Do you Dream about Decorating your House?

Sometimes when I get to the “Here’s what my fee’s are” conversation with a client, they say “But I just need colour/s”. And it seems really simple and straightforward—like anybody could come over and just choose a colour. However, rarely do the people that hire me have a simple colour problem. If colour was all that was required, you could take your sofa cushion or drapery fabric and head over to your nearest paint store and get a colour chip.

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No, you hire me because what you want to create in your home is a look and a feel which (as I have said in previous posts) equals atmosphere. My clients have said “I am tired of thinking about my house, I would just like to enjoy it!”

Sometimes I’m called in to choose colours from scratch. ‘It’s an empty house and we’re moving in’. In this case, major colour decisions regarding furniture have yet to be made, and I am a part of that conversation. Sometimes it's tile or granite (or which colour cabinet?) that's about to be installed and you want to be able to sleep at night!

Sometimes, major purchases (sofa/loveseat) have already been made and my client is convinced they have made a mistake and they are stressed out!! My job then becomes about pulling in all the missing elements of a room that have simply not been purchased yet. Maybe the drapery is still old and needs to be replaced before the new furniture has context in the space, maybe toss cushions are missing, or coffee tables, etc.

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Years ago (in my 20’s) I bought a sofa for my apartment. When it arrived and I placed it in my living room with my existing furniture, I was horrified. Convinced that I had made a terrible mistake I was about to return it--thanking the furniture God’s that the department store had a return policy--I got on the phone with a designer friend of mine who came over, re-arranged my furniture, took me shopping for end tables and lighting (which were sorely missing) and suddenly my sofa looked right as rain.

One client called me, worried that she had bought too much brown furniture for her living room (as her blinds were brown as well). We went shopping, bought a great striped area rug in blues, toss cushions, an upholstered slipper chair, lighting and accessories and then her living room too became a sanctuary to relax in. (sorry it was too long ago for a good picture, if you want to see my work click here.)

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The main living areas of your house, the kitchen, great room and living room are the most important because that’s what all your friends see when they come over and a True Colour Expert needs to be a designer too, otherwise you will be left with pretty paint chips and no plan to pull it all together.

So, before you start throwing good money after something you think is bad (because now you are willing to spend anything to take away the pain), it’s best to call me (or your designer) first to see what can be done that might not be obvious to you. After all if you don’t like your house, you won’t want to spend time in it.

If you want your home to have atmosphere including colours that flow to fill you with happiness every time you walk in. Contact me by email info@mariakillam.com for on-line rates or call me at 604.318.9725 if you are local.

Related posts:

The 3 Most Important Words in a Consultation

Is Hiring a Designer a Luxury or Necessity?

The 5 Designer Secrets that will Make or Break your Paint Colours

Insider Secrets to Testing and Selecting Paint Colours

New to this Blog? Click here ; Subscribe to my Monthly Newsletter; Become a True Colour Expert

Are you Colour Deprived?

This is an excerpt from Janice Linsday’s talk “Getting white Right” sponsored by Pittsburgh Paints at the Buildex show today in Vancouver;

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“The night before I arrive at a clients home, I'm sure they dream about the colours they imagine I will push on them when I arrive at their house. That I'll arrive at the door and say, ‘OMG you are so colour deprived, step aside and let me fix it’.”

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This she assured us, is not what we can expect (I have talked about this before—how a good colour designer also needs to understand neutrals). Janice said that choosing colours from the perimeter of the colour wheel is easy, it’s when you start going into the middle where the neutrals live that you can get into trouble. This part of the colour wheel is what my True Colour Expert Training is all about!

In one consultation the couple informed her they were either going to sell their house or they wanted to paint it purple. They went for purple and on all four floors of their home there is not an inch of white. Everything that would be white was instead a soft gray mauve.

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They kept emailing her saying, we love it, come and see it and then they sent her a note:

“We can't tell you how happy we are in this house, we will never sell it, the people who come to visit who thought we were crazy to do 18 different shades of purple and a fuscia now call it the happy house and they love it too. It is strange to us that so many people want to live in beige and colourless homes now that we find ourselves so happy in our colourful house!”

