A Benjamin Moore Color Expert in Charlotte

Donna Frasca, Color Expert

Look at these beautiful colors! 

They are just some of the hues you can get from 

the Benjamin Moore Collections, and I'd like to help you!

It's been a couple months since Benjamin Moore selected me to be a Color Expert on their Experts Exchange forum. It's a privilege and achievement to be hand picked amongst some of the most talented and professional experts available in the industry. I invite you to visit the forum to see the entire panel of experts, ask a few questions or just read and learn about the world of color that Benjamin Moore has to offer.

Meanwhile, I'd like to take this opportunity to talk about myself a bit and explain the importance of hiring a professional color expert to choose color for your home. I'll include some links to my popular posts on color so you can see exactly what is involved in choosing the right colors for your home.

Looking for color for your home? 

I bet you're asking these questions :

• Is there a color expert in Charlotte that specialized in JUST color?
• Who can choose color for my home?
• I want help with JUST color. Is there someone in Charlotte?
• Who can help me with color for my home?
• How do I know they are qualified?
• Will the color choices be the right ones for my home?
• What's their experience and credentials?
• How will I know they can help me?

Come enjoy the Historical colors of Benjamin Moore

I can help you with ANY of your color needs from walls to floors and everything in between. If if contains color, needs color or is white but should have color  - I am the Color Expert for you.

Choosing color for your home can be a challenge because there is so much to consider. It's not just a matter of going to a box store, looking at the color wall and saying “Now this is a fun color!” It's really not that simple.

Did you every wonder why color is so different from the time you choose it at the box store and then get it home? It's because of lighting. Here is a great post about How Lighting Can Effect Your Wall Color.

If you live in the South Charlotte area of North Carolina, more than likely you live in Waxhaw, Marvin, Ballantyne, Weddington or Wesley Chapel. This is where my office is located and where 95% of my clients are. The homes here are very large, from 3,500 up to 7,000 square feet. Will you feel comfortable choosing color for a large home? Most, it not all these homes have open floor plans. So not only do I specialize in choosing color for large homes but I also specialize in choosing color for homes that have open floor plans.

Many of these homes also have a two story foyer, particularly the homes in Marvin in The Chimneys. It's crucial to choose the RIGHT color for this type of foyer. It's the first area you see as you enter your home and it really is the core of the home. If the color is off here, than it will be off in the rest of the home as well. That will be a very expensive mistake.

Another main part of your home is the kitchen. We all spend so much time here so it really needs to be perfect. Will you know How To Choose Color For Your Kitchen? It's a little more involved when you consider the color of your cabinets and the open floor plan into your living room. What color will this be? 

I can help you with your color choices from What Color Grout To Use for your kitchen backsplash to choosing the right granite color for you kitchen. These are major decisions that can be overwhelming for you.

I'm also an Interior Designer (Degree in Interior Decorating and Design, NY) but I specialize only in color. I've heard so many of my clients say that they were concerned to have an Interior Designer into their home in fear of getting pressured into buying furniture, drapery or other home essentials. Me? I'm just going to design amazing color for your home! If you need home decor, just let me know and I'll make sure you have everything available to you to turn your house into a home.

So if you are looking for a designer color palette for your home, contact me here and we can set up an appointment for a color consultation. See you in town!

What Exactly is “Fun” Color Anyway?

Pinterest

Is this fun color?

Did you ever hear someone say, 

“Oh what a fun color!” 

or 

“Now that's a fun color!” 

or simply, 

“That's fun!”. 

Come to think about it, what EXACTLY is a “fun” color?

Pinterest

Is this fun?

Pinterest

Fun?

Credit

Is fun color just unique color or a unique way of applying it?

credit

Or is fun color just what's trending?

Fun color is YES to all these questions. 

But can fun color be any color - even black? 

So would you say that these three colors are fun?

Or these?

