House Beautiful-Color Institute

Last Wednesday I attended "Designer Wednesday" at the San Francisco Design Center. This week was hosted by House Beautiful and was all about color. The guest speakers were Stephen Drucker (Editor in Chief, House Beautiful) and San Francisco Designers Suzanne Tucker and Paul Vincent Wiseman. They offered many great tips for the oh so dreaded selections of paint colors as well as many exciting stories of interactions with their own clients. When designing one client’s private jet, they had to make final selections IN FLIGHT to insure all colors were viewed in the proper lighting. Wow that would be amazing! I do agree though, color changes in different lighting therefore it is crucial to view it in the setting in which it will live. I tell this to clients every day.

MORE TIPS FROM THE PROS:

• Don't forget the 5th Wall aka The Ceiling. If you don't like white ceilings and you need a no fail solution to match your wall paint, have the paint store add 25-50% of white to your wall color. Voila, a toned down color to match perfectly.
  
• You must test paint. Do not try and make your final selections off the teeny tiny cards you receive at the store. If you don't want to paint samples directly on your walls, paint 3 coats on a 24"x24" board. I like to use foam core board because it doesn't bend.
  
• View the samples vertically not looking down at them. This goes back to lighting again. Try it, you'll see the difference.
• Last but not least, and my favorite tip of the day because I run into this with clients all the time. Pick your paint last. I can't tell you how many times I have clients bring me paint swatches and want me to pick flooring, fabrics etc to go with it. There are millions of paint color options but only so many tiles, carpets or fabric patterns that you will like, so hold off on the paint. I promise paint can be found to match!
  

The day was finished off with guest speaker Brice Cooper from GE Lighting. He discussed lighting design tips and introduced an interactive web tool that teaches users how to create moods with light. Ohh Laa Laa! VIEW TOOL. Check it out, it's pretty informative and you can also enter a Sweepstakes to win $25,000 to redecorate your home.