Benjamin Moore Color Chats did a great blog post on the ombré trend I thought I’d share with you.
Ombré is a paint application that makes anyone look like a master painter. Use the paint colors on a color strip or mix your own secret formulas and you’ll end up with a one-of-a-kind wall or piece of furniture. Here’s the link to Color Chats Ombré: The Fade is Not a Fad.
Trend alert – Does it seem like the scallop motif is gathering momentum?
Your home says a lot about you. Both inside and out, it is a reflection of your style, personality, and the family who lives there. Making sure your home is an accurate reflection of you is exactly what our Hirshfield’s color specialists are trained to do. Painting the exterior of your house is a very large project that you want to get right on the very first try. If you’ve already made a trip into the paint store to admire the thousands of paint options, you may be seeking an expert to give you specific color suggestions that match your home and personality.
An exterior color call typically starts in the interior of the home because the inside of your house is a great reflection of your style. A color specialist will also take time to interview you as the homeowner to ask you about your color preferences, and even take into account the existing colors in the neighborhood so that your house stands out from your neighbors’, but still complements the look of the neighborhood. Finally, your color specialist will evaluate the permanent or semi-permanent fixtures around your home, such as windows, fixtures, and landscaping like plants, trees, or front walks.
After the consultation is complete, the specialist presents 4-6 color options to choose from for the main color of the house which covers 70-75% of the exterior. Accent colors are then chosen for the trim and remainder of the home. Your new exterior color will change the look of your house– and hopefully make your neighbors just a little bit jealous!
To see one of our Hirshfield’s color specialists, Kathy Basil, explain the exterior color call process, check out the video below:
Hirshfield’s is excited to announce we’re adding a new product called Cottage Paint, to our line of decorative paint finishes. Cottage Paint is a clay-based paint that dries to a matte finish. If you’re looking to update an old piece of furniture, this is the product for you.
From the Cottage Paint website:
Cottage Paint is a clay-based paint that dries to a silky matte finish and remains porous and easy to sand or wet distress when dry. We didn’t invent this paint, it’s been around since the frescos in the Sistine Chapel! We did, however bring it up to modern environmental standards by removing almost all of the VOCs in both the bases and the pigments.
1. Cottage Paint dries in about 15 minutes to one hour. I’m not joking. BUT for a rule of thumb – never do more than THREE applications of anything to a piece per day.
2. It adheres to just about any surface you can think of: Wood. Plastic. Metal. Brick, Melamine…
3. It requires NO sanding, priming or stripping. NO prep work – just a CLEAN surface.
4. It can be distressed as soon as it is dry using a damp cloth or fine sand paper.
5. Cottage Paint does not roll or peel like latex when sanded, and appears as if the paint has truly worn off over time.
People get really excited about the “no prep” aspect – but use your judgement. I was working on a chair with a high-gloss factory finish, and I took five minutes to scuff it with sandpaper to assure maximum adhesion. Use TSP to clean the piece making certain it is clean, clean, clean.
Cottage Paint offers a clear wax coat in three different sheens for a protective finish. For a tougher finish a varnish top coat can be applied. Also, included in the Cottage Paint products are colored waxes which give your piece of furniture that aged antique look.
The standard Cottage Paint line has 24 colors. But wait…There’s more! Drew, Minneapolis Institute of Fine Finishes, a/k/a The Plaster Center, developed 30 additional colors for the Cottage Paint line. In addition to the extensive palette of pastels and brights, imagine all the color possibilities you have just by adding white to a color.
Join us at Hirshfield’s Eden Prairie store on Saturday, March 16, 2013. Ongoing demos are taking place from 10:00 – 2:00. Cottage paint and two DIY decorative plaster wall finishes, Sedona and Moiré, are being featured. Hirshfield’s Maple Grove will be the next store showcasing the products, so stay tune for more information.
The Edina store and The Plaster Center stock the Cottage Paint, with the following stores waiting to be set up:
Baxter, St. Cloud, Shakopee, Wayzata, Edina, Eden Prairie, Maple Grove, Coon Rapids, Roseville, Apple Valley, and Woodbury.
