Making a Small Room Feel Larger with Paint
08/05/2009 12:21 PM by Gretchen Schauffler
The big fear of painting the walls and ceilings of a small room other than white is that color will make it feel cramped, claustrophobic, dark, or just plain insignificant. I believe that those of us with small rooms feel a twinge of envy once in a while (some feel it more often than others) when we see large rooms in the homes of neighbors, friends, family or magazine pictures we feel can afford to have lots of color because of tall ceilings, built-ins, lots of windows, great lighting, and lots of places to hang art work—constant reminders of how small our rooms are…
But we can look at our “small short comings” and give this handicap a shot of intimacy-infused strength, character, and warmth through color. It won’t make a small room large or add square footage but it can give your brain (and other’s) a sense of spacious illusions, well being, security, and bliss.
Here are a few tricks on how to make a small room mindfully spacious along with some great examples.
1- Make Color Count!!!! Create BIG harmony and SMALL contrast or the other way around. There is no middle ground. Either it’s a light color in different shades with COLOR as a POP or light colors that POP against different shades of a dark color. You can’t afford to be either boring or at chaotic so that’s why our Devine Color Collections come to your rescue—creating harmony without monotony and contrast without conflict easily! Really, seriously, try our Trend-Proof Palette and Process to see the possibilities.
2- Create pattern. This brings depth, and softness to a room. Try painting stripes, adding shelves, screens, a whole wall of frames, different fabric patterns, similar fabric textures…
3- Feature Lights. Make them a focal. Hang a beautiful chandelier in a corner, do small contemporary reading lights mounted on walls. How about track lights (yes, there are really cool ones now) that create a row of highlights on an accent wall? Lamps bases with striking color…
4- Outline the Ceiling. Make the ceiling a feature in the room with a beautiful contrast paint color or wrap it as part of the wall color. Call it a canopy-umbrella effect, color above can truly make the room special.
Enjoy the pictures….
Dark colors like Devine Truffle, Gator, or Rhino with light wood, yellow and cream accents makes the room rich and warm. The bookshelves add interest.
Hard to see but wide stripes are behind great pattern and texture to detract from the room size.
What a great way to treat a low ceiling and small hallway. Soft, light colors in our line such as Devine Custard, Shell, Macadamia, Siamese, Crunch make wonderful stripes. Notice the great POP of color in the lamps and art. See the the wall of pictures below, and the texture in the furniture pieces that would make a small room polished and interesting.
Choose bold contrast where there is little wall space. I can also see the chair slip covers in Lime Green, Deep Cocoa, or Marigold.
High contrast between the dark walls and the light fabrics that have low contrast patterns. Lighting fixture becomes a glam POP
Having wall to wall fabrics and texture that compliment each other with similar texture and color makes a small bedroom dreamy…
Comment [7]
How to decide on the right color
02/01/2009 10:37 PM by Gretchen Schauffler
Imagine this…you are looking for a red wall color for your dining room and you can’t decide which one. Questions swirl around in your head: are you going to choose a red that has more purple, or a red that has more orange? Are you going to go for a true red, or a deep red? The paint swatches have been up for a week and you still are afraid to pull the trigger. You ask everyone: husband, wife, partner, neighbor, best friend, gardener, anyone who walks by for their opinion. You have tallied the votes. But time runs out, the painter needs to work, the dining room needs to be put back together, and dinner must go on. You pull the trigger—then BAM!. The red you thought was perfect ended up being too dark, too cold, and too purple. How did this happen you ask yourself? You were so diligent—you looked at paint swatches on the wall for a long time—it looked like it matched the same red that was in the stitching, area rug, and the centerpiece. Plus, everyone that came over thought it was a good red. But it sure ended up not being that way… it’s so hard to decide on the right color!
1- Choose paint color to match a color detail in a fabric, ornament, or prints.
2- Paint several color swatches on the wall and compare the color swatches to each other.
3-Ask everyone they know for opinions.
