Residential Color and Style from a Certified True Color Expert.

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What can a Color Consultant do for my home?

What does a color consultant do? That is a question that I am frequently asked.

caperoom

My goal is, always, to help you love the look and feel of your home. If I had a mission statement, that would pretty well sum it up. I believe Jane Austen, my literary hero, wrote it well: “There is nothing like staying home for real comfort.” So, what I want to do is to make your home a haven, a place of comfort,  a place of beauty, and a place where you can retreat after a busy day. I want your home to be the place that you look forward to.

You see, it breaks my heart when someone says that they hate their house.  Why would anyone want to feel that way? That’s what I am here for!  I have access to designer carpet, wallpaper, fabric and custom furniture, available to trade-only, in addition to helping select paint colors. If we need to rearrange the existing furniture, I have someone who can come in to move things around and hang or re-hang pictures and mirrors. Sometimes a fresh eye is all that is needed, and that is what I can be.

Now, let me be clear. I don’t have any particular gift of vision.  I see exactly the way that anyone with normal vision sees. However, it is the understanding of what I see as compared to other colors that is perhaps different than many.

After going through True Color Expert Training with Canadian color expert Maria Killam, something that was not in me before, actually became a wired-in part of my visual understanding. Have you ever heard someone say, “The lightbulb in my head went on” ? That is exactly what her course did for me. It turned on a lightbulb of understanding undertones of colors, and of how to achieve visual harmony through common undertones, color flow, focal points, and repetition. The rhythm of a home. That’s what I do.

Every house is different, and that is why I love doing what I do. But, my best work happens when the client trusts me and implements the ideas to make the changes I am suggesting.  People are naturally resistant to change. But, when something is not working (functionally or visually), you must be prepared for possible changes if you want to be happy with your house. The things that are holding your home back from being its best:  those things won’t magically get better, and you are not going wake up one morning to find that you suddenly love something that you now hate. That I can promise you.

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It is my passion, my calling, and a joy to select colors as a certified color professional. I stay current by writing this blog and by reading dozens of other décor blogs and magazines.

And, on a final note, if you are a decision-making executive affiliated with Habitat for Humanity, I now offer a number of pro bono hours each year in the Birmingham, AL metro area to Habitat House homeowners who are selecting the color finishes, interior and exterior, for their new Habitat House. Click on the “about” section in the top bar, and you will see how send me an email. Please include the details of your request, including the time frame and location involved.

Posted by  |  April 26, 2012 | Categories: Benjamin Moore colors, Birmingham AL paint color consultant, Residential styling | Tags: , | 4 Comments

Does your kitchen have clean lines?

                                                                      Source

Do you have enough outlets, where you need them and are actually using them? There are too many cords floating around in this kitchen, above. Consider an appliance garage or have your electrician install plug strips under your upper cabinetry. Plug strips are a great decorator’s secret to keep your backsplash area free of unsightly outlets.

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Lighting is important. Make sure your lighting is enhancing your kitchen. Below, someone got carried away with a cute light fixture and decided that if two are good, four will be twice as good. The result is a clutter of visual competition. The wrought iron breakfast room fixture really looks out of place as well. Notice how the metals don’t work well together, and how the height of hanging distracts your eye? However, kudos for the upper cabinet connecting with the ceiling! Visually much more pleasing than dead air between.

I don’t understand the purpose of having dead space between the upper cabinetry and the ceiling. It creates a much cleaner line to join the two visually. This happens in the nicest of homes, so be sure to discuss this with your cabinet maker as well as your architect so that there is no mistake. Can you visualize how much better the above kitchen would look with the left and right “X” cabinetry extending in a clean line to the ceiling?

It is the small details that can really make your kitchen visually pleasing. Clear your kitchen of distracting cords dangling at eye level, and of too many light fixtures hanging down from the ceiling above. Join your cabinetry to the ceiling if possible.

Make sure your design professional understands the importance of clean lines.

Posted by  |  April 24, 2012 | Categories: kitchen tips, Residential styling | Tags: , , , | Leave a comment

But my husband won’t paint the paneling!

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Above: beautifully painted paneling instantly updates a formerly heavy room.

