Understanding Paint Color & Consultanting

I have been a painting contractor since 1990; and this website is about color. The intention is to educated and where possible give different perspectives. I do not intentionally advocate any particular name brand of paint. The opinions of the colorist and designers on this website remain their independent opinions and were invited to share their point of view.

Color is a sensory perception. My work involves helping clients articulate their preferences into paint color choices for their homes, offices, and show rooms. More often my work is just teaching and reinforcing articles I have written on this blog to give clients the confidence to move forward with paint colors. A consult can reinforce a color scheme you have already selected, alter that scheme slightly, or develop an entirely new scheme.

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Benjamin Moore 1386 Purple Rain
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Lime green paint
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Farrow & Ball French Gray number 18
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Orange House Paint on door
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Click To Play
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Testing Benjamin Moore Paints
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I have a unique approach to color, and I have succeeded  on projects where other teams have stalled. Unlike interior designers and other color consultants who draw upon their own preferences for color schemes; I believe it is important for the color selection to come from the client. I have worked as a painting contractor for over twenty years on older historic homes and contemporary modern homes. For the first 10 years as a painting contractor I choose to not advise on colors; starting in 1999 I felt compelled to tell my painting clients where their color selections conflicted with certain color rules (or more bluntly just bad colors) . Also, the right paint colors can could create ecstatically happy clients with our paint work. Often this was a slight value or undertone shift in color (no two blues are the same….no such thing as “just white” exists). Also as a young painting contractor in the early 90’s; I was advised to stay away from colors and leave that to designer women and decorators if I ever wanted to be taken seriously as a painting contractor. I now  know this is untrue as I have a strong reputation as a painting contractor in my city  Shearer Painting, and I have a strong voice and following as a color blogger and color consultant. You can say I have found my Color Voice.

Similar to most Color Consultants i have undertaken color certification education. The most rewarding learning for me came from  Leatrice Eisenman‘s, color class. Mrs. Eisenman is the director of the Pantone Color Institute and is responsible for selecting Pantone’s Color of the Year. She opens her house to her students; and seeing this teachers paint colors ( and wonderful garden) puts her love of color in the proper place in my memory. Lee, walked us through everyroom in her house and described the colors, the art, the furnishings, etc. She is really the foremost color authority alive; and her reputation in the fashion-advertising needs no chirping from this modest color blog. The primary difference between Leatrice’s class and other classes I have taken (I will not mention) is that Leatrice conducts her class primarily for her love of teaching about color. Before she became the Color Authority she was a teacher; and her class is very organized and centered on the science of color and history of color. I discuss color (and many of the articles I have written on this blog) are directly inspired by her teaching. I am more comfortable with the science and data behind color than the softer approach (ie green makes you feel at peace vs. green is the most common color in nature after blue as such we are hard wired to feel at ease in green environments).

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