“Workplaces studies have shown where there is lots of colour variety there is less absenteeism and better productivity. When men and women are in colourless rooms stress levels go higher than in coloured rooms and men experience higher levels of stress than women in these rooms."

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"The reason for this is that white it not a natural colour and is actually the enemy to nature in many ways. Our responses to colours are coded in our DNA from the millions of years that it took for nature to evolve with us and this was our home."

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“Natures colours are the right from which we see wrong. You would never look at a colour in nature and say 'that is so wrong' That floor colour [above] clashes with the house!”

We evolved in a world that was full of magnificent colour where there was very little white and colourlessness happened when things faded and died. Somehow we’ve gone from that world to one where 70% of all paint purchased is white. . .” Janice Lindsay

Janice is Pittsburgh Paint's spokesperson, we all received one of their fan decks and her book, All About Colour!

Related posts:

White is a Snob; Janice Lindsay

Interview with Colour Expert; Janice Lindsay

[Colour Theory] Rules are for Breaking by Janice Lindsay

If you are new to this blog, click here to see the Best of Colour me Happy

Vancouver Colour Expert; The Three most important Words in a Consultation

The most important word is because.  Really. That is what you are paying for when you hire a designer or a colour consultant to help you with your design decisions. If you hire a colour consultant to help you select colours for your home and all you have at the end is a bunch of colours and that's it? You have paid too much.

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I get emails all the time asking for a quick opinion on exterior colours (and it’s okay if you keep emailing me, I love getting mail from my readers) but if I just fire a colour or two back, here’s what happens. Nothing. You simply add them to your poll--you know the one you are doing with your aunt, your uncle, your friends, your painter, your dog and your cat? And why is it basically meaningless?

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Because it still doesn’t give you the answer to the question, Why? Why is your colour the one? Why is it better than all the 2,000 colours in the fan deck? That’s what you are paying for, the Because. And it's working with a professional that gives you the confidence to move forward. After all, its expensive to paint the exterior of your house. The cost of the right colour is the most inexpensive piece of the entire bill!

How about interiors? When I worked at store level, people would walk in asking for a consultation, certain it would only take about 20 minutes; “How on earth could it possibly take even one hour?” was a question I was asked all the time. And you are right. The colour is the fastest part of the whole thing. You know what takes all that time? Decorating. Yup, that’s the second most important word. Going back to the statement I made earlier; if you are left with a pile of colours and no PLAN to pull together the look and feel of your home ? You have paid too much.

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Or you are renovating, (that’s the third one by the way) and you need to know if you are making the right decisions, especially when you are doing-it-yourself. Very important at this stage, that you have the designer in to validate what you are doing, otherwise you might end up wasting a pile of money.

I was recently in a kitchen with honey maple cabinets from 1995 with black granite countertops and cream and gray 12 x 12 tile.  The client asked if she should continue the same granite up on to the backsplash. 'Not if you are keeping the cream tile. it will look way too heavy to have that much black granite on your backsplash'. Problem solved, and a lot of money saved on granite that was not necessary in the first place.

So, if you are on a budget, you have no budget to waste! This is what we do all day, that’s why we know what's current, what’s dated, and which finishes or furniture will give you the look and feel that works for your home!



When you have an empty house or you are buying new furniture (and telling me, please ignore this stuff, it’s toast) you need to have a colour scheme for your upholstery. Otherwise, without a plan, eeeeek, you might just buy leather, read my opinion on that here. Without a plan, ladies and gentleman, you will just flail around and stare at those colours and second guess them all day and all night. Why? Because (there’s that word again) it doesn’t relate to anything in the room.

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I was at a colour consultation a few weeks ago where the client showed me the chart she had from another designer who had paid them a visit months before. I looked at the chart, and asked why she had chosen a gray green (Clarksville Gray) because that colour was no-where to be seen in her decor. My client said “I don’t know, I just assumed she was the professional so I went with it, she didn’t even ask me if I liked it?”

At the end of our consultation, my client had a plan for her living room (and the rest of her home), she knew exactly what colour her sofa and chairs should be and the wall colour she ended up with? HC-115 (Georgian Green) which made way more sense as she had existing white vertical blinds (that were staying) including 80’s white cabinets, which would look way better with a fresh green, then a gray green.



