While it seems that everyone around us is resolving in the new year to lose weight or get a raise, I’d like to present Color Resolutions for 2012.  Unlike personal resolutions that fill the gyms every January, only to find plenty of open parking spaces in in March, these resolutions work for anyone and last all year long.

In 2012, let’s resolve to:

Be Bold! Yes, I know that every design magazine seems to be stuck on beige for the past few years.  Beige has some wonderful uses in the home, but I’m not sure who exactly is painting everything in beige out there. My clients continue to want color. And, they want color that reflects their personal style.  So in 2012, let’s be bold and choose colors we love, with abandon (but always test the colors first, just in case.)

Make a Change! If you’ve ever found yourself repainting a room in your home the same color as before, or if you haven’t changed the color scheme in your home for the past five years, it may be time to make a change. When we live in a space for so long, we stop seeing it.  Are you ready to change that yellow kitchen?  If you love yellow, maybe you can find a new shade that you love even more.  Start with some  paint samples, and have some fun changing things up around the house.

Admit Our Mistakes (and move on!) Remember when you painted the guest room in that color you thought would be blue, but turned out gray instead?  I think all of us DIYers have done the same thing. We start painting in earnest, then slowly start doubting the color choice.  But… we press on, assuming that it will dry “darker, lighter, bluer, better.”  Only it doesn’t.  But we’ve already committed all that time and money on a color we don’t love. So we leave it up.  It’s time to admit the mistake and fix it.  It’s okay; and you’ll feel better right away.  This time, test the colors until you know exactly how that color will dry.

Find Our (Color) Bliss! If you haven’t thought much about your wall colors, or are still living with the colors that were there when you moved in, why not find your color bliss in 2012?  I keep a portfolio at home that I fill with magazine and catalog images I love. They could be a wall color, a floral arrangement, a dress, or sometimes just the way an ad looks.  Looking back over the portfolio, I can see that I love warm and bright colors, natural elements, and furnishings with a retro vibe.  I know now, that no matter how lovely a blue or gray color looks on someone else’swall, the colors that make me blissful will be the warm ones,  The start of a new year is a great time to build your own ‘favorites’ file.

Have Fun! If you’re reading this blog, then I would guess that you’re probably someone who loves color and decorating. Then My Perfect Color is a great place to play with color, and develop your own signature color scheme.  This is a great time to play with color by discovering the schemes on the site, and even creating your own.  Creating your own color schemes is like finger-painting, without the mess.

The last thing you’ve probably got on your mind right now is Thanksgiving.  You’re busy with squeezing every last drop out of summer, with pool parties and baseball games, and entertaining outdoors.  You may not be thinking of Thanksgiving right now, but you will be.  Soon your attention will shift back indoors, and you’ll ask yourself if this will be the year you redo your dining room before everyone celebrates at your house on Thanksgiving?

A dining room transformation is one of those projects that looks like a major production when it’s finished, but takes very little effort and expense.  Usually, a new paint color can dramatically change the dining room — and perhaps a new light fixture — even table linens and a centerpiece can make a big impact. Dining rooms are one of the spaces where your guests expect you to take some design risks, to have some fun decorating, because it’s not a room you use throughout the day (your powder room is the other space.)  Regardless of your home’s style, the dining room is where you can put up a chandelier or paint a vibrant color, and it doesn’t look out of place.

I love the colors that we choose for our dining rooms.  There was a trend several years back, that has hung on still, and that is the red dining room.  As someone whose career involves being inside countless homes, I would guess that the majority of homes I’ve visited had red dining rooms.  Red is a great color for a dining room, but now people are branching out and being more expressive with dining room paint colors, and different shades of red.

If you’re thinking about making over your dining room, this is your chance to be bold… to create a room that you can imagine candlelit, or with a beautiful light fixture overhead, or a gorgeous centerpiece and linens.  What does your dream dining room look like?  My dream dining room color is Warmed Cognac – Benhamin Moore AF-235. Warmed Cognac is warm like red, but infuses an earthy, but sophisticated, warmth. I’ve included it in the one of the new color schemes below.

I’ve created some color inspirations for you, so that you can start imagining how your dining room could look this year with the entire family gathered around the table.  The color schemes include a major color which can be expressed as paint, and two accent colors which could be used in a centerpiece, table linens, or even dinnerware (you can even turn the color scheme upside down and use an accent color for the walls. Have fun with it!)

Clooney - Suave and sophisticated, Clooney creates drama with a glance, not a shout. Clooney is an homage to the glamour of the 1930s, contemporary styles of today, and penthouses everywhere.