It seems that most people would define fun color as eye catching or color that “pops”, any or all bright colors and perhaps just very lively hues. After all, fun is a very lively word and it describes these colors as full of life and energy.

So perhaps instead of saying it's a “fun color” simply put, let's just say we like it!

Want some fun color in your home? Sure you do! I'm Donna Frasca, a color expert, and I can get you those very lively hues that are fun to you! Contact me to schedule a color consultation @ DecoratingbyDonna@mac.com if you  live in Waxhaw, Weddington, Marvin or anywhere in South Charlotte area.

Say Good-bye To Summer Colors

What Fall colors should I use for my home?

Here are few suggestions.

As the season's change, so should your color options. 

Like the outdoor colors transition from the bright, color palette of spring to summer, now is the time to think about the spicy, strong hues of Autumn.

From a Spring and Summer palette …

Spring and Summer colors

To Fall possibilities …

If you're hesitant to bring these strong hues into your home, you can start by introducing color into your home with just accent pieces. Eventually, you can try these colors on just an accent wall. I'm pretty sure that once you see some of the colors on your wall as accents, you'll soon want them to be the feature of your room as the main wall color.

Pinterest showing Citrus on the runner

Like this color? Try Armagnac by Sherwin Williams

Gold is featured in this BHG bedroom

Anjou Pear 6381

Better Homes & Gardens showing a brown accent wall
credit

Try Jute Brown 6096

Color Inspiration: Keep it Simple

Color inspiration doesn't have to look beautiful it just has to have great color or at least color you like. For instance, look at this ripe banana. Is it a gorgeous photograph? No, not really but hey, photography is not my forte but color certainly is. Here's what you can do with “Ripe Banana”.

From the not so ripe part of the banana which is a bit on the green side to the very ripe, rich brown you see for the media room, this potassium filled color scheme is enough hue for your entire home! That is a wide range of colors!

Since choosing color for homes with open floor plans is my specialty as Color Specialist, I'd like to show you a simple “color floor plan” that I use to distribute color in a home. Here's what I do.

I almost always use the lightest color in the inspiration piece for the foyer and halls. You may even be able to consider the light hues for possible ceiling or trim options too. Keeping the light color in the core of the home will provide a nice background for the other colors in the home to contrast.

I love to use warm colors in the kitchen such as golds, yellows or very warm greens. Since we all spend so much time in the kitchen, it's just a nice choice to have a color that will be gentle to see first thing in the morning.

In most cases, the living room is right next to the kitchen so make sure these two hues “play well” with each other.

You can get a bit more dramatic in the dining room so go darker! Keep in mind that many dining rooms have white or cream crown molding, white ceiling and maybe perhaps a white chair rail so dark and dramatic in this room is good - it you like that look.

Last but not least - the media room or man cave. I say, the darker the better here! Make it movie theater dark with dramatic hues.

The red that I highlighted here is actually from the apple. In this case, you can use this red as an accent color with ANY of these ripe colors. Do you know how many color combinations you can make here? Dozens upon dozens!!! How fun is this?

Choosing color for your home this way is perfect for the home that has an open floor plan. When you have one theme or inspiration piece, it ensures that ALL the colors will look great together no matter what combination you use.

“If you are choosing 

color for your home, consider 

using ONE theme such 

as a ripe banana or 

your favorite meal, dessert 

or even a cocktail.”

Stop monkeying around with color, stick to a simple inspiration piece, follow this simple floor plan of color and enjoy color in your home!

Trending Color For Your Home. It's Color in a Nutshell.

What trending colors should I put in my home? 

What are the popular color choices for my home?

If you live in Charlotte, I can tell you the colors that I've been using here that are holding fast. Love this trending palette mostly in the Weddington, Marvin and Waxhaw area of Charlotte where the homes are large and have open floor plans. 

Why do these colors work for these homes? Because they have great room flow (transition well from room to room) and people are looking for colors that are soft yet still hold a bit of hue. Bye bye beiges!