In my residential styling and color consulting business, I see a lot of paneled wood rooms. Sometimes they are beautiful, but more often, they are not. If you are a woman reading this, you probably know this already: Men do not like to paint paneling. In fact, they really don’t like to paint anything that is wood. Even the merest hint of grain is enough to squelch any desire to paint that surface. Although I laugh when I say this, I am serious: it is in their DNA.

Are all paneled rooms in need of paint?  No, but when my eye tells me that the room looks too dated/dark/dreary to work with the existing wood tones, I will usually pull out my fan deck of  colors and look for the right color to paint. And what I generally find, is that the wife agrees (either on the spot or eventually) that it should be painted, but the husband won’t hear of it.

After a master bedroom addition, the dark little library/den (below, now painted) was no longer at the end of the house, and had become the pass-through to the master area. It was more about “flow.”  In this case, I mean color flow, not traffic flow. I wanted the house to  flow nicely from the light-colored living room, through to the light blue master suite. But, the dark paneled (very small) library with its dark interior shutters was preventing proper color flow.  What does the husband  say now? “I wish I had done this a long time ago.”

Color flow is important, and lack of color flow can really chop up a house. Below, the formerly dark paneled little library is now a sunny sitting room which flows nicely from living room on one side into the master bedroom on the other. The only panels here are the silk ones on the windows. The morning light, blocked before by dated wooden shutters, now comes streaming in.

Notice all the millwork is painted one neutral color, the same color as the adjoining living room (Benjamin Moore Monroe Bisque HC-26 ). By the way, good paneling takes paint beautifully, and looks much nicer and more substantial than SheetRock.

Sitting room painted millwork Image ©Color Calling.

Sitting room painted millwork Image ©Color Calling

Now you walk from one light-filled space into another. There is now visual harmony and color flow in the space, as you walk from the living room through the sitting room and into the master area.

Adjoining pale blue bedroom Image ©Color Calling
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The living room paneling in this lovely older home,  below, has clearly been painted from an earlier incarnation:

Above Source:

Can you see how the above room now has wonderful visual harmony? The paneling was obviously very nicely done in its wood-grained state, but now it looks fresh and updated, not dark and dreary. Do you think the above room looks any less worthy of attention just because it now has a painted surface instead of  its former wood (and wood-colored) surface?

Here is a little test:  If  the paneling in your own home looks at all like any of these rooms below, it is dated. Please let me gently tell you this again. It is dated.

 

Above  images

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The ceiling height in the living room  is very low to be using accent paneling, and the paneling is not adding to any sort of harmony in either room. Can you see that although the paneling itself is not awful, the visual impact of the paneling is truly terrible? It does nothing for either room. There is no visual harmony in this living room or in the bath above it.

The paneling above has a strong pink undertone. Although this paneling is shown in a current advertisement, this look actually has been dated for decades. I can’t think of a single instance in which I would not advise painting paneling with either strong pink or strong orange undertones. This look just isn’t ever going to come back.

Source: americanpac.com via Ellen on Pinterest

Here, the paneled wood is clearly fighting the white fireplace. This is another good example of a room where the paneling itself isn’t terrible, but it is preventing visual harmony in the room.

A “before and after,” for your viewing pleasure.

Before, and yes, there are people who won’t paint even this low grade of paneling:

After, fortunately, this owner wasn’t one of them.
And, yes, this really is the same room:

Once again, does every paneled room need to be painted? No. But, if your paneled room is either dated, is chopping up color flow,  or simply does not have visual harmony, give some real thought to painting it.With gentle guidance from a trustworthy professional, or even from a trusted friend with a great decorating eye, you can move forward.

So, are you letting dated paneling hold you back from having the best possible look and feel for your own home?

Happy decorating!

Posted by  |  April 18, 2012 | Categories: Decorating trends, painted paneling, Residential styling | Tags: | 3 Comments

Bronze sculpture by Jane DeDecker

A recent post spoke of focal points. Have you considered a beautiful bronze sculpture as your focal point? Yes, the price point is high. But, a museum-quality bronze is forever. It is timeless. And, Jane DeDecker is one of the best. Can’t you see this resting on the corner of a Carrara marble tub surround?

Can you stand the darling daddy, below, tying his baby’s shoe? And, the baby just in awe. Priceless.

