint them without careful consideration. They may be a valid design element, especially if the natural wood is repeated in other areas of the home such as the soffits, trim, shingle accent areas, etc. If you are in doubt, paint the entire home exterior first, then after looking at the result make your decision to paint the garage door.

www.CristinaAcosta.com