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well the uh the fourth tip that you give
in the free pdf
is um things you cannot change maybe
mention what you mean by that
what i mean like that say you've bought
a new place and
you love the new space but the reality
is
you know maybe you don't have enough
money to redo everything but you can
you know you can't have enough money to
repaint and make the space feel a little
bit more
yours but say you have new carpeting
and it's in really good shape but it's
kind of pink
and you don't really like pink what do
you do with it
you know what most people will end up
doing is they'll actually end up picking
colors
try to ignore it and what it ends up
doing is it actually emphasizes the
paint
so one of the things that you want to do
with that if you don't
want to make the pink stand out stronger
is to actually pull something that has
some red in it which i know
like i mentioned in the tips that it
seems
but it really is something that will
help camouflage or tone down
a color that you really don't like so if
you have a base carpet
you don't want to be going at anything
that is green based
they do work together but all it does is
it emphasizes your carpet
so if you have a pink carpet you're
better off
with going something that has more into
the pink beiges
taupes that have more of a red undertone
in them just to
tone everything down doesn't mean that
you
have to do pink in there i mean you
certainly could there's no harm in doing
that
if if you don't want it to be everywhere
pink you still need to have something
that has some red in it
that's how they blend together yeah when
i'm
giving some of my professional color
consultation which is very
uh minimal to uh clients specifically
with exteriors
uh i often tell them look at things you
cannot change like your roof
you generally can't change the color if
you've got a red roof you know you've
got a little bad if you've got white
gutters or white window frames
like some people have brick work red
brick in the front of their house
so there's things you can't change and
you gotta kind of start with that and
then in other words that way
that's what you're trying to say start
with what you you're kind of stuck with
and then go from there yeah
it always if you include it in your
color scheme it's more intentional and
it always looks way better if you do
that
feel good in your home and download your
copy of carla's free pdf
how to choose the perfect paint color
for your home at
trustedhousepainter.com watch the
complete video interview with paul and
carla and get all seven color design
tips by clicking the link in the
description of this video
hello i’m paul the painter from trusted
house painter and on today’s show we’ve
got carla hedman she’s a professional
color consultant
from victoria bc carla welcome to the
show how are you
hi paul i’m doing great thank you for
having me here
cool well you created a document called
how to choose the perfect painting color
for your home it’s seven professional
color design tips
to help for people that uh
understand the color process and
actually choose the colors properly
and in today’s show what we’re going to
do is we’re going to talk about all
seven of those
tips the first tip is all about neutrals
what would you say about neutrals why is
this a tip what do you mean about that
neutrals are something that isn’t
obviously
a color and the beauty of neutrals is
that they
go with a lot of things so if you’re
really confused about does this go in my
house does this go in my house
sticking with neutrals is a safer way
for most people to pick colors
it’s you know easy a lot of people think
resale
that’s a lot of things that you don’t
have to put too much personality into a
space often when you’re using neutrals
if you’re worried about having something
that’s going to be
longer lasting neutrals are great ways
to go as well
neutrals always change as far as
what’s in style sometimes grays are more
popular
sometimes beiges and taupes are more
popular
sometimes whites are more popular but
the reality is
a neutral is always a neutral it works
all the time it might not be to your
taste sometimes
or that it might be that you’re tired of
having that neutral
but otherwise neutrals are if it counts
for anything
the safer way to go when you’re choosing
colors
yeah absolutely so i will get onto the
second point which is strong colors and
i think we’ll
identify what uh the tips you give about
strong colors and then we’ll identify
the contrast between the two which might
help the listeners understand a little
bit more about this step too or this tip
too which is
strong colors tell us about strong
colors now strong colors can have a
great deal of impact and sometimes
that’s what you want you want to direct
the eye you want to focus the eye on
something
great idea to do that if you want to
have something that actually
you know the thing about neutrals if i’m
going to go back a little bit about
neutrals
is that neutrals don’t always
give a lot of personality to a space so
if you don’t know how to decorate around
a space sometimes
you know adding colors in on your walls
actually adds part of the decor
so you’re not relying on your deck your
decor around the house
to give you influence or
let’s say a feel to a space
color can give it more personality
you can go blues like a navy blue
hard strong color but the thing about
that is that cool colors
even though it might be strong recede
and so it might not advance at you the
same way
that a warm color like a red will do
they both have a great deal of impact
it’s just whether you want to have
stronger energy
or softer energy that’s good info that’s
good info so give us an example give
give the viewer here an example of when
you would use a neutral for example with
interiors
uh well the beauty of using neutrals in
an interior
uh say you’re going in a hallway or an
entryway or something that you want to
have
sort of a continuity something that
maybe you want to change colors in each
room
having a neutral in the middle is a
great way to meet these colors together
in case you’re you know wanting to put a
different color in each room or
three different colors in the house and
having one as your main color to drive
you through or pull your eye
all the way through the spike through
the space and
uh you know the beauty of having
neutrals is
mixing it with color your color becomes
more apparent and your neutral becomes