Instead of painting your walls to match a red detail accent from a pillow, fabric, or rug, why don’t you try reds that are not part of a “color detail” but are part of the greater “color scheme”? What do I mean by this?...Accent colors in pillows, trims, or rugs are called accents for a good reason. They work together in small proportions to create focus among colors that are part of the same pattern or design. Making small accent colors larger, as wall color (that’s really big), can often leave a room overpowered and the rest of the colors in the room overshadowed.
Let me give you an example. You may have a floral pattern where the red accent in the flowers looks like it could be Devine Bordeaux. Other flower and background colors are warm neutral shades of terracotta and olive greens. You know you want red so you choose to “pull out” the “bordeaux” accent color and paint the walls with Devine Bordeaux.
As an accent, it was the perfect feature among the other colors, but as a background it took a wrong turn. The color that once seemed so perfectly deep, rich, and cool killed the warm soft colors in the room. It even manage to make the wood look dark and drab.
So, if you follow my advice, you would look for reds that made the overall warmer color scheme look better and choose warmer variations of Devine Bordeaux such as Devine Cabernet, Devine Sangria or Devine Ginger. These would hit the spot and this would make the room ooze with warmth and feature the “bordeaux” accents like a cherry on top of a perfect Sunday!
Look at each red color (one at a time) with the colors in your room: your wood color, stone color, granite color, fabric colors, accent colors, and metal colors. The question is not which color is the prettiest, but which color makes ALL THE OTHER COLORS IN THE ROOM look their best. Too often we look at wall color as single (this is the one) or in pairs (it’s either this one or that one). The questions to ask are: will it make my wood brighter, will it make the yellow more golden, will it make my rug colors pop?
Be careful about who you ask for color advice. Early in my color advising years I had a client who, after we had walked through my color process and agreed on the perfect colors for her home, called me and said that her builder thought the color I picked out for her was “wierd”. I asked her several questions about her builder. Was the builder in charge of decorating his own home? Had she ever seen his home? What kind of shoes did he wear? Was he color blind? She realized that she knew little about the builder’s color expertise and told me his shoes were ridiculous. Nevertheless a seed of doubt was planted. She chose to go for another color in the palette instead of the designated one for that room and was very unhappy with the results. The color didn’t do a thing for the other colors in the room making it look boring. She later repainted it with the original color choice and came to understand that, while everyone has opinions, personal tastes, and grudges about color, you choose a color because it is the best one for the other colors in the room, not because it’s what everyone likes. The choice is always clear afterwards, even to those who couldn’t see past their own judgments.
Go through our process and train your eye to see color relationships so that you can have unabashed freedoms to create personal and beautiful rooms with color. But if you don’t have the time, don’t want to, or are stuck, get opinions from our color consultants, a designer, or someone whose personal taste and style you admire and love. I can tell you this, when it comes to fashion, before I ever go out the door, I always ask my daughters about my outfit…I trust them implicitly along with anything Tim Gunn says—word.
Comment [15]
Colors that sell your home:
02/01/2009 08:35 PM by Gretchen Schauffler
There is a fear factor when it comes to selling a home: paint colors (other than white) will make it hard to sell. Trust me, paint is not at the core of this urban fear. Maybe, just maybe, it was wallpaper too difficult to remove, obsolete avocado appliances that coordinated with obsolete harvest gold Formica countertops, or possibly the wall-to-wall shag carpet that retained every aroma from the past. Regardless, word came down from somewhere above that said, “Keep it neutral and it will sell faster!” That’s when white became the purgatory color for walls during the home-selling process.
As a proud owner of a home, you need to make it the best it can be, everyday, whether you live in it for 3, 5, 10, or 25 years. If done right, paint color will add great value to your home while you live in it and when you go to sell it.There is a right way to add value with paint with colors when you’re selling and a wrong way. We are all familiar with the “wrong way”; Homes with colors that when you walk in through the door you can’t help but say to yourself: Shut it Down! No need to expand on that. I will, however, expand on the right way to paint colors so your home sells faster, and generates lots of enthusiasm. I am certain because I have many testimonials about how Devine Color on walls sells homes faster—and apartments and condos rent out easier.
