Devine Color's Blog

Color Advice 101: When white needs light and dark needs color!

Look at this picture: white walls with dark rich furniture and floors. I hear this all the time, "Because everything is already dark, shouldn't my walls be light"?

 

The difference between beautiful white walls paired up with dark colors but ending up with cold impersonal white walls is lighting and balance. Unless you toss in lots of light and white hues among your deep right belongings to balance lights and darks, white walls will seem divorced from your environment. Unless you have exceptional lighting, walls look dingy--like you smoked a lot. This was a huge problem in for Northwest (with it's gray skies nine months out of the year) until Devine came along. Devine colorizes light through artistic palettes and exclusive sheens that balance our interior design dreams with color.

 

Here is the deal: The fact that one buys a lot of dark rich things leads me to believe that they LOVE dark rich things....so the answer to their wall color dilemma is always color--not fearing the dark!

These are the Devine solutions I came up with for this client. It left her with a smile on her face and the confidence to plunge ahead into deeper waters.

 

Her Devine Palette A: Devine Glass, Fescue, Moss, Steamer, Georgette, Rain, Ginger, Sarsaparilla,

Her Devine Palette B: Devine Latte, Sumatra, Macadamia, Bison, Denim, Roast, Ginger, Spice

Great thing about Devine is that she can mix and match any of my suggestions to create an artist palette of her own. Here is if she used Devine Gator for trim...now that would be fearless but stunning, wouldn't it?

Color Advice 101: Simple Does Not Have To Be Safe

Who said that simple has to be safe?

Color Advice 101: Painting Walls And Ceilings With Different Angles

 

Deciding where to paint a wall color can be just as difficult as choosing the wall color itself. After you make the decision of what color to paint, you then have to decide where the color goes: on all four walls, maybe just one, or perhaps in another room. A lot of contemporary living spaces with open floor plans have walls that don’t stop. Instead they have different ceiling heights that define the rooms. It is difficult to know where to stop and start colors because the walls and ceilings fold into abstract shapes unlike traditional rooms—with 4 sides to a box and a lid. These are my tips to help you understand how to deal with these open floor plans.

Color Advice 101: Painting Popcorn Ceilings

The white popcorn ceiling! It sits above beautiful faces, gorgeous wall color, and new furniture like a dingy pilled blanket. It stands out as a strange texture among all the other surfaces and fabrics in a room. A common ceiling technique used in the 1970’s for acoustic purposes, experts at the time said that you could keep it clean by dusting and vacuuming the ceiling once in a while and that would continue to make your popcorn ceiling look brand new. Over the years, the lack of enthusiasm for cleaning the ceiling, along with the dust-collecting grooves and pockets, makes popcorn ceilings look like an upside-down dirty white Berber carpet.

Color Advice 101: Choosing Color For A Dark Room

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!

Color Advice 101: Painting Bull-Nose Corners

Bull-nosed corners are a popular drywall design in high-end homes. It is said that they soften the corners of open floor plans and add a touch of elegance. But painting bull-nose corners becomes a home-owner’s nightmare when it comes time to replace the inexpensive builder beige with a color palette that includes more than just one color. There is a way to do it and make it look wonderful. Here are my observations:

Color Advice 101: Why Yellow Sometimes Is Not The Answer

 

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.

Color Advice 101: When To Paint ACCENT Walls

The same living room with the same furniture can look either cold and pretentious, or intelligent and thoughtful depending on the wall color that surrounds the space. Wall colors give the loudest first impressions about who you are and how you feel about your home. Often, if we fall in love with a rich, saturated, strong, and gorgeous color, we become afraid. Afraid of what it will say about us—that it will be too much or take over. You want it somewhere because you love it so you think that an “Accent Wall” is the answer to having that color safely. But there are risks involved.

Color Advice 101: Matching Wall Color From A Rug

Colorful rugs are a great platform to pull colors from for your walls, not just for one room, but for an entire house! The problem is that most people match the wall color from a rug so closely that they end up with wall colors that overpower the rug itself. Lets take it from the top, or bottom I should say…

Here is a perfect example of a rug that has great “wall” color possibilities. These colors are in proportions that make this rug balanced. It has a light yellow neutral (10%), a mossy green (25%), rich blue (20%) and red (45%). It is a rug that most people looking to decorate with yellows, golds, blues, and reds would be happy with.

Color Advice 101: Choosing Wall Colors For Wood Trim