This week I worked for hours with a colorful client helping her choose the perfect WHITE for her entire house. One doesn't know the sea of whites you can drown in until you venture into the vast world of color. If you are a regular reader you will know one thing I've suggested over and over again when choosing paint colors...YOU MUST GET SAMPLES and paint them in different areas of your house (if you are picky) before committing. Sometimes I will grab a large board or piece of sheetrock and move those around a house, but to get a TRUE READING you need to commit to AT LEAST A SAMPLE (and, yes, I'm yelling..as I did to my client). Sample cards in stores are IMPOSSIBLE to get a true reading of color. The one I'm holding up here is the one she chose months ago..I'm holding it up against an unpainted piece of raw sheetrock, she explained months ago she did NOT want a color that looked like this!! When I showed her the comparison she was shocked, so I did what I always do and painted several walls in her house with various samples of white. She then picked certain swatches in each room (I placed four on each wall). Little did she know I PAINTED THE SAME WHITE EVERYWHERE. My passive-aggressive lesson: white is a tough one, as are many colors, because the changing light throughout the day changes EVERYTHING. She eventually surrendered to another suggestion of mine...light grey...and it brightened her day!
IN THE END...
I understood what my client was going for..she wanted simple, bright and clean. The reality of her space, however, high atop a mountain in the woods of the Hudson Valley of New York, darker afternoons made the pure white look drab and dirty. Adding a splash of ANY color created vibrancy. I often suggest, especially in an area like the northeast where weather (and light) changes constantly, add those fun splashes of color in accessories, artwork, carpets, etc.
***If you've ever painted red or tried to PAINT OVER red you know it takes about ten coats to get results, and white is the same way. If you live white, PREP the space by sanding, cleaning and patching any holes or everything will show up like a zit on your cheek on prom night!
