Sherwin-Williams Color of the Year 2012 & A Color Consultant’s Tangent
Turn Your Builder-Grade Bathroom Into a Spa In One Simple Step
Who wouldn’t want to spend every morning in a bathroom that feels like an oasis of calm?

So you have a drab, neutral bathroom. It’s your typical builder-grade bathroom – the cabinets and hardware are fine, just nothing special. You’re tired of it, but you don’t have the budget for a major rehab.

Bathroom Before
Want to make your bathroom feel like a hotel spa without the expense of a weekend get-away? Is that even possible?

Builder-Grade Bathroom Before
What this bathroom needed was the right paint color, which was then repeated in the accessories to create a calming, spa-like feel.

Bathroom After The Decorologist
The best color for a spa-like feel is a blue with a hint of green, like the one I chose for this Nashville bathroom. There’s no one perfect color that will do the trick for everyone’s lighting conditions and existing elements – you have to try several in that color family until you find just the right one. Some good ones to try are Benjamin Moore Beach Glass or Gray Cashmere, or Sherwin-Williams Sea Salt.
If you need helping choosing paint colors, contact The Decorologist for a Color Consultation that will change the way you feel about your home.
Something To Talk About in the Loo
This modern little powder room was previously a vicious red – my client thinks it was called “Satan Red.” I haven’t been able to find a paint named that, but she swears that’s what it was named when it was painted a decade ago! Well, now it’s painted a much friendlier Sherwin Williams’ Tupelo Tree.
A powder room can be a great place to showcase an interesting grouping of art. This client has lots of really cool modern pieces like the ones we hung on this wall.

Modern Art in the Loo
What do you think about art groupings in a bathroom?
Proof That Colors Read Lighter on the Ceiling
As a paint color consultant, one of the things I always explain to my clients is that paint colors appear lighter on the ceiling than they do on the wall. I’m not sure they always believe me.
The reason this is true has to do with the way in which lighting hits the ceiling vs. the wall, and we all know that lighting greatly affects the way we perceive paint colors, right? [Read more...]
In the Pink at the Southern Living Showcase House Tour
The Southern Living Showcase Home was open to tour here in Nashville through this last weekend, and it did not disappoint. I love the exterior - the REAL shutters with actual shutterdogs, the gas lamp above the entry, the gray gutters.
Southern Living Show House in Nashville
Let me get the bragging out of the way so that you can tour the rest of the home. As a Nashville paint color specialist, I had the honor of being called in to assist AB Home Interior’s Amanda Burdge in choosing paint colors for the guest room.
Southern Living Showcase House Guest Room by AB Home Interiors
So, Will You Do Inky Blue?
| Jackie Jordon, Director of Color Marketing for Sherwin Williams, is forecasting the latest “it” color of the year: SW’s Indigo Batik (SW 7602). | ![]() |
Jordon believes our country is “a blue jean nation” and this color represents that sense of relaxed traditionalism in America. In addition, prints and fabrics in ethnic batik and ikat prints are increasingly popular in this hue all over fashion and decor.
I have specified quite a bit of inky blues in Color Consultations lately – sometimes in combination with lighter blues or blue-grays. Some of my favorites include Benjamin Moore’s Van Deusen Blue HC-156 and Newburyport Blue HC-155.
Inky blue can definitely be dramatic, especially in a high gloss lacquer. This is a big trend in libraries, dining rooms, and even living rooms. And I love it as an accent color in the backs of bookcases.
Traditional navy or inky blues pair beautifully with more fun, edgy colors – like Honeysuckle Pink:
Looks fabulous with gray and lavender. I wrote about pairing blues and lavenders here. Inky blue works great with kelly or avocado green, but not sure I would have put the lavender and green together with the blue like they did here:
I love it with limey greens and yellows, like this living room by Jamie Drake:
So the question is, will you do inky blue?
Heather’s Color Forecast
Heather Spriggs Thompson has a lovely blog that I follow called Gathering Spriggs. Last week, she added her two cents to the Sherwin-Williams ColorMix 2011 post I wrote.

Heather has a way of choosing and combining the most beautiful photography and colors. Check out her take on Sherwin-Williams’ new collection here.
Photo Credit: Heather Spriggs Thompson.
Sherwin Williams 2011 Color Forecast
| Have you heard? Sherwin-Williams has introduced their color forecast in what they are dubbing ColorMix 2011. The 39 colors selected by Sherwin-Williams color experts for Colormix 2011 are grouped into four palettes: Purely Refined, Bold Invention, Restless Nomad and Gentle Medley. Jackie Jordan, director of color marketing for Sherwin-Williams, says “Status is no longer about consumption, it is about personal identity and ColorMix 2011 evokes that sense of uniqueness.” With this new color collection, Sherwin-Williams wants to “celebrate individualism – a trend toward not being trendy at all.” Let’s see what you think of their new palettes: | ![]() |
[Read more...]
Why Men Fear Painting Wood
| It’s an age-old question: why do men fear painting wood? I can’t tell you how many times the following has occurred: I have a color consultation with the lady of the house. There are some horrible 1970s-1980s pieces of wood furniture, dreaded fake paneling in the den, or dated wood cabinets in the kitchen. | ![]() |



















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