We appreciate your patience as we set up the remaining stores. If you have questions about the product, please contact The Plaster Center at 612-374-0221 or Hirshfield’s Edina at 952-927-4647.
P.S. I used Créme Brûlée as the top coat on a piano bench and I put a sample of Schumacher’s Chiang Mai Dragon, in the Aquamarine color way, next to it. What a stunning combo. I could totally see an accent wall in the Schumacher paper with a Créme Brulée buffet placed in front of it. You could charge admission, it is that lovely. A $2 piano bench and $200+ a roll of wallpaper; a perfect example of mixing “high and low.”
The island is painted Kendall Charcoal – Designer Sandra Ericksen as seen on Houzz
When did this happen? Benjamin Moore’s Kendall Charcoal HC-166 has bumped long-time favorite Revere Pewter HC-172 out of first place as most searched paint color on the Hirshfield’s blog. I was surprised. Revere Pewter has held the first place spot for the past couple years as everyone’s beige/gray favorite.
“Rich, deep, and luxurious, kendall charcoal pops beautifully when paired with crisp white room accents and trim. A versatile neutral, it also works well with most color schemes.” Benjamin Moore
Designer Jennifer Austin-McGrath from Gabberts – Houzz
Meister Construction – Houzz
Sarah created an entryway in her apartment with this great oversized chevron pattern, painter’s tape, and Kendall Charcoal paint. With the high contrast of paint colors, charcoal and white, this small space makes a huge welcoming impact.
Avenue B Development – Houzz
How to determine which colors are popular with Hirshfield’s customers? Talking with H’s employees who refill the paint swatches in the chip racks and mix up the paint. How’s that for a high tech, top secret, evaluation process?
Cindy (H’s Maple Grove) tells me she is constantly filling in Kendall Charcoal (and other darker grays) on the Benjamin Moore chip rack. She thinks customers like the idea of using darker grays, but when it comes right down to it, they back off, and order a lighter and safer paint color. They mix a lot of Revere Pewter and Hirshfield’s Oak Tone 0217 at the Maple Grove store.
She’s also seeing an increased interest in accent walls – here’s where the customer will choose a darker paint color, or use wallpaper, on that one focal wall.
We painted BM Kendall Charcoal on the wall behind our bed—and it totally changed the look of our master bedroom. I love it! It looks great with white bedding and accents of either orange, yellow, red, aqua, or red. I’m currently using lemon-colored accessories! It’s a dramatic neutral color. Reader from Houzz
Want more? Color Chats from Benjamin Moore showcased their 50 favorite grays in this June blog post.
What’s in? What’s out? Most popular color in your state? House Beautiful shared their paint color survey in the September 2012 issue and here it is in case you missed it.
I’m fascinated (I can’t help it) with the USA map showing the paint color preferences according to regions. House Beautiful was right! Hirshfield’s store employees tell me gray is still the most requested paint color with our customers. Grays with blue or green undertones was mentioned most often by our staff.
And for the 29% of readers that say “pink is so over.” Wrong call. Let’s see where pink is in a year.
2012 was the year of geometric patterns. From rugs, to wallpaper, fabrics and accessories, interior design was flooded with all these fabulous shapes, sizes, and colors. Triangles trended to the top of the heap for me as they seemed to be everywhere. I didn’t get too excited about them until I saw these funky painted walls.
Merci to Muriel over at http://unetouchede.canalblog.com for curating these curiously inspiring rooms. Make certain you click on the link in the post where she shares the pastel painted doors in her kitchen.
Turn your cool factor up a few degrees by checking out Muriel’s Pinterest Boards. “Paint” is my fav. Loving that European flair…
…you’ll recognize many of Muriel’s pins on Hirshfield’s Pinterest boards-check us out.
The most-searched-for color on the Hirshfield’s blog is the Benjamin Moore color revere pewter HC-172. Which makes perfect sense, because that is the most-searched-for color on Benjamin Moore’s site. What makes it so popular?