There are 2 things that the right paint colors will do for your home that will make it sell even faster:1-The right wall colors really make a home stand out in the market by making it look updated, well-kept, and well-designed. Furniture showrooms know that vignette wall colors sell merchandise, and the same goes for choosing the right “vignette wall color” for your home.
2- The right wall colors also make older outdated colors and design look newer, and this makes buyers forgive a multitude of sins. The right color makes older surfaces brighter, slightly-used areas cozier, and transforms lighting into inviting atmosphere.
While Real Estate agents advise sellers (rightfully so!) to un-clutter the home by removing personal pictures and extra knick knacks so new home-buyers are able to visualize their own decor, you don’t need to white-out wall colors that are a part of the home’s color scheme. This is how you do it right:
Look at the non-negotiable, non-removable parts of the home like flooring, wood surfaces, stone surfaces, paneling, tile, cabinets, painted shelves, countertops and find common colors among them, then follow the Devine Color Process with our Trend-Proof Paint Palette.
You might end up with beautiful neutrals like Devine Muslin, or Macadamia and accents like Devine Cocoa, or Devine Hosta as colors that make your home look like a must-have palace, show room, castle, cottage, mansion, or lair. The walls may end up being light or rich depending on what looks good with your non-negotiable surfaces. A home with luxurious color on the walls that has the same flooring, kitchen surfaces, bath surfaces, and trim as a home with builder-beige walls will more likely resonate with consumers emotionally as a beautiful environment . Emotion SELLS! Are you ready to sell your home…?
Comment [10]
Color Advice 101: Re-coloring is the NEW Remodeling
01/08/2009 06:45 PM by Gretchen Schauffler
Most people remodel one or two rooms at a time. Whether the remodeling project is large or small, one thing is for sure—remodeling indirectly affects the look and feel of un-remodeled areas in a home.
During a remodel, adding a color remodel, or re-coloring the rest of the home offers a fresh and inexpensive way to make everything look updated. How inexpensive, you ask?
A) If paint it was fabric, it would be less than a buck a yard
B) If paint it was hard wood floors, it be pennies on the dollar
I had a client put in new hardwood floors. Gone was the light plush carpet, gold oak floors, and neutral tile. They were replaced with richer, warmer, and toastier natural surfaces along with new kitchen cabinets, appliances, and granite counters. But there are color jig-saw puzzles that need to be solved after a every remodel like this picture shows below:
The entertainment center across from the kitchen (TOP) still had the gold oak stain that seemingly clashed with the kitchen’s new wood cabinets and surfaces (BOTTOM). The existing wall colors became ashen and cold next to the new natural surfaces.
While painting or re-staining the entertainment center was a good option, it wasn’t necessary. There were other options to make, not just the kitchen/family room look completely updated, but the rest of the house as well. When you remodel a room, you can re-color the rest of the rooms by repainting walls and making everything look brand-spanking-new!
The new reuse, revive, and renew vibe creates a great opportunity for rethinking design. Let me point out that the wood color in the entertainment center is a central color in the new granite counters as well as a highlight color in the new floors. Based on that, we decided to keep the gold oak stain on the entertainment center and re-color the home with a new paint palette for the main floor. We chose the following: Devine Oat, (as the main overall wall and ceiling color) Devine Cafe (living room walls and ceilings and part of the entry), Devine Shantung (family room and kitchen walls), and devinegreen: Cheetah (dining room walls and ceilings). I look forward to having the “after” pictures but in the meantime, I did a rendering of the colors for this blog.
By not painting or paying to paint the entertainment center, the home owner was able to paint new colors in the main floor and extend the new, toasty rich updated feel throughout the entire home—making it look like it all got a face-lift. Notice how the old fire place tile changes and becomes integrated into the new re-color palette.
