Paint and Light

photo courtesy of startribune.com

A couple of weeks ago, I met with a woman to help her get started on a home remodel.  She has a beautiful home but her taste has changed over the years from the 'country clutter' look to something more clean and sophisticated.  She didn't even know where to start.

After an hour of meeting with her, we began to formulate a plan to begin a transformation of her home.  She hated the paint.   In theory, the paint on her walls was suppose to be a neutral taupe but it had such a strong red base that the walls emitted a strong pink undertone.  After lots of questions and introspection, it was decided that really, that paint was causing the biggest problems for her.

We chose a new neutral and she was off and running...well, until I got a call this week that they hated the paint color I chose for them.  I went right over to see what it was they hated.  It wasn't hard to figure out what the problem was and it wasn't the paint color. 

No, it was the lighting and the fact that they were judging the new color with a gold/green base beside the old pink color.  Of course the gold tones will look more shocking when placed next to pink. 

The second problem was their lighting.  In the bathroom fixtures, they had part incandescent and part fluorescent lights.  Incandescent gives off a warm light and flurorescent, a cool light.  The mixture and play of warm and cool was giving the paint a very strange tint that seemed to change as the natural daylight changed. 

I suggested that since they had only painted a bedroom and an adjoining bathroom, they needed to paint the hallway and change out all the lighting back to uniform incandescent before deciding if we change the paint color. 

The homeowner got busy and the next day when I checked in on  her progress, she was thrilled with the same old color we had chosen. 
Remember, light, space, and paint base makes all the difference in the world when it comes to choosing color.  Before jumping in with both feet, it's always wise to get a few sample paint pots and paint a small patch so you can observe how the natural light can change the intensity. 

Have you got a paint color problem in your house?  Get in touch and let's make it right.