Source: flickr.com via Ellen on Pinterest

The above Jane DeDecker sculpture is a gift of a couple in Des Moines, Iowa, in memory of their son, Christopher, who was a victim of juvenile diabetes. Apparently, their dog clearly mourned the loss of his human companion so that the parents were moved to donate this sculpture to the City. What a beautiful and heartfelt (and heartbreaking) tribute to boy and dog.

My friend, Master’s of Art holder Holly S., introduced me to the sculpture of Jane DeDecker 11 years ago. I have been captivated ever since. I am the proud owner of two of her works, “Tippy-Toes,” which reminds me of my dancing daughter,

Source: google.com via Ellen on Pinterest

and an almost-sleeping dog bronze called “Ol’ Faithful” (which looks just like my ‘Pepper’, prone to one floppy ear)

Source: flickr.com via Ellen on Pinterest

                                                             Image ©Color Calling, Pepper.

I first saw the above life-size sculpture on Nantucket. Stunning.

And, please tell me you have never seen anything cuter than this little snow elf:

Another stunner:

DeDecker is a master. Save. Save some more. You will love forever.

Posted by  |  April 10, 2012 | Categories: Art, bronze, Residential styling | Tags: , | Leave a comment

Benjamin Moore Smokey Taupe

Benjamin Moore Smokey Taupe is one of the great interior colors. BM-983. Such a beautiful complex neutral! Remember, always paint a large sample when considering a new color (paint your sample on a 1/2 sheet of white poster paper, 2 full coats, so you can move it around the room).

And, did you know color should be the last thing selected? The right wall color should pull everything else in the room together, beautifully!

Happy decorating!

Posted by  |  April 9, 2012 | Categories: Benjamin Moore colors, Residential styling | Leave a comment

Happy Easter!

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Image ©Color Calling

Posted by  |  April 7, 2012 | Categories: Easter centerpiece, Residential styling | Leave a comment

Are you creating focal points?

The eye needs a place to rest. It also needs a place to connect.  When I walk into a room, I can almost always isolate the focal point, or where I would create the focal point. In the photo below, anyone can see that the focal point is not even inside the room. Your eye is drawn past the lovely soft furnishings on out to the mountain vista beyond. Well, I guess you could say that the large window frames the focal point. In fact, every part of the room frames the window which frames the view. Nicely done.

Source: houzz.com via Ellen on Pinterest

The most interesting rooms always have a focal point. Focal points create drama in a room. What are some successful focal points? If the room has a fireplace, that is going to be the focal point. I always want to create sight lines and drama around the fireplace. This fireplace area has wonderful drama in a contemporary space (I am ignoring the combo of colors used here, which I don’t particularly care for):

Source: houzz.com via Ellen on Pinterest

Below, this is an architectural device known as enfilade.  See how you can look through several door frames down to the kitchen pendant light?  The dark light at the end is the focal point here. Are you seeing how your eye naturally searches for a place to rest, and it wants to come to a rest (and to a focus) on the dark light at the end? The designer did a marvelous job of framing the sight-lines all the way through the view to the ending focal point. There is no visual clutter, just pleasing objects of interest to catch our passing glance on the way to the end. I would guess that a fireplace is the focal point if you are standing in the kitchen looking down the axis the other way, looking back toward the main room pictured here.

Source: houzz.com via Ellen on Pinterest

Our eyes have a natural desire to find a nice place to rest. Too much distraction, clutter, and visual disharmony make it difficult to give our eyes that natural place to rest. Have you ever walked in to someone’s house, and there was so much stuff, that you didn’t know where to look? Remember, the eye needs and wants a place to rest in a room.

Visual harmony and a screen focal point. Source: traditionalhome.com via Ellen on Pinterest

Beautiful harmonious colors and a focal over-the- fireplace painting. Source: SouthernLiving.com via Ellen

Are you creating a focal point in each room in your house?

Posted by  |  April 6, 2012 | Categories: Residential styling | Tags: | Leave a comment

What nobody tells you about using natural stone slab

Before I became a True Color Expert, I thought that a natural stone slab such as granite was the only Be-All-and-End-All choice for kitchen countertops. I have owned white granite slab countertops in my own kitchen, and travertine slab countertops in my bath for seven years.

