Color is very mysterious and wonderful. And tricky.
Client Jillian (not her real name!) visited the paint shop recently looking for a color for a sitting room. She likes earthy colors, she told me. The green and gold she chose for her kitchen, hall and other first floor rooms were beloved by her family and herself, but this sitting room was giving her apoplexy, which I thought had been wiped out years ago.
Her husband had time to paint the room next day, before a game, so you know the pressure was on to choose a color! When someone says they are ready to paint walls before a football game, you get them the freakin’ paint.
I showed up at their house at 8:30 A.M. the next day, Sunday morning. Yes, I take my my color ministry seriously.
Jill was right to be fussing over the sitting room color. The room opened wide onto the entry hall, and could be seen from the dining room and the kitchen. And yes, the hallway was a middle-tone earthy goldy wheat and the kitchen walls were painted in a middle-tone earthy, muted mossy green.
She had been looking at many other middle-tone gold and greens for that sitting room and none of them worked. Her logical mind told her to do Similar, but her eye knew it wasn’t right. No visual interest was happening.
AND into this sitting room, for sitting-on purposes, two brand new leather chairs in a strong burgundy color were going to be placed. These chairs have big energy. Beautiful and commanding energy. A pale or middle-tone of any color would wash out beside these chairs.
Beauty is all about pleasing the eye so we can relax and live in visual peace.
I was thinking a seriously deep tumeric shade would be amazing behind those burgundy chairs. We taped up paper samples of Williamsburg’s Claret, Custis Salmon and Massicot, just for comparison. Hands down, both Jillian and her handy spouse went for the deep tumeric.
She wanted a cozy, comfortable feeling and that’s what the Massicot CW-380 does for this room. Yay!
Thanks, Jillian, for this photo. What a pleasure to work with you and Barry!!!
Onward we go,
Barbara
Paint and Color 