Presence - A lighthearted traditional, Presence is perfect for a dining room in need of both drama and order. Pottery Red energizes this color scheme, while the neutral colors make the combination accessible for most styles.

Angeles - Warm and sophisticated. Angeles looks effortlessly chic in a Mid-Century, or an Asian-inspired, home. Angeles is both comfortable and dynamic in any setting.  Warmed Cognac is the star of this color palette.

Artsy - If you’re “so done” with neutrals, and are ready for some real color, Artsy is a color scheme you could fall in love with. Cooled by Tropical Pool, the other colors anchor this lively and livable scheme so it’s never cartoonish.

If you’ve been watching the previews of the upcoming fall fashions, or been in a fabric store lately, you’re seeing a new color trend unfold. It seems like we’ve been playing with super brights and cool spa colors, for several years. Now here comes, what I like to call, “The New Rustics.”

The current fashions are hinting at a return to the pre-Disco 1970s, with a lot of neutral colors, ruffles, and even macrame’. In my recent fabric-inspiration trips, I’m even seeing Civil War reproduction fabrics, with the same rustic neutrals that are dominating the clothes racks this fall in styles described as “prairie.”

The New Rustics are such a departure from what we’ve been used to for the past several years. Bringing these new color stories into your home signals a shift away from the obsession with technology, or cartoonish decor. We’re slowing things down and returning to the basics. It’s like growing up and coming home… and can be every bit as soothing as a spa-themed palette in your home. The New Rustics are heavily infused with neutrals, but never boring thanks to the appearance of complementary colors that bear no resemblance to the Avocado Green or Sunburst Gold of 1970 (thankfully.) The New Rustic neutrals are weighty, giving importance to any room they call home.

If you’re intrigued by this return to the beautiful basics, consider the colors for more than just your walls — painted furniture is really hot right now, and is going to be a regular fixture in decorating for years to come. I’ve created four new color schemes for you in the New Rustics palette. Have fun with the new color schemes, but be careful with the macrame’.

Apple Crisp – Rustic Paint Color Scheme

New Prairie – Rustic Paint Color Scheme

Beholden – Rustic Paint Color Scheme

Honesty – Rustic Paint Color Scheme

See Any Paint Color in the Palm of Your Hand

In this new age of mobile computing, several companies (including MyPerfectColor with its AnyPaintColor app) have introduced apps that help with color in various ways.
These apps are revolutionary in that they take the once paper-only world of color and bring it to life on our mobile computing applications. Not only can we now view virtually any paint color in the palm or our hand, but we use our built-in cameras to match colors of our everyday objects and photographs.

While deciding on the investment of time and money required to build our own app, we were keenly interested in reviewing the available apps out there in the marketplace to not only see how we stacked up but to help define what we would create. Since we did the work to check out these apps we figured we’d share it so you could benefit from our learning (and see that our AnyPaintColor app is really, really good! Full disclosure – I’m biased! But I also believe we’ve built a really great app and we look forward to many more improvements.

There is a table showing the side-by-side app comparison below.

Here is our review of the apps we found:

MyPerfectColor AnyPaintColor ($0.99)
The AnyPaintColor app is the only app that includes paint color matches from nearly every single paint company out there (over 130,000 paint colors!)
It offers limited expanded functionality (no coordinating colors), but it has a very simple interface for browsing and searching colors.
Due to the sheer size of the database needed to house all the colors, the AnyPaintColor app only lets you navigate paint color matches from one paint brand at a time. It would be nice if it didn’t have this limitation, but it would be too slow otherwise.
It has an easy search interface and the ability to navigate across colors while browsing.
This is also the only app that let’s you buy paint – all colors are directly linked to the myperfectcolor online store (www.myperfectcolor.com)  so you can buy samples, or gallons of paint in any color. (all colors made using Benjamin Moore paint)

Benjamin Moore Color Capture (Free)
The Benjamin Moore Color Capture app is very confusing to use. It allows you to capture colors using your camera or photo.
It only shows Benjamin Moore paint colors. Colors are arranged in the same order as they are on the color chips which is nice, or by harmony- which is nice idea – but I think the recommendations are anything but harmonious. The app offers scans of color cards. Also a nice idea, but the implementation basically incorporates print piece scans into the app – not exactly optimized for digital. Benjamin Moore took a shortcut on this one and it shows. I have no idea how to use their combo tool. It makes no sense to me. In general I am surprised at how weak this app by Benjamin Moore is. I would expect them to do much better.

