Color Buzz

Light Your Color Palette

By Michele Coppin

Light drastically influences the appearance of colors. A sunlit landscape with a multitude of different colors under the luminous red and orange rays of dusk will be completely enveloped by the warm glow of the setting sun, the colors harmonizing under its golden palette.

This effect can make very different colors relate to one another. The same landscape at dawn will appear blue, the cold clouds tinting and cooling all the colors, shapes and shadows into a quiet uniformity.

 
This is called atmospheric or ambient color, referring to the color something appear to be, rather that its true color. Because of color’s tendency to change with light, it is very important to look at a color you are considering at different times of day as the appearance will change just like the landscapes.

It is also a good idea to look at the colors at night with artificial light, which makes the color appear differently at well. Ordinary artificial light is yellowish or orange and will make warm colors appear warmer, but may not work so well with colder colors such as some blues and greens. Fluorescent light is bluish or pinkish which may make cold colors appear very cold or unpleasant. 

Luckily, at Lowes' Valspar color chip display, you can check your colors under various light sources such as natural outdoor or midday, incandescent and fluorescent light. Be sure to also check the chip at home with your own light sources and surroundings.

Happy Birthday Color Buzz!

Happy Birthday Color Buzz!!! 

It's been quite a year! Thanks to everyone for turning to Color Buzz for answers to color questions and perhaps for a bit of inspiration as well.  We love exploring color and sharing what we discover with you.  It's a great way of looking at everything going on in the world, taking what matters to you and creating a reflective space in your home. 

Creating a world through color has become more important in the past year with all the changes.  Color can make a huge, positive impact on the way we feel and the way we live our lives. That’s why we Beehive girls are here to help!

It's been great answering your color questions, reaching out to other blogs, and focusing in on most people’s primary design dilemma: color angst. Please keep sending your design and color questions, and share your comments on the blog.  We love hearing from you.

Best wishes,

Ann McGuire

A Red Makover

By Michele Coppin

Inspired by the recent holiday colors, my friends Daisy and Francis finally decided to update their plaster-white living room. They are both intimidated by color, choosing many shades of beige throughout the house, so I commend their brave choice! 

            

I love red. To me, the color is sexy, sassy and classy, so I was thrilled to help with the project. However, I can understand Daisy and Francis’ hesitation. While some find red to be seductive and warm, many others believe red is too loud a color. Because red can be interpreted in so many ways, such as frightening, erotic, revolutionary or royal, its ambivalence makes it appealing to decorators.

                     
To determine the best shade for Daisy and Francis, we spent time comparing a variety of red swatches, then looked at my favorites under different lights and at different times of day.  Francis was worried his living room would look like a French boudoir and Daisy started to doubt the drastic transition. I reminded them that color is easy to change and encouraged them to be flexible and open-minded. In the end, we settled on a luscious, earthy tone that is not too pink for Francis and not too purple for Daisy: Sienna Dust.

                                                
                                                    Sienna Dust 1007-3A

Then it was time to paint. The first coat was a bit scary!  Against the white wall, our carefully chosen color appeared orange. However, when we finished the second coat, we stood back in awe. The room looked absolutely gorgeous! It was warm, cozy, glowing and elegant. In just one weekend, the blank white space was transformed into a beautiful living room that was inviting and comfortable. Furthermore, the existing furniture, including dark green couches and a light green rug, was enhanced by the complementary background.

With the bold, red statement finished, we decided the hallway leading into the living room also needed a makeover that would harmonize with the red. We settled on a soft, pale grayish-green, Milestone, for the lighter walls and its lighter version, Cliveden Mist, down the narrow darker hallway. 

                                 

                    Milestone 6002-1B                      Cliveden Mist 6007-1A

  The finished project was bold and beautiful!

           

                            

Bubbling Over in Winnipeg

We like to start all of our projects with a conversation with our client, and the Valspar Ultimate Match Makeover project was no exception. Last year’s winner, Krislyn, was great to work with, and we began by discussing her living room’s renovation, focusing on the room’s function. Her living room also doubled as her son’s playroom, so we wanted to create two areas of the room: one for Eden and his toys, and one for grown-ups and visiting with friends.

