Color Forecast for 2010

I’m making my guess . . . I was right when I forecasted purple to be the hot color for 2008/09. I’ll try again. I predict that red, black and grey will be a hit - particularly red. What do you think?

Most Popular Colors (based on my clients)

• Whole Wheat - Sherwin Williams -#6121
• Harmonic Tan - Sherwin Williams - #6136
• Believable Buff - Sherwin Williams - 6120
• Light Raffia - Valspar - 3008-10B
• Moose Mousse - Valspar - 3003-10A
• Cream In My Coffee - Valspar - 3003-10C
• Tomato - Valspar - EB16-2
• Pineneedle - Valspar EB22-2
• Coir - Valspar -EB11-3
• OutBack - Behr - #390F-4
• Ryegrass - Behr - 390F-5
• Restful - Behr -400F-4
• Rejuvenate - Behr - 410E-3
• Olympic -Classic Khaki

Top 10 Reasons You Should Get A Color Consultation

1. Instant gratification: Painting one room can be done in a day and will totally change the look of any room –instantly!

2. Money: for $125. you can have a color scheme for your entire house. You can’t even buy a good sofa for $125.

3. Great Gift Giving: Color Consultations are great gifts. Everyone has those hard to buy for people on their list. Give them a gift certificate for their next occasion and they can enjoy that color for years to come!

4. Beauty: Your home is your castle. Having color on the walls that you like will make your house feel like a home, nice and cozy! Contractor’s beige on the walls is a very, cold generic look.

5. Cleanliness: Freshly painted walls are easier to keep clean. Unpainted walls or your basic contractor’s paint is very porous and prone to hold onto dirt and dust – not a healthy choice if you suffer from allergies.

6. Economy: People are fixing up their homes now rather then buying a new one. Don’t want to take a gamble in the market? Rely on a sure thing – you already have a house, just spruce it up – affordably!!

7. Decorating Trends: The decorating trend has changed. The idea was to have neutral walls (safe white or beige) and bring in color in with your accessories such as drapery, furniture, bedding etc. Who can afford that now? You can buy 1 or 2 gallons of paint in that perfect shade of sage and change your room instantly for the cost of about $60. Just make sure the color you choose will match your existing accessories. This is where a color consultant comes in.

8. Change will do you good: Moms, take notice. I’ve realized that when you paint a kids room, they have a tendency to keep it clean longer. When their room looks bad, they don’t seem to want to take care of it. Put color on the walls and it becomes a whole new cool room – especially if you let them pick out their own room color.

9. Set the mood: Different colors have different effects on people. Yellow and orange are good energy colors, blues and greens are calming, red is a romantic color and is known to increase your appetite when placed in the eating area. Want to stimulate learning for your kids? How about a yellow playroom? Want a relaxing hideaway at the end of the day? A soothing green bedroom will do it. Soak away those aches and pains in a bathroom that is a pale, muted blue – just like at the spa! Try it, it works!

10. Just For Fun: Tired of looking at the same things every day, day after day after day? Be daring! Have fun! Pick a trendy color like a shade of purple (lavender will be a safer choice but still fun) and paint your walls. Rearrange your room. Take stuff from one room and switch it to another. Mix and match styles and create your own look. Have fun!!

What’s Included in a Color Consultation????

A typical Color Consultation for a home no more then 3400 sq. ft generally takes about an hour and 20 minutes.

I walk your home and find one inspiration piece. It can be a favorite painting, vase, area rug, blanket, drapery etc. and base the new color scheme off that piece.

Taking architectural features into consideration, I usually choose accents colors on columns, a fireplace wall or a prominent feature in the home.

After choosing a designer color scheme, I go back and take pictures of each room for color placement.

I compile all the color chips into a color portfolio along with the photographs taken for color placement and mail it to you in a about one week. If you need to go shopping for drapery, furniture or any accessories for your home, you would bring your color portfolio with you to ensure it matches the accessories you want to purchase.

A whole house color consultation is only $125. for a home about 3400 sq. ft.

Why have a Color Consultation????

. . . . because it’s the most economical way to decorate your house. Including the consultation, you can have a designer color scheme for your home for under $500. That’s including an estimation for the amount of paint you will need and if you paint your house instead of using a contractor. I can also recommend a professional paint contractor if you don’t have one. You can’t even buy a good quality sofa for $500!

Decorating used to be as such: keep the paint scheme neutral and I can go wild with accessories. That will cost you a fortune!! The way we are decorating in these tough economic times have changed and all you have to do is put color on the walls - but it has to be the RIGHT colors.

Let me choose those colors for you now - book a color consultation. Have your home ready for that graduation, anniversary, holiday or special event without breaking your bank!

3 Easy Steps To Get A Designer Color Scheme

1. Get a magazine. It can be Better Homes and Gardens, Good Housekeeping, Southern Living, a garden book, a recipe book – any book that has color photography.

2. Cut. There is beautiful photography in magazines – it has to be, they are trying to sell a product. If the picture isn’t appealing to the eye, the product won’t sell. This applies to everything. Ads for food items like Jello, Kraft Marconi and Cheese, coffee – they all have beautiful color photography. Even recipes. Look at how attractive the food looks in each photo. Look at the background. These photos are all made up of color. Start training your eyes to look at the “color” of an ad and not the product itself. You’ll be amazed at the beautiful color schemes that these photographs are composed of.

3. Choose. Now that you have your magazine and the photograph that you like, take a sharpie marker and circle three colors that appeal to you. Once you have your three colors circled, go to the paint department in Lowe’s and match those three colors up to the Valspar color display. If you have some trouble picking those three colors, just show them to the Paint Associate and they will pull those colors for you. You now can paint any room or rooms in your home with a designer color scheme.

This is a very simple, simple process. There are millions of color schemes that are chosen for you in the form of photography. You don’ have to worry about matching the colors, or if they look good together because they already look good in the picture. The reason behind choosing three colors is so you have a few colors to work with. More then three and the process gets too confusing, less then three and the project becomes less interesting. If you have a home with an open floor plan, you now have three rooms that will look great together. Pretty easy way to paint – don’t you think?