Color Buzz

Freshen Up Outdoor Furniture

by Michèle Coppin

Poppy Petal 2001-1C	Orange Ice 2005-1C

Spring is in the air and it's time to venture outside to plant, fix and repair. After a long winter, my mother's Adirondack chairs and little fish table were looking worn. Inspired by the pretty colors of early spring flowers,  I decided to give them a fresh look with a few simple coats of paint.

From the Runway to the Hallway, Persimmon Packs Punch

by Michèle Coppin

Island Orange 2010-2	Butterscotch Sundae 2008-3C

One of the hottest colors on the runway this spring is a juicy shade of Persimmon orange. Persimmon is appearing in fashion, accessories, and in interior decorating. Orange is one of  the warmest colors on the color wheel. It is uplifting, cheerful, energizing  and studies have shown that orange is an appetite stimulator -  a great choice for a kitchen.

Inspired by this gorgeous color, I recently turned a white, sterile kitchen into a cozy cheerful space. 

Color Buzz Helps: A Brush With Kindness

by Michèle Coppin

I recently discovered a Minneapolis neighborhood that was being transformed. The atmosphere of renewal was so impressive that I wanted to get involved. Volunteering with a team from A Brush With Kindness (ABWK), we worked on an old home in St. Paul, Minnesota in need of some TLC--and tender loving care is exactly what it received.

Friday Project Series: How to Paint a Sky Mural

by Veronique Habermann

 Winter is almost over! March is the month of escape--the month when I really want to spend more time outside. I recently painted this mural for a client of mine who spends hours in her windowless home office. There are many ways to bring the outdoors in, but I find this technique of painting a sky on your wall is really easy. The results are soft, with a dream-like quality. It's all about layering. 

L.A. Makeover

Veronique, Michele and I are in Los Angeles this week working at Leo and Robert’s house. They are the winners of Valspar’s “Love, Our Style” contest.

Just to recap, Leo and Robert are a couple that were having trouble merging their two different styles and deciding on colors for their living room, which is a large open space with tall cathedral ceilings adjacent to the kitchen and an office/loft above.

We met with the homeowner and together developed a palette for their space based on discussing the colors they love and listening to the types of styles they gravitate towards. After hours of climbing scaffolds, racing up and down ladders and washing colors onto the walls, we are now heading into the home stretch. Everyone seems very pleased so far. I especially like the rust/orange column we’ve painted. Leo liked the lighter areas of it so I’m going to go over it a bit with some “Fancy Suede.”

The home has highly-textured walls, which are perfect for using the color wash technique. To get this look, set out two to three colors which blend nicely together. For this project, we put together Valspar’s Caraway Shield, Epic and Dry Earth. Have a bucket of water nearby as well as a pan where you can mix the colors before placing them on the wall—we like to use an old cake pan. To start, wet a three to four inch brush in the water then dip your brush in the various colors and start to wash the wall with them. Keep blending. When the colors dry, go back over here and there with another layer to soften the look. The result is a soft suede finish that brightens the room and looks great in any light. The finish also enhances textured walls and adds depth to the paint color.

We’re off to put the final touches on the home. Check back soon for the complete before and after photos. In the meantime, take a look at the final color palette we chose for Leo and Robert.

                   
Caraway Shield 6008-4B    Cinnamon Cake 3010-6      Orange Glaze 3009-6   

                   
  Dakota Trail 6008-3B  Woodlawn Misty Morn 6008-3A     Epic 6008-3C

Getting Color Organized

January is National Get Organized Month. We are going to roll up our sleeves and take on organizing with the help of color. 

Being organized is like having great posture. Everything seems to line up and run smoothly.  Like good posture, you have to work at it and keep adjusting, but the payoff is tremendous! A well-run home, efficient use of time, breathing room - who doesn’t want that?

As a member of the “Right Side of the Brain” club, organization doesn’t come easily to me. Every now and then I catch glimpses as to how life could be, and boy, does it look great.

Veronique did an amazing thing by putting so much of what we do at the studio on Google Calendar. She gave each task a color so we just have to glance at the screen to know what projects are coming up and who is involved. I highly recommend it to anyone with a busy schedule.
 
Color can also be a great tool for visually organizing your home. We will be rolling out some projects of our own over the next several weeks, but in the meantime, here are some sites and blogs we came across that we found inspirational:
 
From Colorlovers

A Brush with Kindness

By Michele Coppin

While in Minneapolis, I discovered a charming neighborhood that is experiencing a true revival. Many homes have been recently renovated; several are currently being fixed up. Still, many are in need of repair. The community exudes a sense of pride, many touting signs encouraging neighbors to maintain tidy front yards.

I discovered that these inspiring transformations are due to a wonderful program called "A Brush With Kindness." Its founder and manager Pat Lund explained that A Brush with Kindness is a special program of the Twin Cities’ Habitat for Humanity organization. It is a volunteer program that transforms neighborhoods by assisting qualifying low income home owners in their efforts to live independently and secularly in their homes. It works in cooperation with churches, business and neighborhood associations. Volunteer crews adopt specific homes where they do exterior and interior painting as well as minor repairs. Homeowners work along side the volunteer crews. This program works year round serving about 100 families with 2,000 volunteers.