 

It was important to make sure the room had a unifying theme while still identifying the separate parts of the room. Krislyn really wanted something fun and lively, so we had an idea of using giant circles or bubbles in different ways to achieve different effects. We once painted large circles in a client’s entry - they made the space very playful. For the adult side of the room, we wanted to created columns of circles which would give a calming sense. I suggested this sketch which she liked.

                 


Krislyn and Phillip’s house is beautiful and located alongside a winding river. We were also able to meet  Krislyn’s adorable son, Eden. He was very excited about bubbles, as you can tell.

We started by looking at colors. Winnepeg is cold and frozen most of the year, so we thought bringing some green in would lift the spirits. We created a color wash  using blending Leaf Bud 6005-5B and Plum Passion 6007-5B. After we painted the room a soft warm green, we started cutting stencils.

                              


We began by painting larger circles on the walls. We painted these in a soft color to give an ethereal effect.

Krislyn really liked the warm colors, and we were able to incorporate these colors by using them with the smaller stencils, giving the room some “pop.” We used Terra Cotta Red 2004-3A, Caramel Honey 3003-3B and La Fonda Antique Red 2002-5A on the small circles and a cooler blue, Dewdrop 4006-7A, on the mid-size bubbles.

 

Above the fireplace, we added Venetian Plaster in a deep charcoal brown that matched the existing mantle. This gave definition to the fireplace and anchored the room. Krislyn and Phillip were so wonderful to us, and we were very fortunate to have gotten to know them. They were a pleasure to work with and they seemed quite pleased with the final outcome. What do you think?

        

        

How to Create Harmony with Color

In a room where we spend the most time, it is important to our well-being and happiness to create a sense of balance and serenity in the space. Our surrounding environment can affect us greatly, so a poor choice of colors that is bland and boring, can make us feel depressed and chaotic. However, a harmonious color palette can be uplifting and relaxing.

Harmony can be defined as a pleasing arrangement of parts, in music, poetry, color or even food. Indeed, creating harmony with color is similar to composing harmony in music. Music is arranged in scales, represented by the notes in a particular succession that sound perfect together.

Color harmony begins in nature. Picture a sunlit landscape with a multitude of different colors. Under the luminous red and orange rays of dusk, the site is tinged by the warm glow of the setting sun, the colors harmonizing under its golden palette. This cohesion of color can be a great source of inspiration when searching for paint.

In this lovely soothing sunset, the sky, clouds and water are all are variations of orange.

              

Similar to musical harmony, colors are arranged in a succession creating a perfect order which can be found on the Color Wheel.
          
                              
These similar colors are analogous, meaning they belong to the same family and they sit next to one another on the Color Wheel. 

For example:     Yellow - yellow/orange - orange
                          Green - green /blue - blue.

What makes analogous colors harmonious is simply that they go well together. They are pleasing to the eye. Take, for example, this beautiful selection of yellows, oranges, browns and their variations by colorlovers.com:

                       

A simple alternative to the Color Wheel when trying to select paint is Valspar's online color palettes. They are easy to use and offer a variety of selections within color families that can help you find harmonious colors. 

Simply go to "choose colors" to begin. Select your color tone: Brights OR Misted OR Muted OR Neutrals OR Whites... (better not to mix these up!). Then choose 2 or 3 colors that are near each other, but not necessarily next to one another.

It is a good idea to choose lighter colors adding a slightly darker or brighter one as an accent. Go ahead, give it a try! It’s really fun and you may find your dream color combination.

(Please note that the appearance and shade of each color chip may vary depending on your computer - so be sure to verify chips in person prior to making a purchase to ensure the color corresponds)

Design Dilemma - Sue's House

Hi Beehive Designers,

My dilemma is picking a shade of beige that looks like what I picked in all lights. I searched through many paint chips and narrowed it down to a few that I really liked. I put the chips on the walls to see how the colors looked in all lights. After a long search I finally picked a color and began painting.

What I found after painting, which was not apparent in the chip, is that the walls in the daylight give off a slight pink hue. I don't hate the color but I wanted something more of a sand color. It is time to paint again and don't want to make the same mistake. I also want to paint a few walls a slightly darker color for contrast. I watch many design shows and they seem to pick a contrasting color, then a shade two chips down for the other walls.

