Devine Color's Blog

When colors look nice but nice is not what you want....

And I quote this client  “I have painted my dining room about 4 times and my living room twice – (lets just say an attempt to work with a designer that failed - I have spend a small fortune on samples and a trip with a designer and the house still feels disjointed..."

I so understand this dilemma.

These wall colors are nice. They are soft, play well; you might say they keep conversations light, but sometimes nice feels shallow, empty, and non-committal. Nice is often attributed to anything and everything that does not offend, stands out, or creates conflict. How many times have you been somewhere and commented about something not being quite right, only to be met with, "but it's nice." OK, so it is nice and unusable, nice and ill prepared, nice and boring. I get it. "Nice" covers a multitude of sins by making us feel guilty for wanting what ever it is to be more than, right for, perfect yet. In all the years working with clients, one thing I know is for sure: color can be nice, but if it does not feel right, personal, or express our inspirations and aspirations, it's not magical, it des not sing. Here is the deal: it’s not that the current colors (Devine Honey and Glass) are wrong, they are indeed, nice. But in this case, they don’t capitalize on the colorful self-expression and qualities this home has with art, fabrics, and accessories. I am not going play nice. I am going to create bold expressions of color and contrast to make this environment sing out loud, so it can be more than, right for, perfect yet. The walls need pop, snap, and sizzle so that white moldings and existing colors become even brighter. This means we have to go strong, assertive, and confident…

 

Option A: Devine Colors like Devine Cayenne, Blush, Orangutan, Café, Lion with ceiling colors like Devine Sand, Peanut, or Almond as a dining room accent will make the space fill up with warmth and color. I recommend Devine Delicate Sheen for both walls and ceilings.

Option B: Cool sophistication with Devine Almond, Breeze, Steamer, Guajira (new) Lino (new) Mocha or Ginseng on both walls and ceilings. I recommend Devine Delicate Sheen for both walls and ceilings. 

Option C: Bold statement with Devine Tide, Swell, Iguana, Mantis or Cactus on walls with Devine Birch, Butter, or Bamboo on ceilings. I recommend Devine Delicate Sheen for both walls and ceilings.

Answer me this:

If option A is not nice, it's_________________

If Option B is not nice, it's ____________________

If Option C is not nice, it's ____________________

Remeber these words next time you are painting a color!

Field tile color trumps accent tile colors...

Wanting a strong wall color in a bathroom with natural tile can be challenging. The goal is to make sure the natural colors in the tile are complimented and not overwhelmed by colors that are too colorful, or too bright. This is why when it comes to choosing a paint color, the field tile and the  accent tile must look like one. I can read your mind right now. You are saying, "but the colors in the accent pieces is what makes the tile special or more important!" It does. Accent tiles often give us a palette of colors to work from. But how we work a paint palette on walls is a different story. Most people choose very neutral, light, and soft field tile colors.  If the wall color does not have the same tonal qualities, (regardless if you choose a paint color that is dark or light) it will pull the accent and backgroud colors apart making them look separate from each other.

The purple wall color below makes it look like there are three things going on: purple-ish diamonds, a tile wall, and purple walls and ceiling.

The following Devine Colors will make a HUGE difference by making the bathroom wall color flow with the rest of the house and adding a splash of fun and beauty that makes both field and accent tiles integrate as one. Think of the wall color framing the entire tile design like a picture mat.  Picture Devine Blush, Orangutan, Mocha, Dust, Penguin, Buffalo, Rain, Humidor.

 



Also, the color in the Devine Delicate Sheen is rich, without glare, mimicking the other surfaces in the bathroom.

That’s not a ceiling; it’s an Origami wall.

It started as a remodeling job that led to a re-coloring job. Five bathrooms were torn apart, new tiles were laid,  cabinets were replaced or re-stained and a fantastic Man-Cave was built. But, when it came to the family room, adjacent to a large open kitchen, it was the wall and ceiling color that remodeled the space. In the before picture you see the fireplace, some walls and soffits accented with a traditional plum red. There is light natural wood cabinets. The rest of the walls (see left wall) were done in a taupe and the ceiling had been left off white.