There are further choices with re-coloring that can make a big difference, like painting the wainscot Devine Truffle. You can have updated feel of remodeling through re-coloring architectural features without tearing or replacing anything.
Comment [17]
Ceilings: How to paint sloped ceilings
01/07/2009 02:36 PM by Gretchen Schauffler
When it comes to ceilings, I have a fast and hard rule: It is not a ceiling if the ceiling line is not at a hard 90 degree ANGLE—it’s a folded wall. I see a square room like a box with 4 sides and 2 ends. There are 2 “horizontal” ends: your top end or ceiling and your bottom end or floor… along with 4 “vertical” sides: the walls.
If I have a flat ceiling, it is a “horizontal” end that can be painted the same color or painted a separate color from the 4 “vertical” sides, otherwise known as the walls in my box. A flat ceiling is like a floor upside down. More about that in my next ceiling blog. When a ceiling folds, bends, or slopes, the square box has now changed. There is no longer a 0 degree angle to stop and start a color and define a “side or an end”.
This is why, if there is a slope, the color must flow up or down the slope! It is all about the silhouette as my hero Tim Gunn would say. Here is a perfect example of what I am taking about.
Painting a sloped ceiling like you would a flat ceiling leaves the room with jagged edges. You can see in the example above, no matter how light the color is, the separation of “SOFT” angles between “sides” and “top end” makes the room have weird proportions…and all that cutting…forget it!
Why not make the room look long and lean by spreading the color up over “SOFT” folds, and extending the high visual look of the room? We humans have peripheral vision, so make the lines disappear and create a soft colorful space.
Same can be said in a room that has different ceiling heights. You have to take the highest ceiling height into consideration. Painting small chunks of flat ceiling only to have a big slope above is not worth your time “cutting in” or “cutting corners.”
We have wonderful colors that you can angle, slope and spread all over walls and ceilings. All you have to do is make it about color, your fall-in-love color!
Read How to use our Devine Palettes and use our Trend-proof Color Collection the way I suggest. LIke a color compass, you will see color connections that will lead you to your “perfect” color options.
Comment [16]
Choosing wall colors for Wood Trim
11/29/2008 04:08 PM by Gretchen Schauffler
Wood is a precious resource! These days we are mixing and matching wood grains, wood stains, and wood surfaces to further personalize our environments. The use of ‘Green’ wood building materials bring new twists to traditional trim, cabinets, and flooring. If you are lucky enough to have lots of wonderful wood surfaces in your home, here are a few things to consider when you choose paint colors for your walls. Wood colors are warm and complex by nature. They contain various tones of yellow, red, orange, green, and purples within the grain. We cut, stain, and polish wood to bring out a rich dimension at both ends of the light and dark spectrum. To compliment wood choose paint colors from a warm palette or a cool palette. Choose a course. If you choose a warm green, then go for warm reds, warm yellows, warm blues, etc…if you choose a cool red, go with cool greens, cool yellows, cool neutrals—you get the picture! Use our Trend-Proof Palette and color process to decide the look you want.
Why is it important to choose a temperature course? Because in a room full of wood, wood is the lead in the play and paint colors are the supporting cast. This way you are controlling the ambiance. Shifting from cool to warm paint colors on walls competes with the wood. Determine the warm or cool paint colors that make the wood look richer and determine the level of contrast you want. Contrast also has an important role in color relationships. When you are choosing paint colors, the level of contrast between colors is just as important as the color itself. Devine Color has colors that create contrast without conflict so you can adjust the depth of colors to your taste without fear of making the “wrong” statement. After you go through our color process, write down the paint colors that are lighter than the lightest wood in the room, and paint colors that are darker than the darkest wood in the room. Stay away from colors that are “the same” depth.
