Color and Paint Ideas

Since the first caveman crushed red ochre into a paint paste with which he decorated his living quarters, humans have been using color and paint in decorating their abodes.   Humans are the only species on the planet that go beyond the functional characteristics of our living spaces and enhance them with a variety of decorating techniques, most involving color.   Bird lovers know many species build highly complex structures, some resembling condominiums, but when construction is complete, they don’t go off and crush berries with their beaks and beautify their nest.  Function, not form, is all they care about.

All decorating has a color element to it which often involves paint in a variety of forms.  Furniture, doors, appliances, windows, draperies, shower curtains, bedspreads, towels, flooring, and wall covering all offer color choices.  Selecting colors for your decorating projects should be a matter of identifying colors, shades and hues within an overall color theme for your home, not a matter of whatever you find striking at the moment.

Good designers tell us homes make statements about the people within, and color is a key component of those statements.  For example, bold and daring people should use bold and daring colors throughout their entire home, beginning with the exterior.  This doesn’t mean you paint every room the same color or use a variety of shades of that color in every room.  For example, if you consult the Better Homes and Garden web site you’ll find a color wheel where you’ll learn that green is actually made by combing yellow and blue.  Shades of green are compatible with shades of blue and yellow.

Paint has always been the way to make the most of using color in homes.  In the not too distant past, a tsunami of “boring” swept the decorating world when muted beiges and off whites became all the rage, and color expressions were left to furniture, draperies and other accents.  Indeed, in the 1930’s in many Western countries walls were painted in shades of off-white, from the baseboard molding all the way to the ceiling.  Today colors abound, with different shades and finish used for molding and walls, and ceilings in dark colors for a stunning and dramatic effect.  Many homeowners add chair rail molding, opening up the possibility of even more color variation, with different shades or colors used below and above the wall dividing chair rail.

No discussion of color and paint would be complete without getting into the different finishes in which paint is available.  Today’s technology gives us more choices than the traditional High-Gloss, Semi-Gloss, and Flat finishes of the past.  High-gloss paint has additives that make it much more durable than any other finish, allowing repeated cleanings and scrubbings.  Flat paint of old could not be scrubbed without damaging the finish and semi-gloss, while not as durable as High-Gloss could still stand up to repeated scrubbings.  Gloss paints reflect light while a flat paint absorbs light, which makes a dramatic difference in the overall appearance of the finished paint job.  Gloss paint will reveal every imperfection in the wall surface, no matter how slight.

Many savvy decorators never use High Gloss paint for anything, ever!  For woodwork Semi-Gloss works just fine, and now there are two additional durable finishes with a low sheen gloss:  Eggshell and Satin.   Satin is the lowest and the preferred choice for walls subject to heavy use.  However, today there are manufacturers who have made their Flat paints scrubbable as well.  With an Eggshell you’ll notice a hint of gloss and a few imperfections in the piece.  Satin has a very how luster look, not exactly a gloss but with a hint of depth missing in Flat paint.

If you have ever had new wallboard installed you know there are always residual sanding marks and tiny nicks, left even by the best professionals.  Why share these imperfections with the world by using gloss paint?  Woodwork also can have numerous flaws.  Why show them off more than needed with a High-Gloss or even a Semi-Gloss finish when an Eggshell finish will hold up almost as well?  Finally, low sheen Satin or no sheen Flat finishes simply give the color of the paint a deeper, richer look.