Color Buzz

Decorating on a Shoestring

By Ann McGuire

Recently, I was interviewed by Tracey Morgan of WDSY Radio in Pittsburgh. We explored the idea of how to make the most of your decorating dollar. So many of us are faced with a financial crunch right now. Instead of dinners out, movie nights and even vacations, we are creating atmospheres at home that take you somewhere out of the ordinary.

We talked about how redecorating doesn’t have to be expensive. For $40 to $50 and one weekend, you can transform an otherwise forgettable room into a pleasing destination. Tracey wanted to know what room to start on. I suggested the family room or the kitchen because those are the rooms everyone in the family enjoys. With painting, you really do get the most bang for your buck.

What mistakes do people make with kitchens? Making them too busy is a problem we often see; there is so much activity in this room. Keep the décor clean and simple, and it will create a space where it is easy to focus on the task at hand. Perk up the walls with children’s artwork or family photos that can be changed out each season. A bright cheery color is great in a kitchen because the wall surface is usually limited. You can always put sunny yellow next to clean white cabinets.

I’ll continue briefing you all about what we discussed in future posts. If you can, check out the interview. Let me know if you have any additional ideas or experiences on how to decorate on a shoe string.

Dressing According to our Environment

By Michele Coppin

It’s fairly obvious that weather often dictates how we dress in a given environment (shorts in the summer, coats in the winter). However, I have observed that our clothes go even further to reflect our environment in color and design.

Take for example, people who live in the country. They are surrounded by the geometry of fields and the changing colors of crops. We often tend to see more earth tones and plaids.                                  

People living by the sea, in constant view of the horizon, are known to sport horizontal stripes and variations of blue.                                          

                  

And city dwellers, whose environment is broken up by the light and shadows of the buildings can typically be found in more blacks and whites.          

                     

Take a look as you venture around your neighborhood!

Design Dilemma - Gwynne's House

Hello Beehives,

I was wondering if you could help me. I bought Winter Evening Valspar paint and I don't like the way it looks. Can I try lightening it by adding some white or somehow mixing it with another color until I get the right color and ask Lowe’s to match it?  What do you think? I appreciate it.

Thank you,
Gwynne

-----------------
Dear Gwynne,

If you put on a color that is too dark, you can always add a lighter tone to it to make it more livable. I think your idea of mixing your own color at home, trying it on the wall, and then taking it into Lowe’s to color match is a great one. That way, you’ll know what you’re getting. And since you’ve already bought the paint, you may as well use it.

First, I would pick a warm white to mix in. Birch White from the Waverly collection is a good choice to go with Winter Evening – they are very compatible. Then, get three to four containers for your three to four color mixes. We measure everything here at the Studio, so I recommend that you get some old measuring cups.

Start by putting a ½ cup of Winter Evening in each of the containers. Then in container # 1 put a ½ cup of your white, in container #2 put a ⅓ cup, in container # 3 put a ¼ cup and in container #4 put ⅔ of a cup. Then paint samples as large as possible (about 1’ x 1’) of each newly mixed color on each of your walls to really get a sense of what the color looks like all around. You’ll notice how the color changes depending on which wall it is on. Pick the sample that looks the most consistently appealing.

Go recreate that color at Lowe’s and away you go to a brighter room! Let us know how it goes. If you can get before and after photos, even better!!!

                                                      

Waverly Winter Evening WV-32003                  Waverly Birch White WV-31003

 

The Colors of Food

By Michele Coppin

The color of fruits and vegetables can be as beautiful as the color of flowers. The color combinations and variations are endless as they grow, ripen and mature.  Fruits and vegetables have actually been inspiring artists for centuries. “Food portraits” are known as “still lifes.”

Jan Van Huysum, Still Life with Fruit
Oil on copper, 1720
Rijhsmuseum, Amsterdam

These delicious palettes herald the presence of nutrients. Color indicates the ingredients we need for good health. For example:

REDS are packed with vitamins (A C), protect your heart, maintain good blood pressure, and help to protect against some cancers.

GREENS are packed with vitamins (A,C,B,K), provide a source of iron, and boost your immune system.