If you are looking to paint warm wall colors next to wood trim surfaces, it is very important to choose a warm wall color that truly creates the desired effect you are looking for—warmth. If the wall color is too similar to the wood color, the wood can disappear. If the wall color has an unexpected undertone that clashes with the wood, the space can feel tense.
The yellow walls above have a green undertone giving the color its mustard look. (Please forgive me if you can’t see the green. Computer screens distort color and therefore it is hard to adjust the pictures to reflect the “actual” color.) Because of color similarities, you can see that the wood trim blends into the wall.
A lighter yellow than the wood with red undertones creates contrast the trim and harmony with the rest of the wood surfaces. For this look try Devine Maple, devine Straw, devinegreen: Chicken or Poppy. Devine has warm neutrals in our paint palettes that deliver the same effect. Take a look at Devine Peanut, Devine Custard, Devine Filbert, Devine Macadamia, devinegreen: Persian, Impala, Siamese.
Deeper warm colors compliment and sharpen wood surfaces with high contrast. Take a look at reds and oranges such as Devine Blush, Devine Dust, Ginger, Spice, devinegreen: Sarsaparilla, Orangutan, or Lobster.
You can contrast wood by painting the walls with cooler colors. These would typically be considered blues, purples, and greens. Even our cool colors and cool neutrals have an innate warmth to them that compliment wood. For this look try Devine Pecan, Devine Bison, Devine Cocoa, Devine Mocha, Devine Hazelnut, Devine Roast, Devine Green Tea, Devine Bavarian, devinegreen: Persian or Jasmine.
When you paint walls in-between wood trim, consider the amount of wall you are actually painting and do the math. If you haven’t already, read CAN LIGHT COLORS LIGHTEN A DARK ROOM . This article talks about our Devine Math on walls to help you decide how light or dark (the depth) a Devine color can be on your wall.
This dining room has little wall space between windows. Painting a richer color on the wall “mats” the view and features the wood. Try devinegreen: Sarsaparilla, Clover, Toucan, Jay, Devine Cabernet, Devine Bordeaux, Devine Georgette, Devine Spice, Devine Denim, Devine Shantung.
There are also other featured walls that can afford color drama when surrounded by open spaces and rich wood color. Once you decide on the paint colors you want and the color temperature you want to do, then the sky is the limit! The possibilities are endless and personal.
Comment [12]
Why yellow walls are not always the answer
11/23/2008 10:23 PM by Gretchen Schauffler
Yellow walls come to mind when you think of warm, inviting, and friendly. In the right environment, they are all that and much more. Yellow is the most recommended paint color by designers and friends. Yellow seems like the perfect answer, that is until you paint your walls with yellow and find yourself wondering how it could be so wrong. If you want a warmth, there are many versions of paint colors that create warm environments besides yellow. Here is a great color story—in the words of the “home owner” (along with my commentary) about this subject. By following our color process with our paint palettes, you can find the perfect paint colors your home really wants to be warm and cozy in while saving you time, money, and sleepless nights.
We all love yellow. When I was five years old, I had a yellow dress that I loved. When I saw this vintage version above, I snatched it up and it hangs in my closet like a treasured gown. We share common experiences when it comes to color so it was delightful to hear her account of her yellow dress. Over the years we’re alive we experience color in many different ways, and some colors stick in our minds forever. These experiences get triggered when we decide to paint our walls.
“I have a huge strong emotional tie to yellow. I remember as a child LOVING the color yellow.. wanting so badly to wear yellow and my Mom told me no- I had very blond hair and she said you have to have dark hair to wear yellow well. We even had a guest once, and their daughter had a yellow dress for Easter.. when I opened the closet, I thought it was mine and a surprise… I was SOOOO excited… it ended up being hers and I was crushed.”
“I work with fabrics all the time and love putting them together, but a small piece of fabric is a lot smaller deal than a whole wall.. and while I use warm colors with my quilts, I notice that often I combine warm and cool colors and love the effect. I have always veered away from ‘cool’ colors on the walls to avoid a cool feeling home!!!!
