About Paint

Recently a Charlotte, NC interior design client wanted to repaint a home they had just purchased. The homeowner is a do it yourself guru and insisted on doing his own paint job. When I suggested Benjamin Moore paint for the job, this couple was agreeable until they saw the price tag on the Aura brand paint that I had specified for the job. The homeowner just didn’t believe that paying that much for paint could possibly be worth it. I encouraged him to buy one quart to use on the tray ceiling drop. You can compare high quality paint to a high thread count sheet. A cotton/poly blend gets the job done and if you don’t know better, you won’t know what you are missing. If, however, you have ever slept on 1000 count Egyptian cotton sheets, you know the difference is totally worth it! I told him that if he wasn’t convinced that the paint wasn’t significantly better than what he was used to using, I would not say a word! Needless to say, he couldn’t believe how much easier the whole process was with the Benjamin Moore Aura paint. “It went on easier, like butter, and covered in one coat!” said the homeowner. He went on to paint the rest of his home in the Aura paint. Fortunately for me, he liked the paint because, what I didn’t tell him is, that other brands of paint can rarely match the Benjamin Moore colors to their fullest depth. .
Clients often call me for color consultation when it comes to choosing paint. The process of choosing involves lots of considerations. How much light is in the room, what the homeowners want in terms of warm or cool, is there a focal wall, what other colors are at play… all of these and more help narrow the field of color choices. Once we have two or three choices, I encourage clients to buy a sample pot or color sheet so that they can see it in the room in a significant amount. I advise them to observe the color in different light at different times of the day. The way that color and light interact can make a difference in the color choice. Once a selection has been made, I encourage the painter, whether a professional or do it yourselfer, to color test the paint against the sample after it has been mixed. Once, a Benjamin Moore dealer had a problem with the calibration of their color mix and the colors that we chose came out significantly off from the samples. Fortunately, we did poster sized color boards, for one last review with the client, when we noticed the flaw. Had we not tested, the color would have gone on the walls with disastrous results!
I often tell clients that painting is the least expensive way to completely change the look of a room. If you get some color advice, choose high quality paint, look at the colors in different lights, and test the final paint mix before you begin painting, you can expect a beautiful result.