more neutral if that makes any sense at
all
yeah well as painting as a house painter
what i notice is that when you paint a
house an exterior of a house for example
in neutral tones
you can add you can add hanging flower
baskets
red and pink flower baskets and you see
you know a rose garden in the front
that’s just makes it pop
or they’ve got specific kind of brick
work in the front that just makes it pop
because it has that that that contrast
to it so i know exactly what you’re
talking about maybe give another example
of when you’d use a strong color when
what’s
when would you use a strong color for
example in an interior for example
so using a strong color in an interior
can do some really interesting things
you could do it on say a front door on
the inside
it focuses your eye on the front door
gives your entryway just a little bit
more interest
you could use it in a powder room a
powder room is a small little room it’s
going to be
small no matter what you do why don’t
you use it as a little jewel in the
middle of the house
and add some color in it like there are
some options to do it you do not have to
use strong color everywhere
if you use it everywhere it’s just it’s
definitely a bold statement
so it’s really up to you as far as how
you want your space to feel
the neutrals will emphasize the color
as well so you’ve got that nice contrast
just like you were saying about the
flowerpots
against the neutral of the background
what do you see you see the neutral of
the background and it’s lovely
but then you also get that little pop of
color
yeah and so your third point on the pdf
the free pdf
um how to choose the perfect paint color
for your home
is undertones and neutrals or i should
say neutrals and undertones so maybe
what do you mean by
selecting undertones and neutrals so
because a neutral
is essentially a neutral if you pair it
with a color
but as soon as you start pairing
neutrals with neutrals then your
neutrals start having colors
to them so don’t if you’ve ever put a
beige with a gray
and sometimes your beige looks yellow
and sometimes your gray looks blue
that’s where you’re coming out with your
undertones so
putting neutrals with neutrals that’s
how you can really pull out the
undertone
and it just comes down to what’s most
important in your space if you’re
decorating with yellow
and yellow looks good in your space but
you’re done with yellow
you know that an undertone of yellow in
a color will always work in that space
same idea with blue if you decorate and
the decorating with the blue looks good
in there you can make a blue
undertone work in your space it’s just
about
finding that you just don’t necessarily
want them to fight
so if you’re putting you know a gray
that you think is gray
but ends up looking blue next to
something that is a beige that looks
very yellow you get blue and yellow in
your room
instead of gray and beige so don’t add
neutrals together in other words
sometimes you can it’s just
the easier way to do it is to stick to
the same
undertones if you’re worried and you
don’t have enough experience to do those
things
pick an undertone and roll with it
okay that’s good advice well the uh the
fourth tip that you give in the free pdf
is um things you cannot change maybe
mention what you mean by that
what i mean like that say you’ve bought
a new place and
you love the new space but the reality
is
you know maybe you don’t have enough
money to redo everything but you can
you know you can have enough money to
repaint and make the space feel a little
bit more
yours but say you have new carpeting
and it’s in really good shape but it’s
kind of pink
and you don’t really like pink what do
you do with it
you know what most people will end up
doing is they’ll actually end up picking
colors
try to ignore it and what it end up
doing is it actually emphasizes the
paint
so one of the things that you want to do
with that if you don’t
want to make the pink stand out stronger
is to actually pull something that has
some red in it which i know
like i mentioned in the tips that it
seems counterintuitive
but it really is something that will
help camouflage or tone down
a color that you really don’t like so if
you have a base carpet
you don’t want to be going at anything
that is green based
they do work together but all it does is
it emphasizes your carpet
so if you have a pink carpet you’re
better off
with going something that has more into
the pink beiges
taupes that have more of a red undertone
in them just to
tone everything down doesn’t mean that
you
have to do pink in there i mean you
certainly could there’s no harm in doing
that
if if you don’t want it to be everywhere
pink you still need to have something
that has some red in
it that’s how they blend together
yeah when i’m giving some of my
professional color consultation which is
very
uh minimal to uh clients specifically
with exteriors
i often tell them look at things you
cannot change like your roof you
generally can’t change the color if
you’ve got a red roof
you know you’ve got a little bad if
you’ve got white gutters or white window
frames
like you see some people have brick work
red brick in the front of their house
so there’s things you can’t change and
you gotta kind of start with that and
then in other words that way
that’s what you’re trying to say start
with what you you’re kind of stuck with
and then go from there yeah
it always if you include it in your
color scheme
it’s more intentional and it always
looks way better if you do that
okay that’s that’s cool what brings us
to our next point which is
lighting lighting in color is so
important
what is the purpose of lighting well
basically color really is when we see it
through our eyes it’s all
relative to light available light
and what it’s next to lighting and
relativity
really pushes or pulls on colors
so you know the reality is color is
going to change
all the time because lighting changes
all the time sunrises sun sets it goes
all the way around you have sunny days
you don’t have sunny days
it’s going to change and sometimes
that’s why it’s hard to pick a color
because
you’re looking at a color you know at
noon
in the middle of the summer and then in
the middle of winter when it’s
you know five o’clock in the afternoon
and dark why does this color look so
gross
it’s because the lighting has made it
look that way
so sometimes you want to look at when
you’re choosing colors look at them
throughout the day
