What Color is that? An update on how to choose colors for your home.

I love Houzz.com, Pinterest, Instagram and the internet in general for the inspirational images shared. I love to showcase our work on all these sites as well.

While the goal is to inspire and be hired …more than anything else, my posted images elicits demands for the exact color on the wall.

I wrote about this back in 2012 …however, the word is still not out. So instead of words, I am going to demonstrate with some pictures….as they are worth so much more here.

A picture is worth a thousand words … a magazine tear with the color noted in the room along with the actual color chip shown on my duel screens.

A picture is worth a thousand words … a magazine tear with the color noted in the room along with the actual color chip shown on my duel screens.

A client of ours brought in an image from a magazine…yes a magazine. They really loved the color and wanted to paint their interior spaces in the color noted. In a quick demonstration, I showed them that the actual color was not the same as it appeared in print. Exhausted from explaining to clients and admirers over the years that colors need to be selected on site, I will try again.

  1. Not only are printed materials difficult to control but images on different computer screens render the color differently too.

  2. If you love the color you have in front of you…grab a paint deck and try to match it…. that said…

WARNING NUMBER ONE: The same colors will look different even on different walls in the same room. This is only a starting point. Different wall and ceiling planes make a difference in how the color looks. All four walls and the ceiling will take the color differently and the light and shadow in the room will change how it appears…see example below.

paint color demo - Copy.jpg

To further demonstrate that colors need to be selected on site and not from an image on the internet, I noticed that the wall behind my computer screen photographed what looks like yellow to me. When in real life, it is a metallic blue shown below.

Note color behind my computer screens. If you demanded I give you the color on the wall behind my screen ….I would be sending you Icy mist PT-280 by Benjamin Moore

Note color behind my computer screens. If you demanded I give you the color on the wall behind my screen ….I would be sending you Icy mist PT-280 by Benjamin Moore

Benjamin Moore Ice Mist PT-280 The color behind the computer screens. Taken with I Phone Camera. Note the difference from top to bottom and every corner how different the color looks.

Benjamin Moore Ice Mist PT-280 The color behind the computer screens. Taken with I Phone Camera. Note the difference from top to bottom and every corner how different the color looks.

WARNING NUMBER 2: Light bulbs in your light fixtures will also alter the color you selected. Light bulbs that are 2700 Kelvin will be the closest to natural daylight. The lighting in your room will change the color you see on the wall. The other thing that will have a huge impact on the color you see in the room will be the other colors …like the couch or flooring. The colors will look different in every situation. A couch and or rug you loved may change colors right before your eyes once you paint the room.

Good luck and as always if you need help with all this ….call on your local professionals. The investment in their experience could save you from the dreaded experience of coming home to find the painter has painted the wall in exactly the color he was given and the results are not even close to what you were looking for.

Thank you for liking, following, and pining my images…I appreciate that you like our work.