A light gray with warm undertones, revere pewter (HC-172) is a great transitional color that works equally well on walls, ceilings, and trim from room to room. Described as the perfect “whole-house color,” this classic neutral is perfect for an open floor plan.
Dark enough to contrast nicely with whites and off-whites, but not so dramatic as to compete with bold colors, it can ground and balance a room with colorful décor, or create a serene vibe when paired with pale hues and other neutrals.
It feels like the color gray has had an amazingly long run in popularity. My first post on gray was done in the spring of 2009, and back then it had already been popping up on design blogs since 2008. From what I’ve been seeing, grays are still best sellers, but are warming up. “I can’t tell, is that a gray or a taupe?” Good old chameleon colors.
Two years ago my neighbor used revere pewter in her lower level remodel, and with her lighting it leans towards a green undertone. It’s perfect for her space and her lower level looks fantastic. Kathy Basil (Hirshfield’s Design Studio) has found when there is a lot of natural light in a room revere pewter sometimes gets too purple. She said the Hirshfield’s paint color oak tone 0217 is actually a better color than revere pewter. It just works well in many different color scenarios. Read it and weep, Benjamin Moore.
If you think revere pewter is the color for your room, step over to the Hirshfield’s chip rack and pull a sample of Hirshfield’s oak tone 0217. Remember we sell pints and quarts so you can test drive your paint colors before you purchase paint for your entire room. You don’t have time to hide all those gallons of the wrong paint color (in the trunk of your car) and start all over. True story.
For more comments on revere pewter, here’s a link to Benjamin Moore. I always enjoy reading what “real people” have to say about their paint colors. Hirshfield’s partnership with Second Harvest Heartland ends on Monday, December 3, 2012. Save 20% on your paint purchase this weekend.
Happy painting!
Does fear of commitment keep you from experimenting with color in your home? Does the risk of going “bold” keep your home in the “beige”? What if you could take a bold, new color for a test drive – no strings attached, no commitment necessary. Hirshfield’s visual painting tool lets you unleash your creativity, experiment and have fun – without ever having to dip a paintbrush!
Virtually paint any of the interior rooms or house exteriors from the Hirshfield’s image library. Or use your own image – a digital photo from your camera or phone – by uploading it to the Hirshfield’s site.
These rooms and more are all just waiting for your colorful influence…
Living rooms
Bedrooms
Kitchens
Bathrooms
Corridors
Exteriors
Choose paint colors from the Color Is, Devine and Historic palettes. The color combinations are endless!
Once you’ve selected your color palette, stop in to your local Hirshfield’s retail store and let the paint professionals help you get set up with everything you need.
Happy painting!
Hirshfield’s is your local Minneapolis-St. Paul paint retailer. The paint experts at Hirshfield’s are here to help you with everything from window-treatments to paint colors. Hirshfield’s manufactures paint right here in Minneapolis.
Den
Behind that wonderful black and white photo is a wall-mounted TV. Made from salvaged wood. Love the wallpaper. A subtle, good looking plaid which reminds me of Ralph Lauren in design and color, but at a better price point.
This would be so easy to make!
Introducing our glamorous take on the rustic lodge. Get ready for an “alpine chic” touch on 100s of creative home decor and entertaining ideas for the holidays. Think “cozy, up-north cabin meets big city bling” as you tour this year’s Holiday Ideas House.
The Bachman’s Holiday House has tons of great ideas to inspire you. Freshen up your home for the holiday season! On this tour, we’re starting on the second floor and working our way down to the main level. Read the rest of this entry »
The color experts at Benjamin Moore have made their selection for the 2013 color of the year. And the winner is…..
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Lemon Sorbet 2019-60
Benjamin Moore Lemon Sorbet 2019-60
The palette is shifting from super saturated and strong hues to softer, lighter pastel shades. It’s the perfect partner for the emerging palette of freshened, polished pastels that promise to be favorites in the coming year. Additionally, it’s the ideal transition color as we move from the more vibrant spectrum and mid-to-deep tone hues that we’ve been experiencing in home furnishings and fashions.
- Sonu Mathew, ASID, IIDA, Benjamin Moore’s senior interior designer (Source)
