Picking the Perfect Paint Color

Helping my clients select just the right designer colors is one of the most challenging and rewarding aspects of a home remodeling project.

It begins simply enough. The living room needs a new coat of paint, perhaps a fresh start for both of you. But what about something different this time? No more off-white. Maybe a color that is bold and creative, but also educated, witty and ironic.

There’s the high-style and pricey route, like that English company, Farrow & Ball, and its Evelyn Waugh paint names like Dead Salmon, Arsenic and Churlish Green, for $90 a gallon.

Or there’s the mainstream route of the American brands, and their own winking-at-you names, like Townhouse from Ralph Lauren, and Love Affair from Benjamin Moore. A trip to the paint store seems as if it might help narrow the choices, too, until you stand before the wall of infinite paint shades. The feeling sinks in: the horror of the fan deck.

Eve Ashcraft calls this anxiety the “vortex,” and she has spun it into a thriving business as a color consultant who can, in spite of her low-key Midwestern manner, name-drop some of her clients. (read more)

 

The Paint Doctor Is In By Penelope Green (New York Times)