REAL Color consulting: it’s not one size fits all

I answer questions about paint on a popular website….a typical question goes like this:
“My new house has ugly green carpet everywhere and it’s fairly new, so I don’t feel I can change it. What color should I paint the walls?”
This is the kind of question that I always write back and ask: “I need more information”. Why? It seems pretty straightforward. Well, think about it. Seriously.

They only thing we know about this house is that the carpet is green and new. Nothing else. Not the shade of green. Not the size of the house, the color of the furniture, the lighting, or even what rooms she is referring to. She doesn’t even mention what color she does like. So that leaves about 10,000 color possibilities.

That is the first step: what colors do you like? Colors that you like are color you enjoy being around and will make you feel good. Feeling good is equal to feeling calm.

Next step is context. The context is everything. For instance: a client says they want to paint their bathroom bright Kelly green. Almost all color consultants would say “but wait! You can’t do that because it will create weird green reflections on your skin!” Very true. But there are always exceptions!! That’s why context is most important. Guess what? The client is referring to a WC or water closet. This is essentially a bathroom with only a toilet and sometimes a sink in a little room. No mirror, no shower. So Kelly green would actually be fine in this situation. Situations are what real color consulting is all about. And it’s what makes it different from just making something look presentable.

There is nothing wrong with making a room look presentable though. That is most of the advice I give on the paint website. Detailed analysis of a room or building cannot be done from a description. It just can’t. So I try to give people ideas, guidelines, and options, with the caveat that they need to do their own homework such as going to the paint store, picking up the color chips and looking at them in the context of their own space, their lighting, their geographical location, the function of their room, and their personal taste.

By the way, the above photo of the green bathroom is very bad……you would have weird green reflections on your skin. A solution: install wainscot molding so you can have green on the bottom of the wall and white on top.

And there you are!
Ciao,
reb