What do I get after a colour consultation?

When you bring me on as your colour consultant, an on-site visit is where we start.

These usually last around an hour and a half.

You introduce me to your space, give me the full tour, summarize your plans & ideas, and then leave me with my colours for a little while to become immersed in the project.

Before long I will come to you with some possibilities, and we collaborate from there to find just the right palette for your space.

My job is to sort out the details, write it all down, and usually within 24 hours you will receive a digital colour chart that looks like this: 

The chart will answer any questions your painting contractor may have, or whomever is going to be purchasing the products and applying the paint. 

It shows in a glance what your new colour style will look like, and is a great record for touch ups later on.

I can also print off a physical colour chart for you complete with real colour chips, though this may take a few days to get to you. Digital colour never reads the same as the actual chips, so for matching to other elements of the project, I highly recommend that physical samples be acquired.

If you are near a paint store, you can also pop in and pick up the chips free of charge, or buy a small pot of paint to try out.
 

I always say that investing in a sample pot is like buying an insurance policy for your colour – it’s a small price to pay to feel confident with your choice. 

Our summer nemesis: deck stain.

The key to being happy with your deck stain is to align your expectations with the reality of your circumstances.

Every year when the sun comes out, people in the paint industry brace themselves for the onslaught of customers who have been frustrated by the performance of their deck stains. Very few people relish the prospect of sanding and scraping a peeling deck finish. While no product is infallible, in most cases the frustrations are due to either insufficiently prepared wood, poor weather conditions around the time of application, or unrealistic expectations about the life expectancy of the product. 

In the Vancouver area, cedar is very popular to use as a design element for exteriors. The climate here is temperate rainforest, which means that we experience exceptional amounts of rain for the better part of the year. Any kind of porous building material will expand and contract to some degree, and will see a build up of green matter over the course of the winter season. This movement and interference from living matter will confound even the best of deck coatings, and most will realistically need to be touched up or redone every 3-5 years. In the case of stairs or decks that see snow, snow shovels, salt, pets, golf shoes, or the like, you may be doing some maintenance each year. 

Deck coated by Goodhome Painting Co

To improve the lifespan of your stain, one of the most important pieces of advice I can give is to ensure the wood is prepared to sufficiently absorb it. Newly installed wood can have what is called "mill glaze" - essentially the surface of the wood is sealed by the burnishing effect of a hot saw running across its surface. Sanding with a coarse sandpaper will open the pores of the wood, allowing the product to absorb properly. 

Allowing the wood to weather naturally for 6-12 months before coating it can make a great difference as well, and is in fact necessary for any pressure-treated wood you might be using. 

Finally, avoid applying stain to damp wood (less than 18% moisture content), in the heat of high noon in the summer, or if it's actually raining... 

For best results, beautiful wood decks will need regular maintenance, with the odd application of good old elbow grease. Happy deck season!

Exterior Season

The exterior painting season on the north-west coast can be very short and unpredictably wet, so it's necessary to plan ahead and be ready for those dry days!

Early spring is a good time to start auditioning colour palettes, testing products, and getting quotations from a few painting companies who will all be booking their exterior work months in advance. 

A few things to remember when planning an exterior colour palette:

• Colours appear lighter on exterior surfaces, and lighter still on horizontal surfaces like decks.

• Undertones that may be subtle when you view a colour inside can be much stronger outside.

• The finish and opacity of the product, as well as the texture of the surface it is applied to can alter the appearance of the colour.

Trim: 2132-10 Black, Stucco 2134-30 Iron Mountain, Shingles AF-715 Dolphin

The moral of the story is test, test, test!! Once you've narrowed down the colour choices, find a surface you can apply some test patches to in the quality and finish/opacity of product you intend to use For example, shingles that you plan to stain with a semi-solid stain

Exterior Paint finishes: Flat, Low Lustre, Satin, Semi-Gloss, Gloss

Exterior Stain opacities: Transparent, Semi-Transparent, Semi-Solid, Solid

A word about exterior stains:

These are very important to test on a sample of the same material you intend to apply them to. It's best to make sure your test sample represents the variation in colour that you'll see over the whole surface.

I recommend sampling on three boards or shingles that are not already installed, making sure that the light, medium, and dark tones are represented. This way when you test your stain for colour and opacity, you'll see the range of colours that will appear when you apply the stain.

View your samples on all sides of your house, at different times of day, and in different weather conditions, to be sure that your colour appears as you expect it to. 

Benjamin Moore's Arborcoat Solid stain has ranked 'top exterior stain' in Consumer Reports! 

Easy, just paint it white!

Oh, the hours of my life I have spent talking about white. It's just not as straight forward as one might hope. 

To over-simplify the science of it, surfaces that appear black are absorbing the full spectrum of colour (that's why they get so hot on a summer day), while conversely, surfaces that appear white are actually reflecting the full spectrum of colour. For that reason, there are endless possibilities when it comes to the subtleties of white paint. So if you'd like to paint something white, it's always a good idea to visit your paint store and bring home a wide range of white colour chips to compare to any whites that already exist in the context. 

White rooms have always been a stand-by in the art and design world; for the light that they bring, and for their ability to let the other elements in the room (texture, shape, colour, pattern) shine through. As far as colour trends go, we seem to travel through cycles that are in reaction to how we are collectively experiencing life, and what kind of feeling would best serve us in our environments. Painting a room white may be a reaction to having lived with strong colours on the walls for a while, or the desire to have a quiet space to retreat to in an otherwise frenetic world.  