As you know, it's that color forecasting time of year. Now I'm not a big fan of the whole color forecasting process because I just think ALL colors should be highlighted, not just a select few. Besides, when you think about it, how can the forecasters select just a few hues to represent so much? Well, we have to understand that they are just providing “color guides” and we as Designers or homeowners need to tweak them on an individual basis. Having said that, I'm going to share the trending colors that are going strong here in South Charlotte. 

YELLOW

It's soft and creamy but certainly not too bright. It's a feel good color and brings warmth and happiness to any room. I've been using this as a living room color. It looks great with dark wood furniture and brown leather seating. 

GRAY

The perfect sidekick to yellow. It's classy and in the warm tone can be a very cozy color which most of us don't associate with when we think gray. It's not 'shark skin' gray it's more like a warm, humid, foggy morning gray and the absolute perfect combo next to yellow. This color rocks with brushed nickel in the home and black accents. Stunning.

BLUE

Still the number one color choice for just about any room of the home from the Master Bedroom to the laundry room. It's soft and has quite of bit of gray in it. Yes you guessed it! When designing for homes with open floor plans, keep the gray somewhere fairly close to this blue. I used it as a dining room, and adjacent office color. They are friends - keep these colors together.

PURPLE

Fun color! Where do I use it? In the Master Bedroom. It's soft and also is quite gray - no Prince purples here.

BEIGE

Just about out of the color wheel now. Odd I know but people WANT COLOR. Gray seems to be the new beige which is fine with me.

 GREEN

Also a very popular color but certainly greens that contain quite a bit of yellow. So many to choose from here.

Want great color? Here's some extremely helpful tips on:

How Lighting Can Effect Your Wall Color

So what do you think? Do you have any of these colors in your home? Would you like to have these colors in your home? Also keep in mind that these colors are very universal to most decors and would compliment many furniture settings and floorings. I love them!

If you live in South Charlotte and would love some new, trendy color for your home, contact me to schedule a color consultation. 

How Lighting Can Affect Your Wall Color

This is such a huge topic I don't even know where to start. Is lighting really a “color killer?” It most certainly can make or break a color scheme.

I found this interesting example by Behr that really nails it. Look how different lighting can change a room with the SAME wall color:

In a recent color consultation, I choose this color for a kitchen. It's “Bali” from Benjamin Moore. The client clearly wanted a blue in her kitchen that would go well with her stainless appliances and this was hands down the color for her.

I sent her a color portfolio with her new color palette in it and shortly after that I received a frantic phone call saying, “I thought we decided on a blue for my kitchen. This is green!” 

I chuckled a bit because I knew what the problem was. I asked her, “Mrs Jones, what room are you in right now?” and she replied, “The living room.” I said, “Ok, walk into your kitchen, hold the color vertically and take another look.” I remained on the phone and heard footsteps walking into another room then I heard her say, “Wow, it is blue!”

“Be careful of your 

lighting and please view

 the color chip in the room it's 

intended to be in.”

Not only will using different light bulbs alter your color, and that's a whole other blog post, but in my opinion, what's more crucial is the type of shade that your lighting fixture has. You can have LED's incandescent, halogen or fluorescent bulbs but the color of your shades will determine what hue is cast on your walls. 

This chandelier has a light gray shade. For the most part, this color is ideal to show off your main wall color. Now depending on the Designer and the look you want for your home, the color of the shade will either add to your overall look or ruin it.

This (copper) lighting fixture obviously will add a yellow tone or warmth to your overall color. If you're trying to create a cozy, warm look in a room, than this is the fixture you would want. If you are trying to see the true color of your wall instead of creating mood lighting, this will cause havoc on your color much like the blue and green example I talked about in the beginning of this post.

Down lighting is another element to consider. Light is splashed below your “color line” and onto a surface. It may bounce off the surface (table perhaps) and hit the wall a bit. Now your wall color will look spotty because it will cast color on the wall where it hits but further out on the wall, the “shadows” will appear much darker, almost looking like another color.

