Color Thoughts!

Color Thoughts~


I could talk about color all day long, but to get started, let's talk about the use of beige in todays decorating.   The color trend these days is gray but a lot of my clients don't want to go too gray or too cold so we have found a lot of beiges that have gray undertones, or grays that have warm undertones. As many of my decorator friends and I call it- 'greige'! Grays are tough to use because there always seems to be an undertone of something in a gray so finding just the right one can be tricky.  I have to confess that my color favorites are mostly confined to the Benjamin Moore fan decks.  I feel like I've been raised on Ben Moore so i'm just used to knowing what works and what doesn't when I'm looking at a project.  I also have a fondness for Farrow and Ball, they have a great classic color selection.

Greige
BM 'China White'- from the BM white collection- warm color and a light value.
BM 'Dove Wing' #960- light and warm, smidge more yellow than China
BM 'Edgecomb Gray' HC173- has a medium value
BM 'Revere Pewter' HC172- a little darker but still a medium value 'greige'
Farrow and Ball- 'Shaded White' #201

                                                                                                   

Light Blues
If you are decorating with blue in adult rooms, it's important to stay with a gray undertone.  Many of my clients are using a hint of blue when decorating their living, dining rooms and master bedrooms.  When decorating, unless you're picking out a child's room color, I like to stay soft.  In Living Rooms in particular, there tends to be a big expense going into fabrics for curtains and upholstery as well as the rug.  And with this in mind, it's important to use the color on the walls to make those fabrics look good and not to distract from them. If you use too much color, the room will be all about the color on the walls and not the room as a whole.  With that said, here are several of my favorite blues

Farrow & Ball- Blackened # 2011- if the trim is a bright white, the color will really pop
Farrow & Ball 204 and 205- both these colors can be a little tricky! I've used them where they were
  perfect and then I've used them where I needed to cut the tint by adding white as they had too much
  pigment.
BM 'Silver Cloud' 2129-70- my favorite light blue color!
BM 'Patriotic White' 2135-70- 2nd favorite and has more of an aqua undertone. Think 'sky' with this!
BM 'Lily White' 2128-70-slightly periwinkle undertone.

***many more light blues in the BM fan deck starting with 21**-**; some more green, lavender and
aqua.

BM 'Wickham gray' HC171- great color! in some lights it looks gray, in some lights it looks robins egg   blue, some light it looks a little green.  I've used this color in 50% tint and it was spectacular!

 Keep in mind, the color of the trim will affect the color of the basecoat!  If you use a white-white trim, the color will have more pigment; if you use a white dove or linen white trim color, the base coat will be softer.