17 Things Color Consultants Want You to Know
Dithering over potential palettes for your home? A color pro might be the way to go. Here's how it works
Houzz Contributor. Hi There! I currently live in a 1920s cottage in Atlanta that I'll describe as "collected."
I got into design via Landscape Architecture, which I studied at the University of Virginia. I've been writing about design online for quite a few years over at Hatch: The Design Public Blog.
Houzz Contributor. Hi There! I currently live in a 1920s cottage in Atlanta... More »
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“A typical color consultation client is someone who has already taken 10 trips to the paint store, has stacks of paint swatches, has samples painted on the walls and can't make up their minds what to do," says Mary Nolte of Kaleidoscope Color Consulting. "They think they have no idea of what they want or like, but this isn't true — they just lack confidence and vision."
If you sense it's time to call in a color consulting professional, here's what they want you to know.
If you sense it's time to call in a color consulting professional, here's what they want you to know.
It's not hard to find one. How to find the right color consultant for you? You can start right here on Houzz. Click "Find Local Pros" at the top of the page, type "color consultant" in the search box, choose your city and start looking. Some pros are called color consultants, and many interior designers offer color consulting as one of their services.
Also, if you have other professionals already working on your home, like painters, contractors or architects, they may have recommendations of people they work with as well. Your favorite paint store can also be a good source.
Barbara Jacobs of Barbara Jacobs Color and Design suggests choosing from several candidates. "Talk to the people you are considering hiring. As with any profession, you want your chemistry with your color professional to be a good fit. Recommendations from like-minded friends can be helpful, as well as reading testimonials from the candidates you are considering for your project," she says. Jacobs also recommends asking for references if that makes you more comfortable.
Also, if you have other professionals already working on your home, like painters, contractors or architects, they may have recommendations of people they work with as well. Your favorite paint store can also be a good source.
Barbara Jacobs of Barbara Jacobs Color and Design suggests choosing from several candidates. "Talk to the people you are considering hiring. As with any profession, you want your chemistry with your color professional to be a good fit. Recommendations from like-minded friends can be helpful, as well as reading testimonials from the candidates you are considering for your project," she says. Jacobs also recommends asking for references if that makes you more comfortable.
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You'll be participating. "Color consulting with my clients is always a very collaborative process," says color consultant Debra Kling. "Clients may need just a little design direction or may be starting off with a completely blank slate and only have architectural plans to work from. I assess where they are in the process and let them use me as little or as much as they need me. Often I'll come up with a flat fee for the entire project; there's no limit on the number of times I'll return to help."
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| They'll be sizing you up from the first phone call. Don't let this make you feel self-conscious; figuring out which colors will make you happy is a color consultant's priority. "The first call is usually quick — five to 10 minutes," says color consultant Jacki Tate of inspirationColor. "I get a sense of what the client wants, the scope of the project, and give them a time estimate." "The process may involve one session in your home, from two hours to a full day, or it may involve several meetings. "This will really depend on the consultant’s process and the size and complexity of your project," Jacobs says. |
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| Color consultation doesn't take a lot of time, but a lot of it depends on you. A common way color consultants charge is by the hour; some will have a minimum, so be sure to ask about how the consultant charges up front. Hourly rates can vary from $85 to $200. To give you an idea of hours, Nolte estimates she can knock out the entire color palette for an average-size three- to four-bedroom house in about three to four hours. This time varies greatly, depending on the size of the home and how decisive the client is. "One colleague of mine likes to joke, 'I can tell you the right color to pick, but I can't make you pick it!'" says interior designer Andrea May. Other color consultants will charge you a flat fee for the project that includes all follow-up visits. |
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Be ready to look at choices during the first visit. The first visit will involve a walk-through of your home. "When I do the first walk-through with the clients, I'm envisioning how the color scheme will create a flow through the home," May says. "It's really hard for people to envision the whole house just looking at small paint chips." Thus, she comes armed with about 50 draw-downs in neutral colors she knows work consistently.
