Why hire a color consultant?
Posted - Saturday, January 19th, 2008
Even a few years ago, it wouldn’t have occurred to the hoi polloi to hire pros to pick their paint chips. But thanks to Martha Stewart, Ralph Lauren and a host of TV makeover shows, consumers are more demanding, and their choices have mushroomed. So they’re turning to color consultants for guidance.
With off-white on hiatus, designer hues are popping up all over. They’re elegant and easy to live with, but often challenging to coordinate. And they look different in every home, because furnishings, trim color, flooring and light levels affect how a color will “read” on the walls.
Case in point: Karen Wingfield said the dark-cherry trim in her Bainbridge Island home created a “hideous” effect when she tried painting her kitchen yellow. A pro then steered her to a color that appeared taupe on the chip but a lovely, muted green on the wall when paired with the trim.
“If I showed you the paint sample,” Wingfield said in amazement, “you would bet your bottom dollar it’s not the same color.”
Mary Hall, co-owner of Winslow Paint Co., hears similar stories all the time. “What you find,” she said, “is people don’t know how color translates on the wall. That is why you see the advent of the color consultant.”
What’s most remarkable, though, is how the color craze has brought just plain folks into the tent of professional consultants. Historically, color was the province of the wealthiest 3 percent of the market — the ones who could afford interior designers, said Angela Hildre, a Bellevue Community College instructor and owner of Interiors, in Issaquah.
“Now,” she said, “we’re seeing color become more mainstream.”
Martha Stewart’s Araucana chickens, with their delicately hued egg shells, brought complex color to the masses. Ralph Lauren revolutionized the way paint is sold — by lifestyle palettes rather than a rainbow of hues, only 20 percent of which are livable, say paint experts.
While designers’ low-end paints sometimes skimp on performance, their colors wow the folks who wear the paint pants in the family.
“Eighty percent of the colors are chosen by women,” said Robin Daly, vice president of Daly’s Paint & Decorating. For men who need coaxing to abandon “Bellevue beige,” Daly offers this assurance: “It’s daring, yet it’s not like a marriage. You’re not committing forever, you’re ‘dating’ the color.”
Judy Stark of West Seattle, who manages a downtown high-rise office building, learned about the hubby issue when she hired Mason and Jones to do her home’s colors.
“When I told him I was going to paint, his response was, ‘I don’t want this room any darker than it is.’ I said, ‘But, honey, it’s white,’ and he said, ‘My point, exactly.’ ”
Stark said her husband changed his mind after seeing how the new “scarlet oak” and “irongate” walls gave their 1979 couch and old brass sconces “another lease on life.”
Rehm said color isn’t just about paint — it’s about weaving together all the elements of the home, from pillows to wood trim. Repetition helps the space flow, while a “neutral core” gives the eye a place to rest.
“The paint color is only the framework,” Rehm said. “It should set off your possessions, not define the room. It’s all about setting a mood, feeling comfortable in a space — having a sense of harmony and balance.”
by Cecelia Goodnow
(condensed from article entitled “Color consultants help reinvent bland walls” by Cecelia Goodnow. Originally printed Thursday, August 12, 2004 in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer Lifestyle section of SeattlePI.com)
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