I have asked the paint consultants how I can avoid picking a beige paint with pink hues but they seem to not have the answer. I don't want to spend money on the little jar samples that I can purchase because it can become costly. Any suggestions on a beige or sand color with a contrasting color would be wonderful.

Sincerely,
Susan

..............

Hi Susan,

You have come to the right place!!! We work with beige all the time. I love it. It's a very soothing and warm background color – a great foundation color that lends itself to so many different design directions. A perfect beige is one that won’t pink out on you and has some green in it. Here is a list of a few to try:
               
Shoreline Haze 6008-1B with Jekyll Club Cherokee Tan 6008-2A as accent.

                
       Milestone 6007-1B with Oregon Coast 6007-1C as accent

                
Cliveden Sandstone 3007-10B with Lyndhurst Mushroom 3007-9C as accent.

Let us know how it works out for you...

Design Dilemma - Wayne's Yellow House

Hello,

My wife and I want to update our 20-year-old house with a clean bright look.  We want to use a pale colonial-formal yellow for wall color throughout the house which has white crown moldings and other impressive white woodwork, nine-foot ceilings, etc.  We have various colonial red and blue fabrics and mahogany furniture, gold framed mirrors, etc. throughout the house.  I’m sure you get the picture.

I’ve tried two different shades of “yellow” in two different rooms.  Each shade has looked good on the sample, but turns into a completely different effect when applied to four walls.  One room looks like the old harvest gold kitchen stove in my first apartment years ago, and the other looks like Big Bird under a fluorescent green light.  HELP!  I have the whole house to repaint and carpet and everything is based on getting this new color scheme right for the walls.

I’ve seen the color we’re looking for on TV in a news shot of the Yellow Oval Office in the White House. Here is a photo of the Yellow Oval Office, but we’d like color to be just a bit more yellow and a little less beige.

 

Can you give me some paint chip sample names to consider and to plug into your Painter tool on the Valspar Web site?

Thanks for any help you can offer . . . .
--

Wayne

 

Hi Wayne,

With all eyes on the next occupants of the White House, I like how you are turning there for your inspiration. 

Colors that can deliver the yellow of this East Wing room are:

                            
                 Homey Cream 3007-6B           Honeysuckle Beige 3007-6A 

                                        
                                  Carolina Inn Lobby Yellow 3008-6B

Let us know how it goes...

Ann

Design Dilemma - Courtney's Bathroom

Hi Beehives,

My fiancé and I just recently took down the terrible wall paper in a bathroom in our new home.  We can't decide on a color to paint it because of the complication that it has harvest gold bathroom fixtures - toilet, tub, and sink. 
      
The bathroom is tiled in a neutral-speckled beige tile, but we want to add some spark of color as the hallway leading to it and the two guest rooms on either side of it will be painted in Valspar's Woodrow Wilson Putty.           

                                    
                              Woodrow Wilson Putty 6006-1A

I received some advice from you about La Fonda Ecru instead of Woodrow Wilson Putty in a comment on my blog, but I had already purchased the paint. So, this time I'm doing it the right way, I'm getting your advice first! 

Thank you!

Courtney

Design Dilemma - Peggy's House

Hi Beehives,

My husband and I are about to tackle painting the interior of our house.  We have textured walls, and in keeping with the times, we would like to paint one or two walls in each room with a different paint color.  As we experimented with this, we found that the color would run out of the taped lines.  It would not make a clean line - for example in a corner.

Surely many homes are going through this process.  What is the secret to obtaining a clean fine edge??

Thank you,
Peggy 

 

Design Dilemma - Sigal's Response

Dear Sigal,

We studied your photos for a while. You have a great house with a lot of opportunity to bring beautiful colors in. We have been fortunate enough to work for many years with the very talented designer, Victoria Hagan. You may want to check out her website. She works a great deal with the palette you are describing: cool blues, ivories, chocolate browns. The overall look of this palette can be extremely sophisticated. One characteristic you get from working with cool colors is the sense of expansion.

For your wainscoting, definitely go with a crisp white. Try Anthem White in semi-gloss. This will give you a clean fresh look.                               

Azure Snow is a beautiful color to paint the living room, and I would include the wall with the front door. From there I would run it along the wall with the two windows then along the wall of the fireplace and onto the wall in front of the dining room. I would end at the corner where it meets the stairs.

                                     
                                         Azure Snow 5001-1A