YELLOW and ORANGE are packed with vitamins (C and B) that keep you eyes strong, boost your immune system and promote glowing skin.

WHITE, such as cheese and yogurt, is packed with calcium.

Some of my favorites in both appearance and taste are asparagus, baby artichokes, fresh garlic, cheese and bread. A glass of red wine would complement this tableau nicely…

Greens speak of youth, nature, fresh starts and cool mornings. Purples, dark reds and burgundy suggest the end of summer, setting sun, heat, and royalty. These opposites however make a very elegant color combination.

 

                                                   
Tropical foliage 6002 – 6C                               Garden Fresh 6008 – 7C

                                                

Hotel St Francis Sangre de Christo 1010 – 6    Accent Frosty Berry 1003 – 1B

 

Red, White and Blue

Fourth of July is a swell of activity in our town. The day starts off with Paul Revere riding through the streets warning us of the oncoming Brits. The children dress in patriotic costumes and the rest of us wave red, white and blue as classic cars and fire engines line up and parade down the main street. We have a ceremony with the naming of the signers of the Declaration of Independence and a releasing of pigeons – one for each colony (Although I’m not sure how the Founding Fathers fit this into their own celebration). We have an afternoon of tournaments and pool games, and after all this we head up to the top of a hill where everyone gathers for a town-size picnic complete with games and fireworks. It’s a great event. Generations come back for it - my immediate family, my grandmother, mother, sisters and their families, cousins, etc., are all together. Everyone is in some version of our country’s colors. I always panic because I usually can’t wear them, but for the love of the 4^th and all that it stands for, who am I to not get out a red dress?

 

 

What do colors symbolize?

By Michele Coppin

Historically, mankind has given symbolic value to colors. As societies developed, colors came to represent different concepts and served multiple functions. They emphasized certain meanings within an image, indicated status, expressed identity, etc. Of course, these meanings are very different depending on the culture they belong to.

Here are some examples of the meanings of various colors from Western European societies.

White: From the birth of the new moon, often associated with birth, purity, cleanliness. Brides wear white to symbolize innocence and purity.

Black: Mourning, death, earth, seriousness, submission. Priests wear black to signify submission to God.

Red: the most emotional color, red signifies passion and love. Hearts are always red, but red also symbolizes blood, fighting and ardor.

Yellow: Warmth, sun, happiness, gold. Yellow also symbolizes cowardice, betrayal and hatred.

Orange: Warmth, wealth.

Green: Calming and refreshing, it is the color of spring and youth. (Walt Disney dressed Peter Pan in green. As the little boy who wouldn’t grow up, the eternal youth wears a tunic reminiscent of foliage. Green also symbolizes envy. 

Blue: The color of the sky and the ocean. Blue symbolizes sincerity, loyalty, peacefulness and tranquility. Blue also connotes melancholy, sadness and isolation. Picasso’s “Blue Period” began shortly after he moved from Barcelona to Paris. He was poor, depressed and cold. From 1900 to 1904, he primarily painted thin, elongated figures in variations of blue. When his work began to sell and his spirits lifted, his palette shifted to Pink.   

The Tragedy, 1903
Picasso
National Gallery of Art, Washington DC

Purple: The color of royalty. Purple connotes luxury, wealth, power and dignity.

In Antiquity, purple was derived from a rare sea snail so expensive (even more than gold), it became a symbol of royalty as only the very wealthy could afford it.

The Byzantine emperor Justinian I appears clad in a purple cape in this 6^th century mosaic from the San Vitale Basilica in  Ravenna, Italy.

Bringing Functionality and Feeling Together

So many homes these days are built with a great room which serves as a giant architectural multi-tasker. These rooms have a conflict; they are lofty and vast compared with the rest of the home, but they are also a place where the family comes together. One way to bring the function and the feel of the room together is by painting it a subtle color that almost reads as a white. You need a color that feels light in order to avoid creating an enormous cave. First, consider what is going on in the rest of the house. Is it cool and modern? Or, is it warm and cozy? A cool-palette home could have a warm grey-blue in the space. Perhaps use a color like Valspar Woodlawn Sterling Blue or Tempered Gray. These tones can hold the space together gently without feeling too cold. For homes that are warmer in nature, colors like Valspar Belle Grove Light Amber or Baked Scone give warmth without dragging the space down.  It’s like when you paint a space that reads white, but there’s much more at work.


