Paint and Color

How I wish I could take credit for this color choice.

Awhile ago customer Michelle came in looking for a shade of bright orange for an accent wall. At least that’s what registered in my mind: Orange. Accent color. It was busy in the store that day, but I remember pointing out the 3 strips of pure freaking orange. Not pumpkin. Not burnt orange. Not orangey brick. She took all the strips of clear, screaming oranges home with her and that was that.

Until she came in again a few weeks later in search of another color for another room and we chatted it up a bit and she reminded me about the orange thing and how well it turned out. I said, oh right, your orange accent wall.

Then she whips out her cell phone and shows me photos of her entire living room painted in Carrot Stick 2016-30 (a Benjamin Moore color). I almost fainted from shock and awe. Michelle is my new best friend. She texted me those photos and generously invited me over to see the space in person and to take a few photos. I WENT, OF COURSE.

I gotta tell you, it looks and feels spectacular. Even I, Fearless Color Warrior Artist Gal, might not have ever come up with the idea to paint an entire room — a living room!– in Carrot Stick.

But that has all changed now for me. After seeing Carrot Stick in action, I suggested to a lovely Boomer couple that they paint a small, windowless room in their house in one of my favorite colors, the glorious, acidic yellow-green YOLK. And they did!!! Am waiting for the photos, and believe you me, I will post them the millisecond I get them.

Back to Carrot Stick:

Michelle says that the most unexpected outcome of her painting the living room this shade, is that her whole family (she, her sainted, color-trusting husband and kids) gravitates to the room now to work and hang out together. They all seem to love being in the orange, especially at night, when the color positively glows.

Michelle Kalman is an artist. She mixed up the turquoise for the kitchen herself by combining paint in her studio until it was right. When you invent a color, you get to name it. I think she has called it “Michelle’s Kitchen”. You can see her powerful artwork here. She has an exhibition up at the Noyes Museum of Art in Hammonton, New Jersey, until February 14, 2016. Hurry!

A few more photos: