House Beautiful Color Quiz

Maria Killam of Colour Me Happy (here) tagged me about the recent House Beautiful color quiz. I've been blogging a little over a year (not very consistently I must admit), and I've never been tagged before. I'm such a fan of her blog and work, I feel like I'm in high school and one of the cool kids just asked me to sit at her table. Before I start, if you're not that familiar with me, don't let the white paint of the blog title fool you--that's just a metaphor. I love color and really only like white when it's used to enhance color, and for me personally, it's usually strong color that I prefer. In fact, this pic from Decorno is one of my favorite inspiration rooms, and helped inspire the palette of my upstairs. Now that you've been warned, let's begin: 1. What's the first color you see in the morning? I am not a morning person (to put it mildly), so my eyes do not open until after at least 1 cup of coffeee. Therefore, the first color I really notice is usually Benjamin Moore's Pale Avocado in my kitchen.

2. What color are your eyes? They are blue with a touch of green.

3. What color do you wear the most? Add paint spatters to the shirts below and that pretty much looks like my closet.

4. What color do you never wear? Lime green and any shade of yellow pretty much make me look like I have jaundice

5. What color do you wear when you want to feel sexy? In summer and daytime (especially with a tan)-Aqua. In fall/winter and at night --charcoal grey

6. What color gets you the most compliments? Shades of bright blue, especially aqua and royal

7. What color is your lipstick? N/A (at least most of the time), but I'd like to think I could rock a vintage look:

8/9 What color was your living room and bedroom growing up? I combined these questions, because my childhood home was (and sadly still is) completely covered in a lovely wood paneling similiar to the one below. Maybe all that sad brown wood is why I love color so much now.

10. What color are your sheets? I prefer white

11. What color was your favorite crayon as a child? I always ran out of black first because it was so useful.

12. What color is your car? My pickup is Disco (it sparkles) Smurf blue

13. What color was your prom dress? No prom dress (though if I ever go for a political office I'll have to hunt down the photos that exists of me in high school fundraiser where I wowed the crowd in a turquoise and black halter winning the Kilbourne High Miss Teen Luscious of 1989 crown). For prom, I wore a black tux with a tie and cummberbund that unfortunately matched my date's baby blue dress.

14. What's your favorite gemstone? turqouise (are you starting to see a trend?)

15. What's your favorite flower? Daffodils

16. What color makes you happiest? Orange

17. What color depresses you? Beige --I even find the name sad

18. What color calms you? I love those indefinable blue/green/grey colours that switch according to lighting. My favorites are Benjamin Moore's Misted Green and Grey Cashmere,seen in the powder room below:

Sherwin Williams Sea Salt, Oyster Bay (two of the colours I use the most--I've never had a client not love them), and Ocean Breaker, which has been discontinued, but can still be mixed.

19. What color makes you grind your teeth? It's actually two colors that are indistinquishable from the materials. It is orange varnished woodwork and maroon brick---I hate those things and often have to fight clients tooth and nail to paint them. Don't get me wrong, I love beautiful old brick and fine woodwork, but that's not what we're talking about here.

Typical exchange:

Me: Let's paint the woodwork and brick a creamy off-white--It will really lighten and update the space.

Client Husband: But it's brick!

Me: Yes, it's brick. It's ugly brick. In fact, brick that ugly will probably take two coats of primer--I'll make a note for the painter to bring extra.

Client Husband: But it's brick!

Me: And it will soon be painted brick.

The conversation continues, until the client remembers I charge for by hour and finally gives up and the brick gets painted. Which they always like afterwards.

20. What color you like to try, but are scared to? I've already tried almost all of them. In fact, I painted one early apartment so often, friends claimed the paint thickened walls had eaten up floor space. However, I usually avoid red. I find it a little overpowering, but the real reason is that I usually do my own painting, and it is a pain in the ass to paint. Without using the right primer and three coats, it usually looks this:

And to get rid of it, it can take two more coats of primer. And as someone who has cleaned up a lot of paint spills, let me tell you---nothing stains like red paint, even latex.

Hope you enjoyed it.