                                       
        Woodlawn Sterling Blue 5001-3B      Tempered Gray 4004-1A



                                       
         Belle Grove Light Amber 3006-8B      Baked Scone 3007-8B

Sunny Florida Shines with Color Palettes

This blog entry was written by Veronique Habermann and Michele Coppin

On an early, gray Saturday morning, we left New York for a well-deserved spring break. A few hours later, at the sunny Sarasota airport, we were surprisingly greeted by Jack Dowd’s colorful artwork – Andy 15 Times…a perfect beginning to our color inspired vacation.    

                     

Here we are, in beautiful Anna Maria Island. After a few days of relaxation and catching up on lost sleep, our passion for inspiring color combinations took over once again and we were off exploring the island on bicycles, with palettes in mind – on the look out for inspiration from Florida’s unique approach to color. Here are some examples of color schemes that inspired us:

                  

              Valspar Color Palette                          Pastel Delight Entrance
             Pink Whisper 1002-2C                                  Dove White
              Sheer Green 6007-78                         Pink Odyssey 1001-2B
                     Dove White                           Chairs-Whipped Peach 2002-2B
                                                                         Peach Kiss 2002-2C
                                                                           Lime Ice 6008-78

                                                

                   
                                                                      
                  Green House                                           Blue House
        Walls-Spring Lawn 6006-9C                      Walls-sea frolic 4008-10A
      Shutters-Lime Burst 6007-10B           Trim-Lyndhurst Celestial Blue 5003-9C
       Chairs-Blue Burst 4008-10 B                   Tin Roof-Dewdrop 4007 – 7A
                    Dove white                                            Dove White
Accent, Flowers – Frosty Berry 10030-1B  Accent, Flowers – Cosmic Pink 1001-1A

                      

 

Drawing Inspiration Up from the Floor

This rug is a much loved antique serape, and is quite valuable. The owners tried every kind of color angle to feature their treasure, however when we got there, the room was just not working. At first glance, we couldn’t figure out why. Taking a moment to look at each element was the first step. The soft green walls were actually a nice gentle contrast with the reds in the rug. After visually pairing each element with the colors in the rug, the problem became obvious: the white trim on the walls.

The bright white trim looked clean and fresh against the green, but it jumped out too much against the warm ivories of the rug. It was like two different rooms. We suggested a warmer tone for the trim to help soften the contrast. Two directions we wanted to try: Valspar Churchill Hotel Ivory, a warm creamy off-white, and Dakota Trail, a greener/grayer off-white. These colors would bring the room together as a whole while showcasing the rug as center stage.


                                                  
            Churchill Hotel Ivory 3007-8C                    Dakota Trail 6008-3B

   

Tangerine Dreaming...

Time Magazine has a great design issue out right now – the Style and Design Summer 2008 issue. They have an entire page on tangerine. When I was little, I wanted a yellow and orange room more than anything. The idea of warm sunny walls was all I had in mind. My parents humored me and painted the walls white and allowed me to have orange trim with a yellow shag carpet – very groovy. But the white walls always looked so stark against the vibrant orange. Now that I get to pick my own colors, I still love orange. It’s vibrant, sophisticated and – most of all – a flattering color. Most people look aglow when surrounded by orange. It can be sumptuous. Try it as accents: pillows, ceramics, window treatments, flowers, etc. If you’re a little more adventurous like me, try a wall of orange. Take a color like Valspar Coffee Whip and surround it with a warm off white like Woodlawn Whitewash. Total YUM!!!

                                                  
                 This image was created by using Valspar.com’s Painter tool.
             The wall color is Coffee Whip and the trim is Woodlawn Whitewash.
            Try your own color combinations and tell us what you think of the tool!


                                                  
                 Coffee Whip 2008-3A                    Woodlawn Whitewash 6008-1A