"It's a good shortcut; I can show the clients these neutrals with their existing fixed finishes — i.e., countertops, flooring — show them how they do or do not work, and see their response," she says. "Once we have the neutrals down we can add pops of color where they want to make bigger color statements."
Tate says, "After the initial walk-through, the clients and I then do a brainstorming session so that I can get a sense of what they like; then I hold up swatches on the wall to show them options I think they'll like."
"It's a good shortcut; I can show the clients these neutrals with their existing fixed finishes — i.e., countertops, flooring — show them how they do or do not work, and see their response," she says. "Once we have the neutrals down we can add pops of color where they want to make bigger color statements."
Tate says, "After the initial walk-through, the clients and I then do a brainstorming session so that I can get a sense of what they like; then I hold up swatches on the wall to show them options I think they'll like."
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May likes to start in the room the client uses most, like the living room or kitchen. If you have fixed finishes, such as a kitchen counter, the color consultant can start coordinating the color palette there.
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| Expect to show a few of your favorite things. "Having something like a piece of fabric or a rug to work from gives me a good direction and can make the process a lot quicker," Nolte says. This also gives the consultant valuable information about your taste. May recommends showing the consultant an inspiration room, rug or pieces of fabric you like. "A lot of time when I'm working on new construction, there is literally nothing to go on. I love to find a rug or a piece of fabric for inspiration. I recently used one piece of fabric to inspire the entire color palette for an 11,000-square-foot home," May says. |
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| They will not try to force their favorite colors on you. "Ultimately, I'm looking for the colors that will make the client happy. It doesn't matter if it's a color that appeals to me personally or not; I zero in on what they like and what works with their homes by getting to know them, gauging their reactions to suggestions ... sometimes I'm a bit of a marriage mediator, helping to find color compromises for couples!" Nolte says. |
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They will help you find colors that will make furnishing the room easy. "If the room is a blank slate with nothing to go on, I choose colors that will work with [furniture] available in the marketplace," Nolte says.
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| They will find colors that will work for many years. Color consultants also have the vision to see how your colors will work in your home for years down the line. "In this nursery I worked with shades of ivory, so that the room could grow with the child. The mother wanted pink in the room, so we brought it in via this custom-designed rug," May says. |
| They will show you options you never considered before. Jacobs suggests sharing what you like with the color consultant but also keeping an open mind about new ideas. "In working with a color consultant, you can expect to have the path cleared to an effective interior or exterior color palette that will probably be different in some way from what you came up with yourself," she says. |
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You should live with samples for a few days. Nolte brings large paper samples from paint companies like Sherwin-Williams and Benjamin Moore to show clients large swatches of color, but she suggests painting samples directly on the wall before buying gallons of paint. Across the board, all the color consultants agree that painting samples before buying the gallons of paint is a must.
"Lighting is key," Nolte says. "Paint two coats of large swatches, at least 2 feet by 2 feet, in a light corner and a dark corner, and look at them at different times of day, with the natural light and lit up at night. Also, move key pieces of furniture near the swatches to see how they look together."
More on how lighting affects color
"Lighting is key," Nolte says. "Paint two coats of large swatches, at least 2 feet by 2 feet, in a light corner and a dark corner, and look at them at different times of day, with the natural light and lit up at night. Also, move key pieces of furniture near the swatches to see how they look together."
More on how lighting affects color
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The right trim color will help create flow. "Typically, trim should be consistent throughout the home; the exceptions are special statement rooms, like a bedroom," May says.
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Don't trust paint chips! This is especially true with exteriors. "There are so many different materials used on exteriors; never trust a paint chip, because materials like stucco, brick, cedar shake shingles, wood siding or vinyl siding will all absorb the paint in different ways. You can't see this from paint chips, which are printed on paper," Kling explains.
She recommends observing paint samples over several days, at different times of the day, with different weather conditions. "Never underestimate the power of the sun. The sun reflects the color from different materials in different ways that you can't see on a paint chip," she says. "An overcast day will show the true color on the exterior."