Behr Color Smart (Free)

The Behr Color Smart enables you to browse and search Behr colors, match colors from the camera or photos. The Behr app actually was the most extensive of all the apps I reviewed. It allows you to see pre-defined colors arranged by pre-defined room – you can actually play around with changing colors. I would say it is only marginally useful but a very nice concept.
It also offers a good paint calculator and complimentary palettes for each color.

Sherwin Williams ColorSnap (Free)
The Sherwin-Williams ColorSnap enables you to browse the latest Sherwin-Williams colors by category. But unfortunately (or fortunately for us), there is seemingly no rhyme or reason to the organization of colors in the browse. You can’t see the progression of colors and how they relate to one another – they just go from dark to light regardless of all the various hue differences.
The search tool is practically useless. Searching by color name or number returns a page of little squares with no color names or numbers. You have to tap on each one to know what color it is – this is so time consuming it is useless.
The ColorSnap does show coordinating colors which is a nice touch, but only marginally useful because you can’t do anything with the palette they show you.
SW does add a nice adjust feature where you can adjust colors by lightness, saturation and hue (this is similar to the MyPerfectColor navigate colors functionality available on www.myperfectcolor.com). SW did a nice job with this feature.
And finally, you can match colors using the camera or an existing photo.

Paint Colors ($1.99)
This app has colors for Ralph Lauren and Farrow and Ball. But sadly there is no search interface. I can’t figure out who the company that created this app is.
The app simply say “By Retro Mocha”. But I have no idea who this company is or what they actually do. Their homepage is nothing more than their logo – nothing more. They certainly aren’t in the paint business.
The app is almost useless. You can’t search and there is an extremely limited ability to browse. Colors are organized into groupings that are not related to their color, so it is very time consuming to find a color you are looking for. No photo capture tool. This is easily the worst app we looked at.

Painter
The app offers Benjamin Moore, Behr, C2, California, Glidden and Sherwin-Williams paint colors.
You can search or browse although browse doesn’t offer any top level way to navigate within groups of colors.
The app does not have a photo capture tool and doesn’t display complimentary colors.
You can add colors to projects, and there is an interesting ability to move colors around.

Olympic ColorClix (Free)
Opening ColorFlix is painful – there is a very slow and annoying start up screen – you have to wait for it to finish loading pictures before you can move on. You are limited to only Olympic colors. It let’s you capture colors using the camera or photo or browse colors. The photo capture tool seemed extremely inaccurate – I was selecting a purely dark color and it was showing bright greens. Something is broken here. It does like that it shows compliments to colors. You can add colors as favorites, but if you try to save to a project you have to create a login which I didn’t feel like doing. Oddly you can’t actually search colors and can’t easily navigate across colors.

Paint Colors App Comparison

I recently opened an interesting email from Better Homes & Gardens whose topic was all things color.  The article that grabbed my attention was titled something like “If you could only choose one color….” – and it really got me thinking!  If I could only choose ONE wall color to use, which color would I choose?

Agh!  Decisions, decisions!  Seems like I’ve used just about every color strip known to man…how I could I pick just one?

Five designers from around the U.S. picked these colors:

Classic Gray, Benjamin Moore 1548

Blue Arrow, Valspar 5001-3C

Sea Salt, Sherwin-Williams SW6204

Clay Beige, Benjamin Moore OC-11

Savory Beige, Valspar 3002-10C

If I had to narrow down my own personal choices, I’d either go with…

Quiver Tan, Sherwin-Williams SW6151

or Blonde, Sherwin-Williams SW6128

Now I just gotta know……what ONE color would you choose???

~Cecilia Staniec

The latest issue of House Beautiful features the classic white kitchen, a hallmark of interior design. As a color designer, I’ve chosen my fair share of whites–and there are many to choose from in the fan deck! In looking at these white kitchens, I couldn’t help myself in wanting to play with colors as accents in personalizing your kitchen. I used the House Beautiful Paintbrush program to infuse a white kitchen with color.

I began with a traditional kitchen in Benjamin Moore’s Ancient Ivory 935.

Adding a neutral accent in Benjamin Moore’s Crisp Khaki 234 provides richness and highlights the architectural features.

Relying on technology to specify colors is like holding a paint chip to the sky to match its blue: Precision is just out of reach and always will be. That doesn’t mean you can’t come close.  Experimenting with color online can be a useful tool and help give confidence to that person who isn’t so sure they are ready for color.

This morning I’m writing about something other than color and design –  pennies. OK, it’s a bit off topic, but it’s a cool learning experience I want to share.

Pennies...