 

You don’t see is the white (support) column in the kitchen that compliments a matching white column and banister in the entry.

Here is how Devine Persian and Devine Komodo transformed this great room: I always make a case that unless the ceiling is horizontally flat, anything leading up to a flat ceiling is not ceiling, but walls that fold, curve, cove, or square towards the ceiling. We rolled (actually, the painter did) Devine Persian, mixed in Devine Delicate to reflect even more light, up and over the Origami walls to the different level ceilings. Instead of the ceiling coming down because of a darker color, the room opened up  by erasing all lines. Then we put "lines" where they belonged. We accented the fireplace, banister and columns in Devine Komodo, cabinets were stained to a black, and voila’! Brand new, no?

More to come on that Man-Cave!

Because art said so....

It feels so good to surrender to shapes, colors, and brush strokes when you are confident about why you are surrendering. When I give advice about paint color "because I said so", is not the kind of confidence my clients are looking for. They are looking for someone to help them see what they can't see, but can't help feel. This room has lots of light. It’s open and the art, accessories, and wood colors are rich and demanding. The before wall color is not wrong…it’s just not enough to satisfy the need! What need? This room needs a wall color to become a verticle mirror that will reflect and transform lots of light into lots of beautiful color to meet the demand of rich colors in the floor, art, rugs... ect. Here are the choices I see changing the space from what you see to what you feel...

BEFORE­:

OPTION A: Devine Almond/Date/Manzanita

OPTION B: Devine Mocha/Roast

OPTION C: Devine Swell/Pool

OPTION D: Devine Koala/Breeze

What does your art say?

What makes our colors Trendproof

Stunning warm wood, a powerful but creamy rock fireplace, cool blue slate tile in the entry, and collections of objects, furniture, and art that are timeless tell a great story about this home. It is what Devine is all about: The old, new, borrowed, and true coming together, making it all seem meant to be with wall color that builds upon and enhances these elements.

Devine color’s affinity to natural wood, stone, woven’s, and art makes our wall colors trend-proof; no matter how times change, we change, or décor changes, they transform our ever changing spaces into personal spaces, easily and confidently. Devine makes change a want to, not a have to!

For this home I recommended (all in Devine Delicate): 

Option A: Overall main wall and ceiling neutral colors:

Devine Cashew, Shade, Siamese, Macadamia, Pecan, Shell, or Pebble

Option B: ­­Overall main wall and ceiling colors:

Devine Beluga, Glass, Adieu, or Fog

Accents for dining room, bedrooms, bathrooms, and accent walls:

Devine Hosta, Steamer, Moss, Bavarian, Elephant, Rain, Storm, Shark, Haze, Brick, Mesa

Wall Colors that Hold Up the Test of Time

This week I went on an exterior color consultation call to see a client I had previously consulted with 10 years ago. It was my pleasure to come in and see how much our original Devine Color palette had held up to changes in fabrics and art. Colors like Devine Ash, Shell, Grain, Reef, Reflection, Almond, Breeze, Haze, and Mesa stood the test of time. The home was light yet warm and personal. My client was still crazy about the colors and paint, after all these years!

 

Suddenly, I found myself having a love affair Devine Laissez-Faire

In my professional life as a color advisor I often recommend shades of purples to purple lovers. Personally, it had never been a part of my repertoire. My grandmother always thought that purple was a somber color. As a child in Puerto Rico, whenever I would come out of the water from swimming in the ocean I would get cold, and my lips would turn purple. My grandmother would rush over to me with a towel to warm my body up to make the purple go away. Maybe color biases or preferences are passed on like genes and this is why I didn’t have a predilection for purple before--until now. I have seen not only color biases or preferences change during my years as a color adviser, but also witnessed a funny miracle when a familiar color hue will feel like it’s the first time we have seen it.

This is how my love affair with Devine Laissez-Faire started. My poor yard took a beating this year, during one of the wettest winter/spring seasons the Pacific Northwest ever had. Months of cold and rain made me delay going out and doing what I usually do: triming, cleaning, staining my deck and concrete, painting my Adirondacks white, and planting my red geraniums against the chartreuses and bright greens that I love in shrubs, trees and ground covers. Good thing! By the time it was dry enough to go out and work on the yard, plants had bloomed unseasonably late.

