Color Bandits
Posted by Michele | Filed under Color Themes
This is short but sweet advice on color: Don’t go crazy with it!
Today, I met with a new client at their new condominium for color consultation. Nice people! They just closed escrow and were very anxious to complete meetings with all the subcontractors so they could move in.
When I arrived, I stepped in to a small town house. The actual layout of the place was pretty nice, and the previous owners had left the place in good order. The only problem was there was color everywhere. Every corner or wall variation had a different color of paint on it. On the fireplace, there was one color on top, a bright gold, then the mantel and bottom half of the wall were white, with the standard black glass fireplace opening. Eeek!
It was the funniest thing I had seen in my career. There were three colors in the child’s room. One red wall, one very bright blue wall, and the third wall was yet another blue. The entry wall had a closet, which was stark white. And the colors were too dark for the small room. The photo above brings in the color with the accessories instead of on all the walls. This is a smarter idea.
So I went to work, walking with the clients through the home. We came up with a small array of colors, a total of five. I selected a dominant color for all the downstairs walls called Cream Washed by Dunn Edwards. Then the client wanted to have an accent wall in the corner of the dining area, which we matched to the base of the kitchen island. That’s it! No more colors.
The powder room would have a soft tone of sage, then along the stairs is where we’d make a slight change from the downstairs tone. I chose a beige with a hint of green. The shade of this color ties both the powder room and living area together and is now carried through the halls and all the way back to the visible room. We then chose a different color for the master and child’s bedrooms and the bathrooms; we can get away with this because they are not directly visible off the main hall or from each room.
If you can see the rooms from one spot, it would be best to keep the colors closely related rather than a blast of color for each room. I call that polka-dotting. If you keep the tones within the same value, particularly with lighter tones, you can get away with a change. If you have darker tones, well, you will have all these blobs of color and it just won’t flow very well—especially in a small home. Imagine standing in a hallway and seeing a big red wall, then a big blue wall and then a big gold wall. Ouch!
If a home is smaller than 2,000 square feet, you most likely do not want to have accent walls. It breaks up the room, actually making it look smaller. Here are some points to remember:
Small homes • Keep it simple and light.
Medium homes • You have more room to play with color, but don’t go nuts. Use accents in bedrooms, either behind the bed or the entire room.
Large homes • Keep it consistent through all the main wall areas and hallways. Accent colors can be applied to areas that call for it, such as behind a sofa or bed or specific rooms.
There are no set rules for color. If you like it then do it, but take your time visualizing how it will look. And don’t rely on wall color to do all your decorating; let accessories fill in voids. Visit model homes and note how they’ve created interest without overabundance.
The best part about paint is that it’s cheap compared with other home improvement options. You can always repaint if you made a mistake. If you are concerned that you won’t make the right choice, give us a jingle.
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One Response to “Color Bandits”
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Color or No Color, That Is the Question | Color Themes Says:
April 7th, 2008 at 8:30 pm[...] week, I talked about this client and about the mess of colored walls we will covering up with soft, creamy color. They were not sure if they needed color now in their [...]
