For the last several years, in the world of interior painting in the USA, the color Gray is big. Very big. Can you say Revere Pewter, Stonigton and Edgecomb Gray? A few minutes ago, a client took home a sample pint of Cape Hatteras Sand. She is making the shift from deep, rich red walls in her bedroom to a warm neutral. She’s thinking to add accents in teal, purple and yellow. I gave her my blessing, not that she needed it.
These details fascinate me; I get to witness and assist people in their life transformations. Color has a lot of power.
I completely appreciate the beauty of the gray palette, I really do, but today’s Color Story is about Metallic Gold. In the flutter of customers gathering sample chips of Solitude and Fusion and Wish – all popular and lovely on the gray scale – in walked 2 clients who were not interested. I’ll call her Pat, and her daughter-in-law whose name for this story is Matty, came in searching for the perfect paint for a living room and dining room.
Matty’s vision was a deep gold for the living room, and a shade or two lighter for the dining room. Pat’s vision was to go with a pale tan and paler beige. “Those rooms are small!!” she said. Which opened the door for me to give my talk about small spaces:
Small rooms can absolutely carry a rich color. No fear. The idea is to make each and every room a glory to BE IN. (I once painted the broom closet in my New Mexico house a bright, bright chartreuse and, I swear, it was so festive and fabulous I set a chair in it for when myself or my friends needed an emergency dose of bright yellow-green to erase any negative thought that might have creeped into the psyche. It worked.)
More details from Pat and Matty: they had a new large deep-color leather sofa set on order, and so I agreed with young Matty about going to a rich shade for the walls. We looked at several colors in the Benjamin Moore Preview Palette 2150 through 2164. They took home Metallic Gold and Burlap. Two days later, Pat stopped in to tell me that she LOVED-LOVED-LOVED it!!!!
No fear! Let your small spaces sing with color.
Paint and Color 