Dear Readers,
With spring renovations going on, it seems that I have had an unusual number of clients seeking color advice on painting their interiors. I chose the next two letters to address two of the most common problems that I have encountered.
Dear Joe,
After living with 'landlady-white' walls in rented spaces for so many years, I'm ready to put up some color in my new condo. I think I've got a good plan—variations in soft colors to go with my artwork and furniture. My problem is trusting the color chips. A friend of mine painted recently and the color was nothing like the paint chip. I don't want to make an expensive mistake. Do you think I can trust the sample chips?
Pete
Dear Pete,
Generally the paint-chip samples are accurate.
The problem that usually occurs is that the color looks different once it is up on the walls. This can be due to various things ( including the wall texture ) , but most often it is the lighting.
Colors look different depending on the light source. A color can look entirely different at night under incandescent light than during daylight hours. Even during the day, the color will change with the position of the sun.
The best way to avoid costly errors is to buy small samples of the paint and try them out on the actual walls. Be sure to apply two coats to get the true color. You can often buy pint sizes of your selected color. Some companies, like Benjamin Moore, make it even more affordable by making small sample bottles of the different colors. It is obviously a lot less expensive to experiment with these samples than to buy a gallon or more, only to find out that you don't like it.
When I work with clients on color selections for walls, I always suggest that they buy a sample and try it out first. I tell them to try it on various walls in the room and to look at it at all the different times of day and night. Recently I even had my client bring her artwork to new house to test it against the wall colors until we were satisfied with the selection.
This preliminary step can save a lot of money and disappointment!
Joseph Rice offers full decorating services, and specializes in 'hard-to-treat' windows. See www.josephriceinteriors.com, and contact him at jos.riceinteriors@att.net, or at Joseph Rice Interiors, Inc., 773-271-2361.