Information Station

INFORMATION STATION

Information Station is the place where you can read articles on home interior decorating and design written by industry leaders who offer insight and inspiration.

News & Views Issue # 7

Written by Kathy Powell of Kathy Powell Interiors

COLOR & PAINT - 101

Have you ever found yourself focused on painting and decorating one room and when you were finished, you realized that adjoining rooms may have looked like they were left out of the plan? Sometimes, it’s not obvious during the planning stage that adjoining rooms may need some extra consideration at that point in time.

One may feel overwhelmed when being asked to consider more than one room during a painting project, but it only takes just a little more time to take stock of the situation around you. Before you take on a painting project, take a good look from the vantage point of several doorways in the space – what do you see and how important is it to the overall project that you will be undertaking?

With an open floor plan it could be easier to see adjoining rooms and realize that color is an important aspect of the design. Traditional layout of separate rooms can seem a bit tricky if you aren’t thinking about color for the entire space.

You may already feel comfortable with an established palette that you don’t want to venture away from. Others may desire a more unified look to their existing scheme or may want to make significant changes such as the colors of the walls, ceiling or floor as well as furnishings to reflect their individual style.

Keep this in mind:

Color is an element which reveals movement.
Color reflects light and the reflection is what you see.
Color and light go hand in hand in decorating and in choosing wall paint.

For a basic color wheel lesson note the following:

· The 3 primary colors are Yellow, Blue and Red.

· The 3 secondary colors are Green, Violet and Orange.

· The 6 tertiary colors ( a.k.a. Intermediate colors) are Yellow Orange, Yellow Green, Blue Green, Blue Violet, Red Violet, Red Orange.

Warm colors are in the Red, Orange and Yellow families and Cool colors are in the Green, Blue and Violet families. Warm colors are aggressive and “step out” and Cool colors are receding and “pull back”. Neutral colors like beige, black, white, gray and brown come into play as supporting colors that can transition one area to the next such as a hallway, a foyer or a mudroom

Color or Hue also has tints, tones and shades and this happens by adding white, gray or black to a color. A color’s tint is a color with White, a color’s tone is a color with Gray and a color’s shade is a color with Black.

Referring to a “color wheel” may also be of help to you in discovering complementary, split complementary and other color schemes. If you are still not sure about making the right color choices for a significant color palette you may want to hire a professional decorator for a consultation.

Here is an idea I find very helpful, invest in a small amount of a paint color(s) that you are considering and paint a white poster board with 2 coats of that color. Cut the poster board in half or even in quarters to place around different areas of a room. Doing this allows you to see how light and color play in various situations.

Using poster board keeps you from actually painting the walls and therefore keeping the walls from looking like the results of a paint ball battle during the decision making period.

Listed below are a few more ideas on decorating with color:

· For small rooms use cool colors. Cool colors recede and will make the space feel larger. Using pastels and light neutrals also help to open up an area.

· Large rooms can easily enjoy warmer colors. Warm colors advance and can make the space feel cozier. Using rich deep shades of even cool colors can warm up the room.

· High ceilings: Bring the ceiling down by painting it a darker shade of the wall color.

· Ceilings too low: Add visual height to the ceiling by painting it a lighter tint of the wall color or paint the ceiling white.

Here’s a Tip - For anyone beginning or in the middle of a decorating project and wanting to refer to what has already accomplished, I recommend creating a Decorating Album. This book will become a handy tool for you to use every time you work on a home decorating project. Pick up a sturdy photo album style of book (keep it small enough that you can easily carry it) that has a lot of clear pages to insert your paint chips, fabric and photos of the particular room, the current furniture as well as new furniture you are interested in purchasing later and remember to make room for significant accessories (rugs, lamps, and art) Create a section of several pages for each room.

As you take on a new project, refer to your book and build it to reflect your current style of decorating. When you go out shopping to get ideas for you next project remember to take your book and your digital camera with you. You will then be better prepared to make the best decisions before making unhappy mistakes.

In closing, remember color affects how we view the world and the people in it. Deliberate color choice decisions can help to create a certain mood within your home and specific rooms. Use color to your advantage and it can serve to greatly improve the quality of your life.

Enjoy a Colorful Life!

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Breathe Easier with NO VOC Paints!

By Kathy Powell

After almost 11 years of living with the same paint color, I recently painted my home office/studio (with the much appreciated help from my husband) and I wanted a first hand experience using an environmentally minded approach to interior painting.

