How to paint and save your marriage in three easy steps...

Have any one of you ever had to survive the long, tedious process of paint color selection? Add to that having to pick a color both you and the spouse have to agree upon? Ahhh so you know what i'm talking about then, right? (long sigh)



Well then lets talk. I have taken the time to consult with many, many women and men who have graced our showroom and have come up with some solid universal truths and suggestions.



The first thing, and i believe the most important, is to SAMPLE, SAMPLE, SAMPLE! Take advantage of places like www.myperfectcolor.com, where you can sample one to 10,000 sample colors in convenient, well priced sample pints. This will allow you and the other half to really live with and hash out what works for you both. No surprises. Which brings me to my next point.



Hire a painter for big jobs. The worst case scenario is for hubby to take an entire weekend during football season to paint and then we walk in and say "Uh oh I hate it". They see red (or blue or green or yellow) when thinking that they have to do that all over again. Although perhaps pricier to paint those four walls, there is no price high enough for avioding frustration and anxiety WITHIN those four walls!



Last, lets be reasonable. Universally, its hard to convince either sex to live with either a Pittsburgh Steeler yellow room (see Benjamin Moore Golden Nugget) with black trim or a Victoria's Secret pink pool hall room (see Benjamin Moore Deep Carnation). So lets all be fair and fall somewhere in between. Like perhaps a masculine shade of muted, dusty mauve walls with some wethered pigskin leather club chairs with throw pillows. Well, maybe? Just a thought.

A Room With A Mood…

Why is it that it is so hard to create a room in your own home that is reminiscent of a dream-room you have seen in either a showroom, friends house, magazine, movie, etc…? We often know what we like, what makes us feel at ease and in love with a certain room that we encounter, however, it always seems difficult to re-create that in our own environment.

I always tend to start with a few points and build from there. First, I always ask my clients “How do you want this room to FEEL?”. By that I mean, do you want cozy? Library like? Sleek? Sophisticated? Understated elegance? Comfortable? Vibrant? Serene? Etc…. That alone starts the process of what colors, lighting and materials we should use. For example. If you are creating a home office, do you want it to be relaxing and serene-almost Shakespearean library-ish? For that we would use deep, rich woods with carvings and maybe muted, vast greens like Benjamin Moore’s Boreal Forest AF-480 and trim it out with a warm, comforting tan like Benjamin Moore’s Coriander Seed AF-110. Use uplights with rubbed bronzed finishes for the majority of lighting and reading lamps placed by oversized club chairs with soft pillows and fabrics and warm blankets and this will set the mood for that home library meets Shakespeare feel. Second, I ask "Do you prefer deep or lighter colors?". This will help to determine the intensity of the color in your room and the role that color will play in your design plan. Third I ask "What in the room do you want to accentuate (for example a beautiful rug or painting? Or perhaps the fabrics on the windows or the material on the furniture?)". That is how we determine the color palatte-good design always has a central source, or one thing or pattern that the paint and everything surrounding it will make look even better!
Stick with this plan and be creative and soon you'll have your dream room come to life. For more design advice or for a personal, professional design consult visit us at myperfectcolor.com!