“I have done “color battle” in every home I have lived in.. and almost every time it has included yellow, terra cotta and those warm colors and no matter what- they have NEVER worked! I am determined to learn my lesson this time and learn everything I can and have my home just sing with all my “stuff”, since I really do like my stuff. Obviously- I put it in my home.”
I invited a friend over (whose home is gorgeous) and asked her for help with all this. Since I am still drawn to yellow walls, even though I knew it wouldn’t work, she said the Honey would be very nice with the Cocoa and Ginger. So I painted my dining room Honey. Are you shaking your head and wondering what happened to my brain???? LOLOLOL. Of course, I DO NOT LIKE IT. I knew I wouldn’t, but I guess I just had to get it out of my system and prove to myself yellow walls were NOT going to work!!!!! I should have known when she said to cover up a lot of the walls with pictures. Well—I am somewhat of a minimalist in my décor and do not like a lot on the walls.. I want my colors to be part of the décor!
Her experience with color had her convinced that cool colors would make her home and painted walls cold. The use of warm colors on her quilts and her love of yellow led her to want to paint yellow for her walls. Once she decide on the color she wanted, she searched high and low for the perfect shade of that color. That is how she found us. We have amazing perfect yellows
As I looked back through the pictures I sent you, would you say my woodwork is more yellow or orange? I’m seeing them as more orange today rather than yellow- especially after seeing the yellow walls. I like all the colors.. but still can’t quite get the blues and greens to work in my head.. I have no idea why not. Not because they don’t complement, but because I have never used them and it is scary to go into colors that I normally don’t choose for walls.. it’s not “safe” for me._
So the yellow was beautiful, but not for her. Color is personal, but not private. You want colors you love to be about you but you also want to share their beauty with others. I had her follow the process of HOW TO CHOOSE COLORS WITH OUR TREND-PROOF PALETTES and this caused her to look at the colors in her home differently. As you can see, the woodwork is more “red” than yellow, especially next to the yellow. You can also see that her accessories are beautiful and warm. The warmth comes from the neutrals, red, and—yes—the soft warm greens, and blues. Blue can be very warm…and it goes with practically everything, denim, anyone…?
Also, with my “stuff” I am even drawn to Devine Twilight, Tempest… those purple shades. Am I really off on that? Of course, that would really throw me off down a path I have never gone, so I’m just going to wait at this point for your suggestions! I honestly do not have a lot of blue in my décor.. but it’s there in bits and pieces and the Rain still seems to fit in, but I can’t figure out why. 
.....I had to LAUGH!!!!!! I wrote earlier I don’t use blue in my decor. AS I took pictures, there is blue everywhere. Well I guess I didn’t pay much attention to it. Blues/greens/browns…...And I have discovered that the sunrises here (Coeur d’Alene, Idaho) are the same hues as the Rain color. Beautiful!!!!!
Again, as she used our Trend-proof palette, she began to see colors that she couldn’t have imagined would look good. The colors began to speak to her about her home, not the other way around. The colors in the paint palette along with her things lead her down a color path that was perfect for her home…and she couldn’t believe it.
“Since I have never used blues or blue greens on the walls before and it scared me, I decided to use Hazelnut on the dining room wall. So then I did something I knew I shouldn’t do. And yes, I have completely ignored the step of buying paint pouches and putting up samples on the walls and living with them a few days- because our store here does not carry the pouches and ordering them takes longer, and all those excuses that are quite lame. But this has been much more costly without!!!! It was gorgeous with the flooring (maple laminate) and my table and rug… but I did NOT LIKE IT. It seemed too dark- but I’m not really sure that “dark” is the right word. The color is gorgeous, but I did not like the effect at all in my home. So- obviously your color choosing method is VERY smart—and sometimes your color users can’t get past their preconceived ideas, even when faced with colors that seem to work well.”