She recommends observing paint samples over several days, at different times of the day, with different weather conditions. "Never underestimate the power of the sun. The sun reflects the color from different materials in different ways that you can't see on a paint chip," she says. "An overcast day will show the true color on the exterior."
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Don't rely on historic paint lines to be truly historic. Kling points out that some of the pigments offered today weren't available during some of the historic eras they claim to represent. One of her specialties is helping clients in older homes research and choose historic colors, whether it's getting into the spirit of the home's era with a style nod or researching and matching the original color.
"Colonial-era homes in New England often had matching paint on the trim, so that's a way to acknowledge the historical era without matching the exact color," she says. "If clients want to research the original color, we can usually find it by using a sander in a bull's-eye pattern, eventually getting down to the home's original paint."
"Colonial-era homes in New England often had matching paint on the trim, so that's a way to acknowledge the historical era without matching the exact color," she says. "If clients want to research the original color, we can usually find it by using a sander in a bull's-eye pattern, eventually getting down to the home's original paint."
| They'll leave you armed with all the materials you need but still be available. Once you pick out your colors, Jacobs says, "you can expect a detailed written paint palette to share with the painter or contractor. You also can expect the consultant to be available for future questions and to answer questions of clarification for your painter or contractor." Kling agrees. "I'm there from start to finish. It may take several visits; they may need help shopping at the paint store and/or may need me to meet with their painting crew." |
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Color consultants love their jobs. I have never met a group of professionals who love their jobs and clients more than the five color consultants I spoke with when researching this ideabook. Color consultants forge long-lasting relationships and even friendships while working with their clients.
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You're going to have a good time. "My clients are constantly telling me that they never expected to have so much fun picking out colors!" Tate says. Clients will often call color consultants for simple help with paint colors but then wind up using them to decorate full projects. Calling a color consultant is an easy, unintimidating way to get comfortable working with a design professional.
"People usually say they’ve enjoyed the process, see it as educational and confidence-building for future design decisions, and that they now have a design that they would not have thought of on their own," Jacobs says.
More: How to Work With a Color Consultant
"People usually say they’ve enjoyed the process, see it as educational and confidence-building for future design decisions, and that they now have a design that they would not have thought of on their own," Jacobs says.
More: How to Work With a Color Consultant
Ideabook updated on Jan. 30, 2013.
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I enjoyed your great article! For lots of before and after photos & answers to questions such as
"How to select a wall color you won't regret" or
"Should I paint an accent wall?" or
"Candice Olsen on paint colors" etc etc
click on this blog
http://www.interiordesigngreensboro.com/search?q=paint+colors+
There are so many problems with painting your samples directly onto walls. Once you paint a few solid coats on poster board, you will have the "true" color. If your wall is still "absorbing" color, you needed to have it primed. After primer and a first coat, the paint sits on top of the wall ... it doesn't suck down into it leaving a different color. It is the texture that sometimes throws people off as opposed to the super smooth surface of poster board. If your walls are not smooth, and you cannot get past the difference in texture, then have a drywall installer texture a few pieces of sheetrock for you in the same texture as your walls and prime and paint those for your samples ... not the wall. You can even get scraps of outdoor siding to use as your test boards. It doesn't always have to be poster board.
One problem with painting samples directly on your walls is the fact that you are looking at the color directly next to your existing wall color. Both colors will not exist side by side after you paint, so you can't get a good idea of how your new color looks by itself. On my consulting jobs I normally bring several large white poster boards to put around the painted color samples to block out the existing color. In one tiny, bright yellow powder room, I actually hung up large white bed sheets to block the other walls because the yellow was reflecting so much on the new samples we couldn't get a good look at them.
Even if your existing walls are white, you still shouldn't paint the samples on the wall. Unless you tape off a square and paint solid coats all the way to the edge of it (which will be a bear to cover later by the way) then your sample will be thinner at the edges where your brush strokes or roller feathers out. You won't have your actual full color there as you'll be seeing the undertones more with white showing through. Again -- distorts the color.