Of course, I worked with clients over the years whom have had rooms painted during a project where I was the decorator. I would bring up the topic of No and Low VOC’s paint, but in the past when this idea was relatively new, some clients didn’t want to consider themselves “test subjects” of an unknown product. The discussion would go back and forth around children’s or elderly persons safety concerns and an assumed high cost of the product. I knew I needed more education and information to help the client understand the details of VOC’s.

First, let me tell you that VOC means - Volatile Organic Compounds.

From Wikipedia you’ll find the first definition is: “VOC’s are gases or vapours emitted by various solids or liquids, many of which have short- and long-term adverse health effects. Household products that emit VOCs include paint, paint strippers, cleaning supplies, pesticides, glues and adhesives, building materials and furnishings. Consequently, concentrations of many VOCs are higher indoors (up to ten times higher) than outdoors. Fuels such as gasoline (petrol) and diesel also release VOCs.”

When reading further in the article, I learned many countries have their own EPA-ish version of the definition. For the United States: “A VOC has high vapor pressure and low water solubility. The US EPA’s Terms of Environment defines a VOC as any organic compound that participates in atmospheric photochemical reactions except those designated by the EPA as having negligible photochemical reactivity. Under the Code of Federal Regulations it is similarly defined as any compound of carbon, excluding carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, carbonic acid, metallic carbides or carbonates, and ammonium carbonate, which participates in atmospheric photochemical reactions.”

Now, I bet that definition was clear as mud!

I have researched various paint products and have attended seminars that included speakers addressing the VOC topic that have been most helpful to me in understanding this subject. The next time you want to update your wall color or even purchase new furniture and have questions in this area, I can answer your questions and guide you in the right direction to experience a “greener” solution to fit your needs and lifestyle. There are reputatable paint products on the market and you'll find throughout the paint industry all levels of VOC or NO VOC paints to choose.

After researching a couple of paint products, I made the decision to use Fresh-Aire which is No VOC paint. About a year ago or so I received some of their paint chips after I visited their website and read their claims. Their website is extensive with information, go to www.thefreshairechoice.com/pressroom.html and you’ll find a report from Greenguard Environmental Institute (Feb. 25, 2008) along with other reports on this paint and other competitors that were tested as well.

Now for the rest of the story…

After being surrounded by two neutral paint colors; a light sage green that had been frotaged on 2 walls and very light blue/gray wall color on the other two, the room was in dire need of a spark of liviness. The room is unique with two walls reaching 13 feet up and two lower walls meeting the ceiling at 8 feet high. The room is not large, but with large windows on the front wall and a fan window light over the top of the front door, it feels spacious.

I selected a popping wall color aptly named, "Evening Peruvian Lily" and the trim color is “Radiant Sun. "Evening Peruvian Lily" is a welcoming warm red that plays very well with the natural daylight that pours into my studio during the day and then at night it becomes more dramatic depending on the lighting sources I choose to light the room. Radiant Sun” is a soft buttery yellow that gives the room a new distinction with the wall color.

My husband and I enjoy the new colors so much that we are plannng furniture and office equipment changes so to be a more “invisible” home office/studio environment. Our music library is in this room and it is also where the front door is located. We want everyone who visits to feel just as at home in this room as they would be in the rest of our house. Our collection of poster art and my husband's colorful mixed media styrofoam art also looks great with the new wall color!

The density of the paint was a just bit thicker than other paints I recall using in the past and the application of the paint went on well both in brushing and rolling and covered very well in 2 coats. The clean up is water based and even if I found a splatter of paint on the laminate wood floor later, I removed it easily. The directions said give about 2 hours between coats which worked well for us.

The thing we noticed right way was the lack of a heavy traditional paint smell, instead the odor would be more like craft glue every once in a while. The odor was not a problem to either of us and we both have varying degrees of allergies, but no burning or watery eyes and no coughing when opening or stirring the paint. No strong after application smell that would make you want to run outdoors!

This was a big job for the 2 of us to take on and for clients I would recommend a professional painter for a job like that, but I do love to “get my hands dirty” (and my husband is a willing participant) and in this case it was worth it. Understanding products that I may introduce to a client is important to me. Researching, understanding and sharing appropriate and timely information makes all the difference in building trust and forming decisions in any project.

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Kathy Powell Interiors

Designing Beautiful Spaces