Color Consultant Recommendations?
We are having our entire apartment painted & I am feeling completely overwhelmed with paint color choices. The whites alone have my head spinning. Has anyone hired a color consultant to come in for an hour or two & develop a paint plan? Our budget is tight given other home projects we are taking on,…
We are having our entire apartment painted & I am feeling completely overwhelmed with paint color choices. The whites alone have my head spinning.
Has anyone hired a color consultant to come in for an hour or two & develop a paint plan? Our budget is tight given other home projects we are taking on, so I’m sure we can’t afford a full-on interior designer. But would like to know if others have used a color consultant & what it may have cost. Thank you!
I am also a color consultant, having worked on Brooklyn Brownstones. One of the testimonials on my website is from a Brooklyn Brownstoner–
Please see my portfolio at http://wwww.debraklingcolourconsultant.com, and call me if you have any questions.
Thanks, Debra Kling.
smc26,
I am a color consultant with 20 years experience working with color; I work at a reasonable rate exclusively with Brooklyn homeowners baffled with color choices. Everyone here made great suggestions but if you would like more assistance, let me know. –Juliette colorwhisperer.tumblr.com
Choosing paint colors is overwhelming and you will probably save yourself a lot of time hiring a color consultant. But if you don’t, know that out of those hundreds of colors available, the same ones get used over and over by designers. Each one has their favorites, and I culled a selection from Jeffrey Bilhuber and Thom Filiicia. I also read Apartment Therapy and Remodelista and read their recommendations and reader comments. Then I bought samples of all my colors (sometimes in pint size if no sample pots available) and put two coats on the dull side of large pieces of oaktag. Pintchik has these little sponge rollers and trays for $1.50, that you can toss after. Hang your boards up, and examine them at different times of the day, and move them about the room. I think white was the hardest choice for me. I tested Atrium White, Swiss Coffee, Linen White, Decorator White, Chantilly Lace, Super White, and four others. It’s all about warm and cool, and don’t forget sheen, especially in the whites. Different finishes can make a white room less sterile. Good luck!
Forgot to say 2011 colors have already been decided back in the Spring. 1970’s primaries are making a come back.
http://tinyurl.com/mschmd
You can download your own pictures at this professional BM virtual paint site.
No guts, no glory when it comes to choosing a paint color.
Don’t stress out! This should be the fun part. And it’s not rocket science.
I have been a homeowner for long enough to learn some tips. Don’t rush into making a decision. You’ll regret it later.
Gather some catalogs (West Elm, CB2, Crate and Barrel) and get a few magazines to see what the color trends are. Pull the pages you like. Soon you will start to see where your eye is gravitating to. Use these as inspiration for your rooms.
Go to any paint store and pick some paint chips in the color family you like. Take as many as you want. They’re free! Tape them on the walls, different side of the room is a good idea. Look at them a few days. Start to pull down the ones you aren’t loving. Before you know it, you have made a decision! More times than not your first instinct is the best one. It’s when you start second guessing yourself that you run into trouble.
Hope this helps you!!!
ilovebrooklyn, could you send her name to me too? I am totally at wit’s end trying to figure out what colors to use in our entry and stairwell. I’m moparbrownstoner at gmail
Many thanks!
For a modern apartment, here’s a bit of general advice:
Use a high quality paint such as Benjamin Moore or better. They contain more pigment, and the colors will look better longer.
If you look at the Benjamin Moore paint chips, the lightest colors on the top are basically neutrals, and most of the time you will want to stick to values in the high to the middle of the range. (Darker colors are for accent walls, front doors, etc.) A color will seem “darker” or more intense when the whole room is painted, just because there’s more of it.
Woodwork painted lighter than the walls will have a modern look. Trim painted a darker color than the walls will have a heavy, old fashioned appearance.
Sometimes you can pick a color out of your furnishings. For example, I once picked a dark olive-brown lampshade, found the color on the Benjamin Moore color card, and then used the lightest shade of it (a cream) for the walls and two shades down (a darker greenish tan) for the trim. They harmonized nicely, looked great together. Even though the colors appeared neutral, they picked up all the greens in my apartment (the couch was green) and contrasted nicely with everything else.
You may want to ask yourself what “feel” you are going for overall. For example, eco-modern, Victorian richness, warm country, cool seashore….these are just hypotheticals. Subtle variations on stone shades can look very pretty in a modern apartment.
If you want to tie a whole place together, paint all the trim the same color throughout the apartment.
My sister’s modern house is subtle shades of taupe, palest moss, pale warm gray, lichen, bamboo, etc.
As for the whites you asked about, Benjamin Moore Decorator White is a neutral that goes with warms and cools. Linen White is a yellow (and it looks good with Decorator White). Antique White is kind of a warm beige-apricot. China White is the same gray-beige color as “white” bathroom tile from the 1930s. Don’t use Benjamin Moore Super White; it looks like marshmallow fluff from a can. Atrium White is a warm color with a slightly pinkish hint. Etc.
Eggshell walls with semi-gloss trim or flat walls with eggshell trim looks nice.
I’m partial to the colors of Farrow & Ball because they are “natural” looking. It’s also low VOC. But costs twice as much as others if you don’t have a resale license and takes a week or so to order. But there are many other excellent lines of paint in this world, I just haven’t used them.
I worked with Mark Chamberlain because I liked how thoughtful his posts on Apartment Therapy about color and paint have been. TOTALLY worth the (not all that much, really!) money; certainly a whole heck of a lot less than repainting would have been!
I had a very clear idea of what I wanted, but I knew from past bad experience that I’m terrible at picking the right paints to make it happen. He worked with me to help me execute it in paint, and actually suggested some things in terms of accent colors that I never would have thought of, all of which worked extremely well (the only suggestion I ended up not incorporating, I did a variation on). I would wholeheartedly recommend him to anyone.
http://www.markchamberlainpainting.com/