Painting samples right on the wall also means you have to look at them at the same time. Paint colors influence each other and you will not have all your colors under consideration in the room at the same time after you paint, so looking at them next to each other is not helpful. You need to be able to see them one at a time.
Also, when you paint samples right on the wall, you cannot move that sample to different walls. Colors look very different depending on which way natural light is coming in and what kind of light bulbs are used in the room. A separate sample can be moved from room to room so you can see how it looks in varying types of light.
After narrowing your color down to "the one", if you still just can't commit until you see it on a wall, then choose a single small wall and paint that whole wall top to bottom and side to side. If you hate it once you have that color up nice and large, at least you won't be trying to cover a weird patchwork quilt of sample colors.
Sorry for the lengthy comment, but if I had a dollar for every paint swatch I saw painted on a client's wall that had done nothing but confuse them I would be very rich and picking paint colors for my mansion in Malibu. ;0)
That was really sweet. what a snob.
I would like to find someone for 85 an hr as mentioned in the article. Are they less qualified?
I did paint board and checked once, didn't get a thing. It was like a silly daisy game -like, don't like, guess I like, no, maybe no, not bad, at the end there was less -no, more-yes, painted and didn't like at all. I know it didn't work for me because small area didn't give me overall feeling, and big area was too much. Next time I chose a West wall to paint in South facing rooms (and windows) and narrowed to 3 checks only, morning- direct sun, day-bright sun, evening artificial light. I lightened up a bit the paint and BINGO, happy for 3 years now with all rooms.
For most, I understood, paint is the cheapest way to change the look. For me, however, the easiest textile color change (painting is a messy thing and long prep and after decor), therefore for me very important to find the right base (walls) color that works beautifully!! with other 3-5 secondary colors.
One common misconception is that if you work with an interior designer via the internet that it will somehow be cheaper. An hour of my time is still an hour of my time whether I am helping clients while in their home or working from my studio. That said -- if you live in a part of the country where hourly rates are very high, then you may benefit by finding an excellent professional in another part of the country where the going rate is lower. It is entirely possible to do paint color consultations using a designer who is not in your home. I have done this for clients of my own across the country. They mailed me samples of their floor tile and carpet, and since I had also been helping them select furnishings and window treatments, I had those fabric swatches too. I chose paint colors based on those items, and then my clients looked at the paint chips in their home, decided which they liked better, then painted up the large poster board samples before making the final decision. It worked out.
what do you do if they have no floor color or wall color..where do you start? I am changing the floor and cabinets. So nothing much to start from. where to begin?
http://decoratingbydonna.com/2013/02/04/how-to-become-a-color-expert/
Kaleidoscope -- Not sure why you are directing that advice to me personally? I already know this and didn't suggest anything to the contrary in previous comments. Never-the-less -- although it's ideal to choose your sofa or other big ticket items first and the paint color later, real life intervenes and not everyone has that luxury. If someone is building a new construction home or doing a remodel and will have to put off getting new furniture, then they may have to choose paint colors well before they are ready to get other big ticket items. Happens all the time. For one recent client moving into a new home where the previous owners had painted colors that my client hated, we used some of her favorite pieces of art as inspiration for the wall colors. She won't be buying furniture for a couple of years, but at least we know she loves these colors and we have shades that are easy to work with. Where there's a will, there's a way. :0)
As a color consultant shouldnt you be able to help me choose my cabinets and flooring and counter top so I can then choose my wall colors. Or do you only do wall colors?
I am wondering if my fellow color consultants make poster board samples of their tried and true colors in their library of tools?
Thank you. yes I have looked and looked. It is the appliances that are black not the counter. I have tried to find pics with lighter colored cabinets that may work.. I guess it has to be gray or laminate.. but finding the manufacturer that I can afford is tough too. I have no floor to match to. Its all been taken out..its concrete. basically I have a blank slate and 20k max to spend.