i don’t expect you to look all
throughout the year that’s a little bit
much for people having to wait that long
to choose colors to wait through the
year and see what they actually do
but give it a day see look at it all
through the day
see what it does for you do you like it
and also another thing that i like to
point out too for people
is when are you home most of the time
you know if you’re home
all the time well then that’s really
important if you’re only home in the
evenings
maybe you know looking at the evening
time is probably your best time to check
it
you know it’s just where do you like it
because the reality is sometimes
you’re not going to love that color 100
of the time
you might like it 98 of the time but
there might be a day or two where you’re
like
i don’t know about this and it might
even only just be in a corner
that you don’t like it yes because
it’s all about lighting and we’ll get
into that yeah we’ll get in the next two
points after this quick tip a lot of
the times i tell clients of mine when
i’m painting is when they’re putting it
on the outside of the house the color
i tell them to put them on two or three
different sides of the house so that
they get to see what
the backside the west side looks like
morning
and at night and you can see the east
side on the morning and at night so it
kind of gives you a different
perspective
of way the way the the the sun moves
through the sky throughout the day so
that’s another little tip that i do
with respect to lighting so the last two
points uh
of this free pdf which is how to choose
the
paint color uh for your home is the
difference between
natural light which is point number six
natural light tell us a little bit more
about natural light how does that affect
color
so natural light what you’re gonna get
on that it basically is
are you getting the sunshine on it or is
it ambient daylight so the sun isn’t on
it the sun
might be up and it might be a sunshiny
day but the actual sun
is not shining into your window right
now or shining on that side of the house
what you’re gonna get with with sunlight
is warmth right you think of the yellow
of the sun or the gold
of the sun that color comes and
shows you the warm yellow note so you’re
gonna get
warmer color because you have warmer
light
when you’ve got ambient daylight so that
means that the sun
is not actually shining in you just have
daylight coming in
daylight tends to be on the blue side
and you know if it’s overcast
it’s gray blue good way to think about
it is what does the sky look like
if the sky looks like that that color is
coming into your house or it’s on your
house when you’re looking at an exterior
so yeah yeah the biggest thing when it
comes down to what does the sky look
like
that color is coming in your house that
color is on your house so basically
look at the sky that blue that’s why a
lot of the time when people pick colors
and they’re
tend to be bluer than they thought they
were going to be
it’s because daylight is doing that for
you yeah it’s interesting i know from
photography um
like for example when the sun is going
down sunset you can get
brilliant warm pictures uh because the
sun is low on the horizon whereas it’s
probably best to take wedding photos
when it’s
somewhat overcast because then you get
the diffusion of the light of the sun
which creates a different less shadows
for example so
um that’s a perfect that’s a perfect
example of what that does
yeah and i know with recent forest fires
here in the bc where we are sometimes we
get the summer haze
and that turns out to be orange or
bronze and it can totally distort the
color of the of
your home right yeah 100 well that’s
something that a lot of people forget
about
i mean we could get into other things
too about you know windows
windows always have uv protection if
there are newer windows they have uv
protection so that uv protection
is adding some color as well so when you
have the light coming through that it
is actually filtering the light in a
different way than if you had clear
glass
yeah who knew it would be so complicated
eh
it can be complicated but it doesn’t
have to be
too difficult that’s right exactly well
it is a science and that’s why there’s
people like you
serving you know many homeowners and
people that want their colors
which brings us to our last point which
is artificial colors
um now there’s different color
temperatures there’s
like you mentioned yellows blues you can
get light bulbs that are all these
different temperatures and different
temperatures are good for reading
tell us a little bit more about our how
artificial lighting
can affect colors well it’s just like i
was saying about daylight and how
daylight can be blue and sunlight can be
warm
you can buy bulbs that are trying to
emulate
basically the light that comes off the
sun it’s just in a much
muted and uh softer way obviously we
don’t want to
burn our houses down but it’s uh it
really comes down to uh you know
if you’re wanting to have uh like if
you’re choosing a color in the south
side of the house that’s going to be a
warm light
south-facing rooms west facing rooms
tend to be hotter light that comes in
them so
you know sometimes it’s a good rule of
thumb to choose cooler colors in the
warmer rooms
and conversely in the cooler side of the
house with the east and the north side
facing spaces
to choose warmer ones so that in the
reality of the scheme of things
is that the temperature value seems
similar in the end so that they’re a
little bit more cohesive
just to work with what the lighting is
doing whether
where the sun is and then also
considering what sort of artificial
lighting you’re
you’re choosing to put in your space
well those are great seven tips yeah
those are great seven tips
um carl it’s always awesome talking with
you about color we should cut this
okay i short appreciate all the
information that he talks choosing a
color is a science
it’s not that easy it’s very quite
complicated because we’re dealing with
emotions and human beings right
a hundred percent yes yeah thank you
paul
so if you want a copy of this just
download it on the page on the blog page
it’s a free pdf and it’s seven
practical tips uh that’ll guide you to
choosing the perfect painting color for
your home
my name is paul from trusted l’s painter
thank you carla for being on the show
today and check out our other videos
follow us on facebook and on youtube
um and have a great day