Candy Paint
Hello my fancy friends and thank you for tuning in today! You are doing so much, I know it, and I’m delighted that you’ve taken a moment to have a little break, or go on a walk, or maybe you’re still working away while you listen, but either way, I love our time together. Talking about interior design is a true joy for me, and I’m so lucky to have you as an audience. Sometimes, the seemingly most simple things end up being the most complex, especially when we underestimate them. One of the most common and frequent interior design tasks is selecting paint! While this process can take professional designers a matter of seconds, home and small business owners will spend days, weeks, months, and countless samples trying desperately to select the perfect shade for their special room. And who’s to blame them? With upwards of 20 major paint companies, dozens of sub brands and products, plus each company having thousands of colors to choose from, the world of interior paint can feel like an endless hall of mirrors. So today, we are going to break down what to look for and what to avoid to find the perfect pot of paint for your home, store, salon, office, and any other space you can dream up.
But first, let’s talk about the Color of the Week. Last month, paint power house Sherwin Williams announced their color of the year for 2023. That’s right, we are approaching the time of year where review lists and predictions for the year ahead permeate every industry, and interior design is no different. Part of the Colormix Forecast, which includes 40 other trending colors, Sherwin Williams named Redend Point SW 9081 as their color for 2023. This color is a mix of blush and beige, inspired by desert landscapes. They refer to it as minimal, calming, and intriguing - a quote on their website says “embrace a spirit of connection with the world around us with this soulful-yet-subtle hue.” They recommend pairing it with other neutral earth tones like mossy green, dark red, cool beige, and warm gray. Here’s to 2023.
The universe of paints is massive, I mean really, really huge. With 25 major brands and lots of new companies popping up, narrowing down to a single color can feel like a task. Let’s look at some of the major players and what makes each one different, so you can decide for yourself the best brand for your home.
We will start with some of the names that might be already familiar to you. National home improvement giant Home Depot’s exclusive Behr paint comes in over 4,000 different colors - by far and away more than any other brand. I can’t emphasize enough the enormity of a 4,000 color library. This is cavernous, massive, engulfing - especially in comparison to its competitors. If you’ve ever been inside a Home Depot and felt overwhelmed by the paint selection, there’s good reason for that. Behr is meant for do-it-yourselfers, like everything else inside Home Depot, and there’s no denying it’s one of the most accessible paints, available in 2,300 locations across the United States, Canada, and Mexico. If you’re more a Lowe’s Home Improvement person, you might recognize the name Valspar, a company founded back in 1806. This paint brand features 2,000 colors to choose from, which is still a gigantic color library, and is also very easy to find at any of Lowe’s 1,700 locations.
What you might not know is that our paint friends over at Sherwin Williams acquired Valspar in 2017, which is one of the many companies under the paint giant’s umbrella. Others includes Dutch Boy, HGTV Home, Krylon, and Minwax. But Sherwin Williams’ still has its own unique branded paint library, separate from any of its brand groups, which includes 1,700 colors. Sherwin Williams paint is sold exclusively at Sherwin Williams stores, so you have to seek it out if you want it. If you’ve listened to this podcast before, you’ve probably heard me speak about this company during the Color Of The Week, because they are one of three major companies used for commercial paint projects, and I tend to favor their products. Their Emerald and Harmony paint bases are used on interior walls all over hotels, restaurants, offices, and hospitals; and their customer service teams are extensive.
The other big name in the world of professional paint is Benjamin Moore. This color library has been used as an industry standard for years. Often times, Benjamin Moore’s selection of 3,500 colors is used as an equivalent for the Pantone Color Matching System, giving carpenters and furniture makers a reference point to communicate with designers and clients around color. Benjamin Moore Aura and Regal paints have been trusted by architects, interior designers, and contractors for decades.
The third major paint company in our world is PPG, originally the Pittsburgh Plate and Glass company. PPG has its own line of paints, as well as owning other companies including Glidden and Liquid Nails. Within their namesake line they have over 2,000 paint colors, and their products often cost less compared to Benjamin Moore and Sherwin Williams. All three of these brands are used by contractors and designers, and while every designer will have preferences based on durability, sustainability, and color range, each one provides a high level of quality compared to retail and store brands.