Beautiful marble-slab countertop.Source: theenchantedhome.blogspot.com via Ellen on Pinterest

Beautiful buttermilk Caesarstone counter. Source: ths.gardenweb.com via Ellen on Pinterest

 

 

Here is what nobody else will tell you: seam placement is a very big deal.

Make sure you discuss seam placement with your contractor or fabricator. This goes for any natural slab stone. When “someone” brought in my (supposed to be) gorgeous travertine marble tub surround in four (yes, four) pieces to puzzle them together, I would have died. I would have died, except that the workmen providentially accidentally dropped the whole thing in my driveway and the entire mess cracked to bits. I did not realize that a marble tub surround meant one thing to “someone”, and another thing to me. That a marble tub surround wasn’t necessarily a solid marble tub surround. I envisioned one solid surface surround, no seams other than for the backsplash. The “someone” didn’t even consider that an option due to my oversized whirlpool tub. After all, it is much cheaper to piece a surround together with a separate piece on each side. After asking several friends for referrals, I finally found a fabricator who could make the surround out of a single piece. So much prettier not to have those seams!

In my new kitchen, the same “someone” brought the granite slab for my kitchen island in two pieces. Who does that? Who would want their granite kitchen island in two pieces joined together with caulking right down the center? I stood my ground and out it went, though I am sure it cost a pretty penny to make that happen. Don’t be caught unaware like I was. Discuss this up front.

Know that the “industry standard” which is considered ‘good enough,’ may not be good enough for you. Ask, ask, ask, what you are getting. A big slab of marble or granite is not very easy to send back.

Do I love my white granite? Not enough to use again. Do I love the travertine?  Ah, it’s pinky-beige!  A big no-no as I found out in True Colour Expert training with Maria Killam. And, who else but me will tell you that travertine forms pits over the years?  Soft use, a few pits. Heavy use, huge pits.

Maria, a trend expert as well, offered another material as her favorite. Next time, I will go with her preference of using an engineered solid quartz product such as Caesarstone, probably with a subtle marble-veining look. And, without the dilemma of seam placement, pitting, chipping or heavy maintenance.

Posted by  |  April 4, 2012 | Categories: granite marble travertine, Residential styling | Tags: | 8 Comments

Chinoiserie in the home

For some reason, I am completely and utterly smitten with Chinoiserie. Have been for years. I am lately drawn to a particular fabric, for which I am just waiting for the right client to use. Watch out, dearest, it will be soon. Mind you,  it has to be exactly the right place in exactly the right room. As a specimen plant in a garden, such as the perfect single Japanese maple tree, so this will be as well. Here is the object of my affection:

Complete and total Chinoiserie perfection.  Stay tuned.

Posted by  |  April 2, 2012 | Categories: Chinoiserie, Residential styling | Leave a comment

Your front door is speaking

According to the latest research, a first impression is formed in 1/10th of a second.  Make the first impression of your entryway a good one.

Source: athomearkansas.com via Ellen on Pinterest

The stunningly beautiful entryway above, which belongs to my fellow True Colour Expert Andrea Brooks of Arkansas, speaks to guests long before they arrive at the stoop. Any guesses as to what it is saying? This has to be one of the prettiest front doors I have ever seen. Welcome, how do you do, and please come in, is what it is saying. Wouldn’t it be exciting to walk up to this beauty and ring the bell?

And, speaking of bells, if you have a doorbell, does it work? Do you have your door freshly re-painted or re-varnished every two or three years? Or do the dogs’ claw marks and muddy run-off rule the day?

When is the last time you or whoever helps you trotted out the metal polish and worked on the door hardware? Are your stoop and steps swept regularly, and power-washed occasionally? Do you have your windows professionally cleaned at least every one to two years?

Is your door mat (think simple, natural material, and with a size relating to the actual front door frontage)  in reasonable shape?

If you have planters and pots nestled close by, do they look of high quality and are they tended?  The easiest gardener’s formula for a pretty planter: use a thriller, a filler, and a spiller.

In  less than 30 minutes a week, and an annual call to the painter or the pressure-washer, your entryway will make a good impression. It will tell me that you are glad I’m here, even if you are not at home!

Posted by  |  April 1, 2012 | Categories: Entry, Front door entry, Residential styling | 1 Comment