I was straightening up around the driver’s seat while stopped at a traffic light on my way to work this morning. I noticed a massive number of pennies filing the tray in my dashboard. I usually empty my pockets of change and drop them in the tray. Each time I place the quarters, dimes and nickels into the handy little coin slots which I am always thankful for when I need to pay a parking meter. But the pennies just get dumped into the main area of the tray reserved for the ashes of those who smoke (I don’t). So for who knows how long, I’ve been dropping pennies into this tray. And this morning I realized something — I never use them. I just carry them around in my tray and they take up space and it has always bothered me on some minute unconscious level. Why do I keep these pennies in this tray?

Upon experiencing this realization, I removed all the pennies from the tray (probably around 400 – I didn’t count them) and put them into the change drawer of our Livingston store where they will be used. I know this sounds ridiculous, but it felt great to clean up this tiny .003 cubic inch space in my life. It’s symbolic of things I normally do – hold on to things far too long. Like the articles in my in box I might read one day, or the boxes of old text books I might reference one day… The truth is, I won’t. Keeping all this stuff when it isn’t needed just clutters up my space and my mind.

I hope you enjoyed reading about my little learning experience today!

With less than two months to go until we celebrate the entrance of 2011, I thought it might be appropriate to discuss color trends!  As a designer, I receive tons of emails and mailers showing the “IT” colors for the next year.  I’d like to share Benjamin Moore’s Color Forecast with you and give you some photo examples of the colors of 2011…..

FARM

It goes without saying that the past couple of years have been tough economically. The most common thread among color trends for next year is the idea of peace and simplicity and circling back to the home as the root and balance in our lives. Colors vary from soft gray and palest yellow to red-pink clays and whites.

ORDER

Again capitalizing upon the havoc of the past year, we lean the opposite way and focus on order.  Bright primary colors are paired with black and white and varying shades of crisp gray.  Clean lines and visions of geometrics dance in our heads.

ESCAPE

Escape is somewhat of a combination of both Farm and Order.  Deeper tones of gray and brown can become the base for this grouping, but they are paired with shimmery pale colors like lavender, green, and yellow.

TRIBE

Obviously as we turn more towards out homes as our sanctuaries, we also celebrate what differentiates our homes from one another.  Tribe allows us to embrace cultures…and their colors!  We see a brighter, rich palette of hot pinks, turquoises, oranges, and the ever present charcoal gray.

Now that you’ve seen some color ideas for the New Year, give me your thoughts!  Do you have a favorite palette?  Will you shake things up in your home in 2011….maybe try a color you’ve never dared to try before?  Do you even pay attention to color trends in your home, or do you just go for what you like?  Love to hear your thoughts and ideas!

Happy Holidays!

Pantone declared turquoise the 2010 “color of the Year”.  So what better way to celebrate fabulous turquoise than with fresh design ideas using turquoise and orange together.  I’m going to show you how pairing these two colors can be brilliant!

One of my all time favorite design blogs is ‘House of Turquoise’.  My sweet friend Erin, who created and runs the blog, agreed to let me “borrow” photos from her site to share.  (Thanks Erin!!)  If you haven’t seen House of Turquoise yet, go check it out.  It is refreshing and inspirational and just so lovely.  http://www.houseofturquoise.com

I’ve included quite a few photos to help you visualize how turquoise and orange can work together.  Your personality sort of dictates how far you want to take these colors in your home.  Whether it’s a pop of color through accessories or a go-for-the-gusto bold color for everything, you can’t fear mixing these colors in your design!

Love the creamy white wall color as the base for this room!   The simple symmetrical use of color and pattern really allows the wall color to hold its own against the bold furnishings and textiles.

Talk about being bold with your wall color! I love that the entire wall of wainscoting is covered in turquoise, but softened a bit by the whimsical painted white tree.  The small pops of orange stand out so brilliantly against the white bedding and furniture.

How’s this for painted cabinetry?!  The contrast of the turquoise island against the wood floors and the white cabinetry is so wonderful.  It’s bold, but not overwhelming.  The teeny pops of orange scattered throughout the space add even more drama!

Taking the idea of painted cabinetry a step further – check out the turquoise and orange painted bookcase.  I’m a huge fan of painting the inside of a built-in bookshelf.  This is a great example of how a once boring bookcase can go GLAM.  And the neutral white accessories on display – gorgeous!

Even kids spaces can get a turquoise and orange update.  Love the bold stripes on the walls and the simple fabrics on the furnishings.  Original and inviting….any kid would love this room!

This beachy-inspired room is so refreshing with the bead board detailing and the turquoise-blue wall color. Love how the orange pillows work so beautifully with an otherwise black and white scheme.

So there you go!  Great examples of how turquoise, the 2010 color of the year, can be combined with orange to create outstanding rooms.  Happy Decorating!