So there are many colors that she ended up with for her home after her journey that are just as beautiful as yellow. There is no right and wrong, but if you know what’s right for the color of your wood, the undertones of your accessories, fabrics, and furniture…it will always be right.
Comment [7]
Wall colors for a "Great Room"
11/18/2008 07:16 PM by Gretchen Schauffler
Great rooms live great. They are open floor plans that allow you to enjoy several activities, from cooking, to dining, to watching TV. It allows families to spend quality and quantity time together, multi-tasking between chores and leisure. While great rooms offer an abundance of flexibility, they limit the number of colors you can paint in a room. If you are craving color, do not be afraid. Make a great room great by choosing a fabulous paint colors that fill the room with beauty from head to toe. There is a great big ceiling over great rooms. Ceilings are a HUGE part of a great room’s color scheme.
A typical great room has 2 book ends: a kitchen, dining, and family/living area. This home owner did an awesome job in terms of choosing colors that look good with the furniture and natural surfaces. But leaving the ceiling “color detached” or white without purpose, along with walls in different colors makes the room look choppy.
According to my Devine Math, the walls are less than 40% of the surfaces of the room—the ceiling is a whole lot more.
Colors like Devine Peanut, Sand, Oat or Maple can replace white as the ceiling color and become great neutrals for the home. By carrying the red to both ends of the room and replacing the rest of the walls with the “NEW” warmer neutral, the room looks strong and striking. Instead of 3 colors on the walls, there are three background colors in the room: two on the walls and one on the ceiling.
For this look try Devine Blush, Ginger, devinegreen: Sarsaparilla, or Orangutan.
But why stop there? You can also do colors like Devine Roast or Hazelnut instead. Since there is not much wall surface, try richer colors to give the great room great bone structure and contrast!
Try Devine Cocoa, devinegreen Elephant, or Devine Truffle
If you want to paint the great room a deeper red to really pop the cabinets and accent the dark chocolates, think Devine Sangria, Cabernet, Pinot, devinegreen: Clover or Walrus. Adding richer color allows you to try out richer neutrals like Devine Cafe’, Sumatra, devinegreen: Persian or Impala for an overall richer palette.
Whatever you do, don’t leave the ceiling white! :)
Comment [13]
Choosing colors for painting Powder Bathrooms
11/14/2008 11:22 AM by Gretchen Schauffler
There are bathrooms and then there are bathrooms. Bathrooms seem to be divided into two categories; for personal use or for guest use. They have one thing in common, nature’s call. This means that everyone goes into the bathroom when nature calls.
So whether it’s for 3 minutes or 3 hours—depending on the nature of your call—you can choose paint colors for your bathroom that are a total treat to you and to others. Lets flesh this out:
Choosing paint colors for powder bathrooms, otherwise known as guest bathrooms:
These bathrooms are a one toilet-sink-mirror-vanity show, window optional. Powder rooms are conveniently tucked somewhere between the entry, living, and dining room. They are usually designated and decorated for “guests”. However, there is a time limit. Any longer than a five minute stay and the home owners start to worry about you.
Why are they called Powder Rooms? Maybe it’s a polite way to avoid the subject, or maybe because that is where women “powder” their noses. Nature’s call is second only to the primping and scrupulous facial examination that takes place in a powder room. Go crazy with color in these powder rooms. Look at your color palette and choose richer paint colors for your guest bathroom. Remember the highlight of the room is the face in the mirror! Give faces a great color behind it. Stay away drab! Make it a portrait. Make me look good while I powder my nose! Don’t worry, Devine Color makes the color of wood look radiant—the same warm qualities will compliment most skin colors.
Paint the ceiling the same color. The ceilings are small. Unless you have crown molding to separate the colors (you can then accent the crown as a feature with a different color) no need to accent a little “square” shape above. No one looks up anyway…they are not in there long enough!