I mentioned that there were a few new companies that have sprung up over the years. New compared to the companies we just talked about, most of whom formed in the 1800’s. There are a handful of popular companies such as Backdrop, Farrow and Ball, and Clare Paint; that are distinctly different from the big box brands brands and the major corporations. Clare Paint has just 50, well curated paint colors to choose from. If you check out their website they have only eight shades of beige. The company was founded by an interior designer with a passion for paint color. It's a woman owned, black owned business, which we love to see and support, and the whole idea is that rather than standing in a hardware store, staring at thousands upon thousands of shades of paint, you, the customer, can chose from an exquisitely vetted micro-palette of colors that will work with a wide range of other colors and in lots of different lighting situations. Farrow and Ball, the British luxury brand, shows off just 132 colors, mostly based on historic palettes. These companies also have their colors on a rotation to keep the lines looking fresh and interesting. The only down side to that is the color you buy this year might not be around for touch ups in 3 years. But, these companies sell directly to you - mostly from their websites, so no need to hunt down a special store or brave the crowds at a mega hardware store on a Saturday.
In terms of designers using these paints, we tend to prefer having the full rainbow at our finger tips, especially when we are working with complex palettes and trying to match paint shades to an existing area rug perfectly, but I love seeing the palettes that these newer companies come up with and I think they are major innovators and nice change of pace.
So, those are some of the more common paint companies and suppliers in the United States, and if I missed your favorite, I want to acknowledge that there are so many different brands all over the world, many of which are awesome, and if you find one you love - you don’t need an interior designer to approve that for you.
When it comes time for you to select a paint color, there are a few things to keep in mind. One is who is supplying the paint.? If you’ve hired painters or a contractor to do the painting, many times they will be purchasing the paint as well and they will want to use their favorite suppliers. What constitutes a contractor’s favorite supplier is determined by a few factors – one is how readily available any particular brand is, two is how they like the performance of that brand, and three is any existing partnerships they may have with that brand. If your heart is dead set on a Farrow and Ball color, but your contractor only has PPG paint, fear not. These larger companies do have the ability to match colors, and with their larger catalogs it’s likely they have a standard color that’s very similar to the one you’re eyeing up in the first place. It’s worth noting that color matching between brands is never 100% but the important thing is that the paint looks good with the rest of the space, not necessarily that it matches your 2 x 2 paint chip. Keep the bigger picture in view at all times.
If you are doing the painting yourself, you get to make the call for both brand and color, but in both instances, a critical part of the process is testing the color in the actual space. This is a pretty common practice and it’s nothing that you need an interior designer for. Most companies have often provided tiny paint pot samples for you to brush on your walls, but now, there’s the no mess trend of peel and stick wall paint samples. These act as giant stickers that perfectly mimic the final look of the paint, and can be lifted and replaced from room to room, if necessary.
There are so many factors in choosing paint colors and applications, and if you want to dive deeper into those topics, you can listen to the episodes called “How To Paint a Room” and “She’s a Rainbow.” But once you have narrowed it down to a few favorites, and you’re in the wall sample phase, here are a few things to keep in mind. If you are choosing between several very similar colors, painting or sticking all of the samples right next to each other in the same room creates too much visual noise to make an informed decision. Plus the way these colors look next to each other can have an effect on their singular perceived value, meaning look at each color one at a time. Leave a single sample up for at least 24 hours (a week is better if you have the time!) so you can get a good look at it in direct sunlight and at night time with electric lights on. Make sure the lighting in the space is the final lighting that you're going to use, don't use the lights you're going to get rid of later. Paint color should be one of the very last things you decide on in your space, because it’s the easiest to adjust, given that there are over 14,000 paint colors on the market today with all the manufacturers combined.
Take a picture of each color and make sure you label it in the notes app on your phone so you can identify it later. Make sure that any big elements that are going to be next to the paint color, like a sofa or a kitchen cabinet are in the room when you decide on your final paint color. Color is relative, so it's all about how a collection of colors work together, rather than one single color. I'm often asked what I think the best white paint is, and this is such a strange question to me because really there's a best white for every room and every project, but that's not always the same white. A lot of times I'll recommend Benjamin Moore's Decorator White because it doesn't have a strong undertone that leans too cool or too warm, it’s very neutral, which allows it to blend in easily with lots of other colors, but that doesn’t mean it’s what is going to look best with your carpet or your hardwood floors. All colors are good, it’s just about how colors work either against each or together to create harmony in the right moments, and contrast in the others.
I hope you are able to take this information and let it help you be decisive and confident the next time you have to choose a paint for your home. Remember, paint is one of those things that’s changeable and fluid, so don’t stress too much and you can always book a consultant with me online over Zoom if you need a little guidance. I hope you are enjoying all the colors life has to offer, and I will talk to you in the next episode.