Benjamin Moore's 2016 Colour of the Year is "Simply White"

Layering your space with different tones of white and off-white can create a timeless and elegant feeling when carefully considered. One thing to be aware of is how introducing a very clean white to a lived-in space can make older elements look "dirty" all of a sudden. When in doubt, rent a colour fan from your local paint store and bring it home so that you can compare the many whites and find the right undertone.

Of course setting up a visit from your local colour consultant is a wise and time-saving option as well ;)

Looking at Colour online

  These days even the most mundane of purchases are often first researched online before a commitment is made, the internet is a fantastic resource for planning a new project. I absolutely encourage you to seek inspiration on Pinterest or Houzz before calling a consultant or  heading to the paint store, however, keep in mind that what you see on your screen is often very different from what actual paint will look like in the right context!

Colour after all, is only light reflected off of a surface, and once that light has been confounded through the circumstances of the place and moment, digital photography, and your back lit computer screen, the colour can be perceived as much lighter/darker/brighter/cleaner than it is in reality

Online colour representations are not to be trusted before they are tested! 

Reality of course, is relative as well, so the same colour will seem completely different depending on what kind of light exists in your space, as well as any other colours that are present. I'm 

If you've found a colour you love online, the next step is to head to the paint store, not for a gallon of paint, but for some physical samples to try at home. You may be very surprised at how the subtlety of the colour you loved online is lost in your bright home, or how the undertone of the colour doesn't do the fixed elements in your space any favours!

Should kids get to choose their own bedroom colour?

I am a new parent, and may well be eating my words in a few years time, but I have always felt that kids should get to choose their own colours within reason. I can offer a few guidelines and useful phrases for directing their final choice (they almost always want electric lime green), but for the price of a gallon of paint, it's a great way to let kids explore their creativity, and to give them a sense of ownership over their little corner of the planet.

When they choose that saturated canary yellow, or vibrating lime green, I like to tell them that it will be awesome for about a week, but the novelty will wear out quickly, and those particular shades can end up make you feel a bit sick when you're surrounded by them for too long.

If they choose a dark colour, I recommend that you give it some serious thought. Strong colours can make you feel contained in a space, which can be very comforting, and they can offset white or wood furniture beautifully.

If the offending colour selection just doesn't flow with your decor or your personal taste, see if you can get past it. Like everything else with kids, this too shall pass, and it's better that are allowed princess pink at 5 so they won't explore for the first time at 25. There's no faster or cheaper way to totally transform a space than to paint it, so I say let them choose. And if all else fails, have it made in a 1/2 strength colour formula, and call it a compromise! 

It's time for Wallpaper

I adore bold and quirky wallpapers, and I appreciate luxurious textile wall coverings for their ability to instantly elevate a space. The current approach to wallpaper is to apply striking pattern or sumptuous texture to a feature wall, or to transform a small powder room by enveloping it completely, and the impact is significant. 

For a better range of options, leave time to custom order your wallpaper. Any shop with a library of wallpaper books that's worth combing through, likely won't have the space to house in stock rolls of the thousands of prints available to them. The little shop I have been based out of for the last few years boasts one of the largest wallpaper libraries in the province of BC! 

Howard's Paint & Wallpaper 1491 Marine Drive, West Vancouver BC 1-604-922-2841

Things that can affect your paint colour

Sometimes a paint colour that you love just doesn't seem right when you apply it to the wall.  

A few things that can really affect colour are:

• The direction which your natural light is coming from: North light tends to be cooler and can make colours seem dull, while South light can wash subtle colours out with it's overpowering strength.
• The colour of your flooring, cabinets, or countertops: we've all seen that pinkish tile or carpet, or very yellow oak cabinets. The right paint colour can neutralize an offensive fixed element, while the wrong one could make them exponentially worse!
• Whether or not you have trim (around windows, doors, along the ceiling), and what colour the trim is compared to your wall colour.
• Your light bulbs - sometimes changing the source of the light makes all the difference!
• Your decor: major players such as couches, area rugs, window coverings, or bed linens can really dictate the colours that will work in a room
• The past: big colour changes don't always feel right immediately! Give it a little time, and if it's still not feeling right, give me a call!

Digital Colour Overlay

A few paint companies provide free tools designed for previewing their paint colours on a digital photo of your project. In my experience, these can be handy (though a bit tedious) for making a choice between two or three very different options, such as: Should I paint my exterior trim light, or dark? Or: Do I want my house to be gray, or red?

For subtle colour choices, these tools will not provide enough clarity to be worth the trouble. If you've already decided you'd like to paint your house a shade of taupe, skip the digital colour overlay, and head straight for testing your paint colour with actual paint samples!

See next: Testing your paint colour

Testing your paint colour

Colour chips and paint samples exist to save you from getting it really wrong. It may seem extravagant to spend the time and money on renting a fan deck or buying a real sample of paint, but I prefer to think of it as purchasing an insurance policy on your colour. It could save you the time and expense of re-painting the room when you discover half way through that the gentle shade of green you have chosen are making those tiles you can't change look an awful shade of pink! 

Once you have some ideas about the direction you want to go, start the testing process by collecting a variety of colour chips in that ball park. It's important to see the colours in the correct context, so hold them next to those elements which will be staying in the space.  Once you've narrowed it down to 2 or 3 options, it's never a bad idea to try sample right on your wall! 

See next: Things that can affect your paint colour