COMING SOON:
Choosing paint colors for master bathrooms:
Comment [13]
Can light wall colors brighten dark rooms
11/08/2008 11:40 AM by Gretchen Schauffler
Color can make a space feel smaller or bigger. But when it comes to painting a light color to lighten a dark room…that’s another story. I love light colors in well lit rooms where you can see the lightness of the color and the brightness of the walls. But in rooms with little or no direct light, a gray cast can quickly overshadow a light color making it anemic, sallow, and sickly.
CAN LIGHT COLORS BRIGHTEN UP A DARK ROOM?
The answer is no. A light color can never brighten up a dark room. Light and dark colors can make the space appear bigger or smaller, but they cannot make it lighter if it is a dim room. This is a common color mistake. Instead think of it this way: the amount of light in a room should be balanced with the strength of a wall color. That way you have great, colorful environments without fear of the dark. Here is how you do it!
HOW DIM IS YOUR ROOM WITH THE LIGHTS ON?
In the middle of the day, turn on all the lights in the room you are planning to paint—that will be about the brightest your room will ever be. Then decide on a scale of 1-100 percent, how bright is the room now? A 100 would be the brightest it could be: a sunroom that gets direct sunlight, with all the lights on. Or, is it very dark with no direct sun, like a basement bathroom with one dim bulb? That would be maybe 30 or 40 percent. Completely dark would be 0 percent. Just do your best to come up with a number.
NOW GIVE YOUR WALL COLOR A SATURATION NUMBER
0% is the most subtle and 100% is richest and most robust color you can find. So a zero would be a can of white paint with just the tiniest hint of lavender. 100 percent is the deepest plum. So choose a color you want to paint on the wall and give it a percentage rating. A light green like Devine Fescue would be 15 percent saturated, while a deep red like Devine Cabernet would be 80 percent?
NOW SLICE UP THE WALLS
Look at the walls and visually deduct windows, doorways, cabinets and ceiling surfaces. How much wall surface is really left to paint after you visually imagine this? Give that a rough percentage. Is there 60% paintable wall surface? 80%?
DO THE MATH
This means that if a room is “fully lit” but is truly _ “at 50% brightness”_ and the wall color has 10% saturation strength, you can assume before you go through the hassle of painting, that the light color won’t be strong enough to be seen in such dim light—let alone to lighten up the room! A color with 50 percent saturation strength would probably look better.
Then think about this: If the room’s paintable wall surfaces are 50% or less, they cannot cloak a room in darkness because the walls are not all solid. So at this point you can feel free to choose a rich, “dark” color, at maybe 80 percent saturation, without fear that you will darken the room. The math here may be a little complicated, but look at the photos below and you’ll see what I mean.
Here is a perfect example of a room with lots of beautiful wood, and indirect light. With all the lights on, in the middle of the day, the room looks to be about 45% bright. The home owner is struggling with the wall color because it seems like a light color would help the room be light. You can see there are two paint samples on the wall.
You can paint a light neutral color on the walls along with white ceilings to keep the room as bright as possible, but as you can see, the room stays pretty much the same—a little less washed out.
Others believe yellow is the answer to brighten up a dark room. You can see that the yellow does warm up the walls but again the room barely changes lightness.
After visually deducting all the windows, cabinets, and doorways, the walls are less than 40% of the room. So, based on my Devine math, I choose colors that are at least 65% saturated to contrast the wood color and paint over the small amounts of wall space. You only really have one solid wall opposite to all the windows. This wall gets the most light.
There is amazing color in the wood. Devine Color is all about WOOD! Our colors are specifically created to never overpower, but to enhance the NATURAL colors in wood. Now look and see when I add a the neutral on the ceiling to really warm up the space.
You get the picture! As you know, Devine Color has a legendary process with that lets you choose colors confidently with paint palettes that reveal perfect colors in minutes. We have lots of beautiful colors that are strong and saturated. Our Delicate and Breathable Wall Finishes add luminosity to dark colors.
To know more read: How to Use Our Paint Palettes
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