After all of these decision have been confirmed, or validated--together with your designer--the colour choice then becomes so obvious, you will wonder why you spent so much time agonizing on your own.

Can this be done on-line? Yes (in many situations it works well), email me for details of what it looks like.

If you would like your home to fill you with happiness every time you walk in, contact me.


Related posts:

When to buy Leather Furniture
Hiring a designer; Luxury or Necessity
5 Designer Secrets that will make or break your Paint Colours
How to get the most out of your Colour Consultation

New to this Blog? Click here ; Subscribe to my Monthly Newsletter; Become a True Colour Expert

Market Umbrellas; Which Colour is the Right one for You?

Last year I needed a new umbrella for my garden. The first one I bought was bright orange (it was on sale). “I like orange” I thought, “I’m sure it will be great in my garden patio”. The next morning before I even looked outside, I noticed an orange glow coming from my windows and the first thing my eye was drawn to was the orange umbrella, it had become the focal point of my garden! Back it went and I came home with a white one (which is what I originally thought it should be anyway).

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I love my white umbrella, it matches all the white flowers in my garden (below) – although I do have colour there as well! And it matches the black and white fabric my outdoor 50’s dining chairs are covered in. I can dress the table any colour I want and I don’t have to worry about coordinating the decor to the umbrella.

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Another white umbrella that matches the flowers and the trim of this particular house, which is also another way to choose the colour. It also looks like the garden is the focal point here which is why a white umbrella makes sense.

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And of course here in this outdoor market in New Mexico (I fell in love with this image from flickr so I had to include it) the blankets remain the most important element with the white umbrellas in the background.

And these turquoise umbrellas are so beautiful with the fresh yellow (we will ignore the muddy pink colour on the right) and the turquoise buildings as the backdrop!

Here these periwinkle blue umbrellas look so stunning as they work so well with the blue pool and windows!

Here, there is nothing to see except grass beyond the patio, so the graphic patterned yellow on this umbrella with the matching cushions are fabulous!

You know when a great colour as the best idea? If you want to take the attention away from a garden, balcony, or patio area that isn't that attractive (or not yet at the level you want it to be). Find an umbrella and some patio cushions in your favourite colour, and it will instantly bring your garden to life!

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This navy umbrella from House Beautiful is perfect on the dock to go with the lake!

This black umbrella is great in this poolside patio from David Jimenez where the focal point is definitely the umbrella with the coordinating cushions as the only thing behind the view is a simple tall hedge which provides a lovely backdrop for this outdoor vignette! No flowers or a busy garden here to create confusion with the umbrella colour. This 1/2 umbrella for balconies is such a great idea! I like the way they picked black to go with the railing! Also black looks so great with orange bricks! If you are buying an umbrella for your balcony, matching the trim in the building or the railing as shown here is a good place to look for the colour!

Notice that I’m only showing market umbrellas for your balcony or patio? That’s because these cheap ones (shown below) belong ONLY in the sand at the beach! Never in your patio.

This is where I’d love to be right now!

Related posts:

Clean vs. Dirty Colours

Ralph Lauren Home

A Happy Mid-Century Renovation

Material Girls and Colour me Happy come full Circle!

Material Girls Blog was the very first blog I stumbled across when I was looking for fabric sites on-line one year ago.  It was the one that started my blog obsession and yesterday Emily Johnson (one of their many talented designer contributors)  wrote an article about my blog!

She called it “Advice From a True Expert” and I had to include an excerpt here, it was so great what she said:

“I'm sure you all know by now how much time I spend with my mom- and 99.9% of that time we spend together, we end up gabbing about design. Ever since I started Material Girls, she has gotten really into design blogs. She will often call me up and tell me about a new one she discovered. Her latest blog obsession is "the color lady". She has been talking about the color lady for weeks. "Emily, this lady gives THE best paint advice! Haven't you ever heard of her? Colour me Pretty? Wait, I think it's Colour me Ecstatic? No, that's not it..." Great description mom! I'll be sure to google "colour me something".  Emily Johnson Click here for the full article.

I love their colourful header!  And so many of you have such great ones as well.  I’ll be getting my own colourful ‘Colour me Happy’ blog header very soon, so stay tuned. . .