Yikes right? Accent lighting, Tiffany lamps, stain glass are NOT my friends. When there are several colors in a lighting fixture and you're trying to select one wall color, the thought process to go through (as least for me) is seeming endless.

How will the color look in this room?

… in the day?

… at night?

Do I need to make it brighter to compensate for the lack of light?

If so, what if it'll be too bright in the day?

If I want green, how “blue” do I have to go so the yellowness coming from the lamp will reflect the color I want?

How will the color look when the lamp is off?

Should I choose a color when the lamp is on or off?

These are questions that are pretty standard when I choose color for a room I just pay extra attention to the homes that have colorful lighting fixtures. 

If you have a “light challenged” room that you need color for, you know I can help! You can find me here.

How to Make Pinky-Beige Work

We all know of it, we all have seen it, we all try to avoid it. 

What is it? 

It's pinky-beige!

I've written about beiges before but it's such a huge color concern that I'm writing about it again. I recently had a client who's entire home, from cabinets to flooring, was a mixture of yellow AND pink undertones (thank you very much whoever built that home) so I'm going to write about it one more time.

There are a few tricks that you can use if you're trying to work with pinky beige in your home. There's really so much to consider when working with this hue so I'm going to show you how you can tie it in.

The photograph above is actually my dining room so if I thought “pinky beige” or the dreaded “band-aid” color wasn't going to work, I certainly wouldn't use it. However, if you're going to use a pinky beige, there are so many things to keep in mind before you can make this color scheme work. 

Here's a few steps to follow so pinky beige will work in your home.

Wood.

Using a “red based” wood (or tile/carpet with a pink undertone) is a must to help tie in a pink beige wall color. Look at the dining room table, the floor and the china hutch. They all have a red undertone. I have a better color swatch of the flooring because it didn't photograph well and actually looks like oak (yes, lighting is another element that will play havoc on your color scheme).

Gunstock wood flooring works well.

Look at the flooring in the dining room. It's really important to have this color wood on the floor as well when trying to tie in those red/pink undertones of the wall color. The trouble starts when the flooring, or other woods, start getting “yellow” such as this oak wood. I'm not saying it can't be done it just gets changeling.

Oak flooring.

I know you're laughing at that lamp, I did too when I bought it! It thought it was so ugly I HAD to buy it because who else would? Besides, I bought it on a tremendous sale - originally $140 down to $30.

This is the themed room (Bordello), which is a parlor directly across from the dining room. Funny red and gold sofa right? That sofa is so crazy looking I just had to get it and it's probably one of the most comfortable sofa's I've ever sat on. Anyway, one of the reasons I choose this sofa is because of the red and gold in it. Not only is the style typical of what I needed for this room but the gold motif in the sofa will tie in the very gold walls I have in the rest of the house and the red ties in with the pinky beige walls directly across from it.

The cork flooring -  which is my favorite type of flooring - really ties in the rest of the home as well. It clearly has yellow/gold in it, looks great with red and red ties in with the pinky beige walls. Tired yet?

Wall Color

The other part of my dining room incorporates a deep burgundy. I have “Burnished Burgundy” on six columns. Four of the columns can be seen in the dining room and the other two are in the family room. This is an important design element to balance color in your home. Don't just use a dominant color in one room but show it in other parts of your home as well. This is how you tie in a color scheme.

Metals

Meaning the hardware finish on your chandeliers, door knobs, curtain hardware and the knobs on your kitchen cabinets. Brushed nickel works well with pinky beige but depending on the other colors that are in your room, the warmer metallics may work as well. Get samples of different metallics and hold them against your wall color to see which ones look best.

Drapery

Of course you have to consider the colors in your drapery too. It's really hard to see my sheers in the dining room - they just didn't photograph well. They are a light champagne color and eggshell. They are soft yet add a little muted color to tie it all in.

