STYLETHREAD -- LET'S TALK SHOP!

whenever i'm looking for a new color i go to the queer eye website and look at the colors they have used.  i've gotten two from them that i love. 

benjamin moore's website has a personal color viewer thing where they give you a picture of a room and you can color the walls, trim, and ceiling different colors to see how they look.  some of the pics have one room looking into another so you can see how colors would work together. (if you wanted to go as far as buying the color viewer software from a paint store, you can load in picutures of your house and color those -- i think its $14.95 (maybe))  the only thing is that how the colors appear depend on your monitor settings, so it's hard to get a really acurrate representation.  the ben moore website also has advice about picking color too -- it's pretty informative.

http://www.benjaminmoore.com/

as far as not ending up with crayola colors, i have found that you need to stick with more organic colors.  ben moore's colors (color preview line) are divided in 2 catagories -- organic and inorganic.  the inorganic are the more bright, crayola-y ones.  of course when you're looking for a bold color you are drawn to these first, but they usually look pretty outragous on the wall.  the organic ones are harder to pick b/c they are more subtle, but they are the ones that will give you that subtle boldness.

these are some the colors i have had recent success with (all ben moore):

• ebony slate -- a dark grey that's a little purple, i painted a small bathroom this color with stainless accessories and avocado-y green towels and shower curtain


• pale avocado -- a light, pear-y limey green  (kitchen -- looks great with black counters and stainless shelves and appliances)


• split pea -- slightly darker version of pale avocado, a little more leafy  (i did my friend's kitchen this color and i love it.  if i hadn't already just painted my own i would change it)


• brown horse -- a dark chocolate brown, has grey in it which makes it a cooler and less red than a lot of other browns i tried.  i did a suede finish with this color in our office)

i have had the most luck picking colors from what other people have if i'm somewhere and see a color i like, i'll try to find out what it is and use it.  the best way to see a color is when it's already on someone's wall.

Since I am stuck living in white wall apartment land, I will live vicariously through your painting!  Woohoo!

www.behr.com has a color viewer that's pretty fun.  In general, most colors will end up darker and/or brighter on your wall than they look on the paint chip.  If you are able, I would buy a small amount of your 'final contenders' and paint large-ish swatches in different rooms to observe at different times of day.  If you are broke (like me) I find this terribly inconvenient to do and end up flying by the seat of my pants a little bit and just painting the whole room.  If you looooove a color in a paint chip, you will probably still like it on your walls, even if it doesn't come out exactly like you planned. 

As for painting different rooms different colors, technically anything can work together with the right connective style/furnishings/concept.  For the sake of ease, I would say either go with colors in the same color family, colors of the same approximate intensity, or neutrals with pops of color. 

Using colors in the same family is nice b/c it makes your home look larger and everything feels connected.  It also gives you the opportunity to use some bolder colors without them seeming garish or too bold, as the color in the rest of the house tempers the richness of the darker colors with everything being in the same tone.

Using colors of the same intensity is also nice b/c it allows you to use really how every many colors you like, but because no one is much darker/brighter/bolder than any other, they all work and blend nicely.  Martha Stewart uses this technique alot in her home as well as in her magazine/website spreads.

Using neutrals with pops of color is usefull as well - it makes changing out those pops of color pretty easy and is good for color-phobes.  For this you would use different neutrals for hallways and some rooms, and then do some rooms or an accent wall in a room a bolder color.  It's fun to use this to put color in unexpected places too, like the hallway ceiling, the insides of bookcases or cabinets, or on raised panelling.