Good question - You asked if there's just one ideal color scheme?
That depends if we've been backed into a corner. For example, if the client already purchased window treatments or a rug they want to use .....OR if their builder installed cabinetry or granite that "forces us into a corner".
I a recent client purchased a home in which the prior owner installed cabinets that were far too peachy orange, she hated them. For budget reasons, she wasn't interested in refinishing them or faux painting them, so I had to steer her toward wall colors that did not accentuate the strange color further. I had to trick the eye to tone done the orange tone. If on the other hand we're dealing with a clean slate, such as white kitchen cabinets & good hardwood stains, ....then a good color consultant will ask you lots of questions to learn your taste and guide you with color tones and options. In those situations, we'll often find an inspiration piece, such as your favorite art or fabric. Hope that helps!
You can get more specific tips (with before/after photos) on these topics:
how to select a good wall color?
how to add color?
should I paint an accent wall? click on this blog:
http://www.interiordesigngreensboro.com/search?q=wall+color
I found a color consultant near me in the Chicago suburbs and we met on 2/17/13. I had previously told her I was mainly looking at Benjamin Moore colors so she brought all her BM decks, but she works with other brands too. We discussed what colors I like and don't like, what kind of vibe I want for the rooms, she looked at my furniture and decor, but I noted that I needed to keep any colors neutral in case I changed a rug or something like that, or what I might be doing in the future, and that ideally I want to paint once and not have to do it for 10 years (in theory), they also should be looking at the style of the house, and she wanted to come when good lighting/weather. We came up with a color scheme, then I showed her something and it turned it in a slightly different direction. There were times I told her I was "at her mercy and expertise", that I might have been too frustrated looking at so many colors that I don't know what I want, but trusting her judgement (I'm not kidding when I say I have an art exhibit of paint sample jars).
Bottom line, just start talking no matter if you think it's silly or whatever, they can't read your mind, if you don't speak up you may end up with something you hate, but you have to be realistic too. You also want a good vibe from the consultant, I think she got me and understood what I wanted, if they're trying to push you to do something you don't want, then say so. There is no right or wrong color scheme because everyone has different tastes, are you conservative, risk taker, eclectic, bold or just want vanilla? It should be based on what you like, it's your place, but my consultant was also being conscious of making sure the colors all flowed from one room to the next, we have a mix of bold, neutral and subtle.
My consultant also does the paint work herself, so she provided a full breakdown of the consultation and then what it would cost for her to do the work and approx timeframe. I'm trying to coordinate all of this with a kitchen renovation as well, and she's going to be as flexible as possible should I choose her to do the work (being prudent and getting 3 bids). The consultation was about 2-1/2 hours, reasonbly priced and worth it, she let me pick her brain about some other ideas too. I was trying to be open to her ideas because I want my house to feel like me, be creative and different here and there but not outlandish or trendy, and I think we've come up with a great plan, I'm excited about it! She's also going to put up some samples for me to live with them for a bit, make sure I like before doing the whole thing.
Hope my ramblings help!
Here's the shout out to my color consultant and soon-to-be painter:
Nichole Lovett
Harmony Haus LLC
Environmentally Conscious Painting Services
Evanston, Illinois
email: nichole@harmonyhaus.com
website: harmonyhaus.com
twitter: @HarmonyHaus
I will say that the older Portland bungalows I've lived in looked lovely in color. My San Francisco Victorian and Seattle Arts & Crafts home (these were all rentals, I owned the tiny Seattle bungalow) also needed the colorful walls. I let the home, the light, and the trim work/detailing tell me what the home needs, then I decorate will all in mind. None of this is difficult to get right on your own but it takes time to learn. This is why articles like this one are so very helpful in creating the confidence to tackle these projects. Thanks a bunch.
If you are doing any renovations, you are bound to have some drywall around. And keep a piece or 2 for future when all you are doing is painting.