 As a result, with no “geranium red” in sight to distract my eyes, I noticed a color in my potted chives I had missed before--a shade of purple in their allium flowers!  In what I call a virginal color experience I was seeing a hue of purple like it was my first time. And like a car you buy and begin to see everywhere on the road, I was seeing this color of purple everywhere.

Then an English friend of mine said, “Go on, and paint your Adirondacks a shade of (imagine his accent here) mah-ouve.” “Wait?” I said, “you mean M-A-U-V-E? “Yes, darling, I believe that’s the shade you want, but you are the color expert.” He called it like he saw it, plain as day…mauve. Apparently the English did not banish mauve in the 1990’s from their repertoire.

 Mauve (pronounced /ˈmoʊv/ ( listen)[1] from the French form of Malva "mallow") is a pale lavender-lilac color, one of many in the range of purples.

 

I had the perfect shade of mauve in my Devine Colors Well Traveled Collection. My yard was about to have a purple transformation.  I painted my chairs Devine Laissez-Faire. That started a chain reaction! I didn’t want to have chairs that looked like add-ons. I found myself buying purple flowers and spraying on new life into old furniture with spray paints.

But with spray paint, I wasn't  able to make a new color and catalogue it as a Devine hue.  I had to suffer, like everyone else, and test many purple colors to find the “right” shade of purple that would coordinate with Devine Laisser-faire. It didn’t go so well. It was very hard to find a color that would not look “Barney Purple” or emasculate my husband who loves to sit in those Adirondacks. He had no intention of looking like an old English Rose sipping a cup of tea. I had to layer spray paint colors to  get the right hue. The benches were layers of different purples and blacks.

Not all spray paints are the same or look the same. The good news, they have a spray paint for everything: metal, plastic, wood, in gloss, matte, satin, high gloss. Check out spray paint tips at Valspar.Com

Even better? You can put a Devine Color in a spray can! That's what I had to do. It is a custom process, it takes a week, but it can be done. On my list of things to do: Make spray paint colors! And you know what else I did? I painted my old cushions. They were ready to get recovered, when I thought, "what do I have to lose by spray painting them?" They look M-A-U-V-E-L-O-U-S!

 

The funny thing is, I had no idea how many mauve flowers I had in my yard...until I fell in love.

Colorful Kitchen Accents...

There is nothing like a little colorful somethin’ somethin' to jump start an area of your home. This spring we added a sparkling dazzling backsplash to our kitchen that demanded to have a new paint color on the soffit above the white cabinets.

  

 

I decided to go with the new color I created for the upcoming Devine Havana 1920’s Collection: Devine Humidor. But wait, there is more! The tile was not going to be the only thing that sparkled. I added a special ingredient we are coming out with next month…Devine Dust, anyone?

Although as you can see, there would have been several great choices….

For this look try Devine Latte, Ginseng, Pecan, or Macadamia

For this look try Green Tea, Cactus, Victorie

For this look, try Devine Teak, Cafe, Spice, Lion

For this look, try Devine Sarsaparilla, Blush, Orangutan

Timing couldn’t have been more perfect. It was my birthday,  I had gotten beautiful flowers, a gorgeous apron, and the ultimate rhapsody blue color accessory: a Le Creucet, lime green boa included. Are you kidding me? It was such a great birthday!

 

I gained a new sudden urge to get creative in the kitchen…

 

How about cutting an onion, and soaking it in red wine and white vinegar to make a colorful pickled and tasty treat in my salads? I now have them in a seal-tight container in my fridge all the time! Bon Appétit…

 

Color Theory vs. Color Theory

 I believe there is an artist inside all of us. Everyone has a need to understand color in a personal way that makes them feel like they have a grasp of what it does and what it can do. Here are a couple of videos that show ways we try to comprehend and communicate  the magical, scientifically baffling, yet simple theory of color. Watch these videos—which approach feels more like you?

  

 

A Devine Dewey Palette