Art

If you look at the mural I painted on the dining room wall you'll see some golds and greens being introduced. This is so very important because the other rooms in my home (open floor plan) are gold and green. I started introducing these colors so that the overall color palette would make sense. In most cases, mixing these two palettes is very difficult or challenging to say the least and I really don't recommend doing it unless you really know what you're doing.

This is a lot to digest at once and these are some very crucial points when working with pinky beige. It can be a challenge if you have pinky beige in one room and warm colors in the rest of your home. The main thing is to try to incorporate both yellow and pink undertones when working with pinky beige. This way, it'll be easier to transition into the yellow undertones in the rest of your home. Sound easy? Believe me, it's not but with these few design tips, you should be able to pull it off nicely.

Read it over, think about it and let me know if you have any questions about how to combine pinky beige with the rest of the colors in your home. My name is Donna and I'm a Color Specialist in Charlotte who's been working with these pretty hues for a very long time! We can make it work in your home too.

Classy Pinks for a Nursery

This Color Recipe is screaming girls nursery!

I was never a big fan of the pinky pink, bubble gum nursery's.  Don't get me wrong, I love pink but only a select few.

This is a great place for bubble gum color.

A few years ago I had the pleasure to design a nursery for a client who hand an unlimited budget for her project. She wanted the best of the best, and the most expensive materials. Everything was custom ordered and designed. Well, many hours and $10,000 later (some of the fabric as $325 a yard) a very classy nursery was designed and these were very similar to the colors she wanted. Are they a bit to mature for a baby girl's room - yes, I think so, but nevertheless, it was beautiful and that's what the client wanted.

Here a the colors for a very classy baby girl.

This photo by Pottery Barn shows the wood stain that would look best in this room. If you can get a mahogany wood that would even be better.

Benjamin Moore has a great color selection starting from Georgia Pink 2092-60. Watch your undertones with these pinks - keep them warm and muted and baby soft.

Newest Projects and Blogs

I think most of us have a few blogs for various reasons and I have three. I'd like to introduce them to you so you can enjoy color in three different ways. There are some really great color schemes and innovative ideas in these blogs and I'd like to share them with you. Here they are:

1. This one of course “A Color Specialist in Charlotte”. This blog is ALL about color. From color on your walls to the color choices for your flooring and everything in between. That covers a lot of categories but I usually don't stray to far from the topic of color. 

What's different about this blog is that I'll use keywords specific to my surrounding area (for the search engines) so if you see me mention an odd town or subdivision that's what my intentions are for that post. After all, some of our blogs are little advertisements right?

2. Another blog I have which is my favorite one is called “Color Recipes”. This blog is the bread and butter (no pun) of what I do and is also about color but it is specifically related to using food as an inspiration to get color into your home. I try to take most of the photographs myself but I'm really not a photographer so I'll use other beautiful pics as inspirations to get my point across.

I've just started a “Chocolate Lover's Series” on this blog and that's going to be my 'baby' for a while. I have so many great ideas on how to use chocolate as color inspiration for our homes. Really keep an eye out for this one - I'm putting my heart and sole into it.

3. Last but not least is “Color and The Queen City”. This blog is exactly what it implies - color, found in the  Queen City which is where I live, in Charlotte NC. Actually, I live on the outskirts of Charlotte which is Wesley Chapel, about 20 minutes away, Charlotte is the closest main city.

This blog is where I have a little fun and can let my hair down a bit. Every single photograph is taken by me and of course I have to throw in a bit of color to go with the pic. I'm just venturing out into the world of photography and here's where I get to do it. I don't comment on any of the postings but you are welcome to. It's more so a photo gallery for me for you to enjoy.

So there you have it! Three blogs that keep me very, very busy. Thank goodness I work from home so I can keep adding content to these blogs (writing is such great therapy) when I'm not color consulting. 

If there is anything you ever want me to write about, please let me know otherwise I hope you enjoy all three of these blogs. Happy reading and enjoy color in your home!

From me to hue,

Donna Frasca