Robin's Egg, Tiffany Box, Pale Aqua, Beach Glass, Saw Grass...

There are paint swatches, and there are paint swatches.  Sometimes it works to choose colors from a fan deck, but not this week.  This week, we need poster sized samples, and colors custom mixed to work with light reflecting off of the water.

To make color samples, you will need:  Untinted base color, poster board, pro-tints and/or artists acrylics, paint swatches, various items whose colors you like or that your wall paint needs to compliment, and a free afternoon.  A three-year-old to supervise the process, or a cat to wander across your wet samples are optional, but highly entertaining.

This week, I'm working on the lake house whose view was featured in the last two posts.  Half of the house is a 1940's cabin with knotty pine paneling, and half is a very contemporary addition with soaring ceilings and interesting planes.  Yes, all under the same roof.  We're workin' with it.  The owner is a transplanted Georgia peach, with a husband and two kids, whose last house was pretty strongly French country in architecture, decor and color palette.  She is still using some of the traditional elements of that, but for this house she's wanting more of a beach house style, and beautiful beach glass colors. 

Shall we cover this gray wall (absolutely everything in this house that isn't knotty pine is gray...walls, flooring, tile, trim, everything) with pale aqua, pale turquoise, or pale robin's egg?  Any will coordinate with the whitewash I've added to the knotty pine paneling you can see in the background, and with the periwinkle, lavender, shell pink, and pale apple green samples not shown here.  The trim throughout the house will be white enamel, and the flooring a dark wide-plank wood, hand planed for that lovely weathered feel underfoot. 

We spent the better part of yesterday stirring up paint samples and coating out poster board, then taping them up on the walls, ceilings, doors and insides of bookcases, in various combinations.  Being able to see how lighting and angles affect the colors, and how the different colors can be combined from room to room is always helpful, but especially so when changing style and color so radically.  Being able to custom mix paint samples, and if need be, custom tint the actual paint (if the computer at the paint store won't cooperate), is nice too. 

It only took two tries to get the perfect shade of turquoise for the front door.   Not sure if it matches the real thing exactly, but this is the color often called "Tiffany Box Blue".  Very rich, indeed.

If you custom mix samples, always check the color chips for an existing match first, before asking for a computer match.  The computer systems are good, but not foolproof, and you can drive the people at the paint store nuts, if you are picky enough.  I'm not saying don't be picky, just know it may not make you their favorite customer.  In fact, I suspect the guys at my favorite paint store get even by pointing me out as a pro to other challenging customers, like the sweet little old lady standing next to me at the counter, asking whether banana yellow or lemon yellow will look better in her master bedroom, with the comforter her daughter gave her, which no, she didn't bring with her, but she can describe.  Thanks guys.

I do offer color consultations, and you can find out more about this and all my services at theartofthehome.com. 

If you want to mix your own test samples and need more info than I've given, do feel welcome to email me for clarification.  dawnmariedelara@gmail.com.