Valspar, the national paint partner for Habitat conceived the "Brush With Kindness" program, which started in 1998. Valspar donates large amounts of cash and paint to the organization.

Pat Lund said, "Valspar has been a terrific partner. They donate paint, financially support us and come up with volunteers to help us. They understand the importance of having a home and keeping a home."

Many Valspar employees volunteer on these projects. Mike Dougherty, vice president of communication for Valspar, said employees come back to volunteer year after year.

This program clearly makes a huge difference in people’s lives and makes me proud to be associated with Valspar.

A Lighter Shade of Ivory

I have some wonderful clients who recently remodeled their home.


Their family has grown and now grandchildren are filling their home. They've created a kitchen that is functional (he's an amazing cook), but also a place where the family can gather. They were happy with everything except the color of the walls.




They called me in to address this problem; they weren't sure what they wanted. "Something to make it look bigger," they kept saying, "We feel like we’re in a cave."

There were several elements in the room that had to be taken into consideration. First, one wall was made completely of field stone with lots of greens and blues. Their countertops were a gorgeous raw granite, which had ivories and golds. Also, they had lots of stainless steel throughout the space.

We pulled out the color chips from the neutral side of the deck – putties, taupes, grays, straws and honey colors. At first we wanted to pull colors from the stone, but that would have left them with a room that was cooler than the warm kitchen in their minds.


We all agreed on a milky warm palette of Shoreline Haze, Filoli Gold Ecru, Cloudy Sunset and Woodlawn Whitewash. Then to add just a touch of the stone, I added Oatlands Subtle Taupe.


For this finish, I used a 3" brush and washed over the existing terracotta-colored wall.


I went with a color wash because the walls have a grainy texture to them, which looks great with a color wash. Also, a color wash creates the illusion of expansion so the room looks bigger. Here are the results:






They are very pleased! But more importantly, their grandchildren love being in this room, especially when Pop is cooking up something good.

                   
  Shoreline Haze 6008-1B   Filoli Gold Ecru 3008-8C    Cloudy Sunset 3005-8A

                                   
            Woodlawn Whitewash 6008-1A  Oatlands Subtle Taupe 6005-1B

Friday Project Series: Stenciling That is Fun, Easy and Affordable

By Michele Coppin

Stenciling is a fun, easy and affordable way of transforming an ordinary wall into a work of art. You can personalize your walls with only a few simple steps by creating your own stencil or getting one from an arts and crafts store. Stencils come in all shapes and sizes. They range from delicate ribbons, to wide borders and from subtle door frame enhancements, to wall encompassing murals.

Distributing shapes symmetrically around the room can be very eye-catching, just as a simple thread of color can tie everything together beautifully. In some spaces, decorating a single wall can be plenty.

A stencil is a template used to paint identical shapes or patterns, formed by cutting sections with an exacto knife from the template material creating a physical negative. Mylar is best, but stiff paper or cardboard will work too.

The template is used to create impressions of the stenciled image by applying paint on its surface through the removed section. It is important to use a hard brush with very little paint, (dry brush) and be sure to tap softly. Then lifting the stencil carefully, the paint will leave a reproduction of the stencil on the underlying wall.

Stencils can be more or less subtle depending on the palette. For a bolder look, use contrasting colors such as:

The green and purple combination emphasizes the shapes and patterns on the wall.

This look is delicate and elegant. Graceful golden shapes of elongated trees shimmer against the light blue background.

For a softer look, use colors close in range—in hue (color) or value (intensity).

Dark and muted colors, wide bands and circular shapes create a very warm and intimate atmosphere.

These beautiful stencils are available from one of my favorite decorative stores/companies; Emery & Cie, in Brussels, London and New York.

Newlywed Styles Merged

I've been working with a client who recently got married. She loves her new husband but also really loves her style, which she would describe as Romantic. She and her husband have been having a great time setting up their new home together. The one piece they had a problem with was an old armoire that she has dragged around with her since college. She really wanted to keep it for sentimental reasons (did I mention she's a romantic?) but also because it's great for storage. 

The armoire has been a deep burgundy for most of its life. In the couple's new home it needed to change. He has more of a Classic style and really appreciates things that have a traditional feel to them.

When looking at the armoire, it seemed obvious what to do. First, it needed to be lightened up to work better in the new environment. To do this, we sanded the entire piece and then primed it. 

Then we had a blank canvass. I thought a light color would be best because it sits in a dark corner. We picked the color Stony Path. It reads white but it has a bit of sage/green to it that will set the armoire apart from the white trim.

   

   
    Stony Path 5007-1B

To take the armoire in a classic direction, I painted out the curved frames of the door panels. For the sides of the armoire, I measured the outline of a panel.

The outline measures ½” wide and runs along the entire length and width of the side. This helps bring some dimension to it.

Since my client loves romance, we went with a soft gray blue: Cincinnatian Hotel Ashley Atrium.

           
Cincinnati Hotel Ashley Atrium 4007-5C

I went back and gently brushed on a little of the Stony Path to soften the edges.  Here's the final result: