Colour In Film: Alfred Hitchcock’s, Vertigo

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Alfred Hitchcock's Vertigo, colour in film

Nightmare sequence from Vertigo

Helping clients chose paint colours may be my primary focus but I’m interested in all mediums in which colour plays an important role. Certain directors have an excellent understanding of colour and how to use it in film and Alfred Hitchcock was one of them. One of his best films and one that uses colour very specifically throughout is Vertigo.

CAST OF CHARACTERS.

James Stewart as John “Scottie” Ferguson. He’s a cop who retires from the force when his fear of heights leads to the death of a fellow officer.

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Barbara Bel Geddes as Midge. Ex fiance to Scottie, but they’re still friends. Artist and ladies underwear illustrator she loves Scottie more than he loves her. She believes that a secondary traumatic experience can cure Scottie of his vertigo..

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Tom Helmor as Gavin Elster. An old school chum of Scottie’s who hires him to follow his wife because she is possessed by the spirit of a dead woman.

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Kim Novak as Madeleine Elster. Wealthy wife of Gavin, presumed possessed by the spirit of long dead Carlotta Valdez. Scottie falls hard for her.

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Kim Novak also plays Judy. The woman who gets transformed into Madeleine Elster twice in the film by two different men, first Gavin then Scottie.

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Portrait of Carlotta Valdez. Mistress to a wealthy man with whom she has a child. He ultimately rejects her but keeps the child, soon after Carlotta commits suicide.

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Key colour players. The main one being the colour green. Several different greens are used in the film along with split complimentary colours of violet and red. Blue-violet also plays and important role.

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The first time we see Madeleine is in this restaurant scene. Those red walls are amazing but as the camera pans across the room our eyes are immediately drawn to the green satin of Madeleine’s shawl. Green is the colour of re-birth, significant in a film where a dead woman keeps coming back to life. The deep green also suggests elegance and wealth, both of which Madeleine has in spades.

The next day Scottie follows Madeleine as she drives around town in her green car. Another detail in the film is that they are always driving downhill in San Francisco, never up. In the scenes where she seems to be possessed by Carlotta her clothing is always a ghostly grey or white. Edith Head said she wanted grey because it’s a colour that looks jarring on a blond.

Madeleine visits the art gallery and sits staring at a portrait of a woman in a purple dress. Purple is a split complementary to green. Not red, not passion – but cooled with the addition of blue. The woman is Carlotta Valdez.

Hitchcock gives us a bit of foreshadowing the next day when Scottie again follows Madeleine. This time she wears a purple dress, like the dead Carlotta, and this time she attempts suicide by throwing herself into the bay. Scottie rescues her and takes her to his apartment.

While Madeleine sleeps we see Scottie in his living room. The woman that he loves is in his bedroom. Scottie wears a green sweater, symbolizing his own re-birth and a new beginning with Madeleine. When she awakes he gives her his red robe to wear, she is wrapped in his passion.

Midge is a natural girl. Despite being an artist and illustrator she’s grounded. Her studio apartment has bamboo blinds, a sisal rug on the floor and copper pots hanging in the kitchen. In every scene where Scottie visits Midge in her apartment he is wearing a brown suit; lifeless, dull, conservative.

Scottie is determined to cure Madeleine of her possessed state and takes her to an old Spanish mission where we see the famous bell tower scene. Scottie, overcome a second time by vertigo cannot prevent Madeleine from throwing herself to her death.

A broken man, Scottie suffers nightmares. Here Hitchcock uses a series of clashing colours designed to disturb the audience. In the hospital Scottie wears a dark blue sweater. His love is dead, the deep freeze has set in.

Finally pulling himself back together again he is out on the street one day and sees a girl talking with her co-workers. Her likeness to Madeleine is striking, except for the brown hair it could be her – and of course it is.

Though Scottie doesn’t know that yet. Following her to her hotel he finds out her name is Judy and convinces her to have dinner with him. She changes into a purple dress. For Scottie this is a colour that represents Carlotta and not his lost Madeleine which explains why he doesn’t look happy during their meal.

He decides to take her shopping. In this scene she wears a green skirt. She’s trying to bring things back to life, but Scottie doesn’t want a new life, he wants Madeleine. She also wears a brown top with two brooches, one floral. She’s ordinary, she doesn’t have the cool mystique of Madeleine but she hopes that love will blossom with Scottie. Unfortunately for her whatever she does isn’t good enough for him, he’s a man stuck in the past.

The outfit he wants to buy for her is the ghostly grey suit, nothing else will do. After that the only thing left is her hair colour. Scottie waits in Judy’s hotel room while her hair is being dyed. The green neon light from the sign outside her window spills into the room, he’s flooded in green but it’s not the green of life anymore it’s the green of decay and putrefaction. What Scottie is doing to Judy is not about life, it’s about dredging up the dead.

Scottie is happy enough with his new superficial Judy/Madeleine. Despite her reservations the two of them are attempting to make a go of it. He sits in her room waiting for her to dress for dinner, as she enters the scene we see the second use of  foreshadowing through colour. Judy/Madeleine is wearing a black dress.

She readies herself by putting on jewellery but makes the fatal mistake of wearing a necklace that Scottie recognizes. His world comes tumbling down around him. He realizes that he’s been the pawn in a cruel, murderous game devised by Gavin Elster.

Determined to know the entire truth and all the details of the game Scottie takes Judy back to the Spanish mission, forcing her up the stairs to the top of the bell tower. He won’t listen as she pleads for him to understand that she really does love him, that even as Madeleine she was in love with him. A nun hears the commotion and comes to see what is going on, a startled Judy falls out the window and to her death. A horrified Scottie stares down at her body. He seems cured of his vertigo but the consequences are tragic.

Fade to black.

Kora Sevier is a Vancouver Colour Consultant. She works with both residential and commercial clients to take the frustration and guesswork out of choosing colours. For more information, visit www.kcolour.com

Interested in cocktails? visit www.astaswhiskers.wordpress.com

Never Insult Your Client.

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building good business relationships

I received an email just the other day from a web design company. In this email they say that they have looked at my website and have chosen me as one of the select few for whom they want to make a very special offer. The email goes on to explain that this company looks for websites that are using “outdated design techniques”, whatever that means. They also say that they want to use my website as a “before and after” example. I am one of the lucky select few for whom they want to do a website makeover. Wow, two insults in one email!

Now I happen to be in the business of helping people create a more beautiful environment for themselves. Let me tell you, I’d be out of business fast if I walked around saying to people, oh that’s a really ugly colour on your walls, why don’t you hire me to help you. Or, oh that colour is so outdated, you’d better get me in there pretty quick to come up with something better for you because you obviously don’t know what you’re doing.

This very special web design company claims that they have looked at my website. “after looking through your website…”. So if they looked through my website then why did they send me a form letter with the salutation, “Hello”.  You don’t have to look very far on my website to find my name, like the very first page you land on. Yes, I think I even have an “about” page on my outdated sight. I’m pretty sure my name is in my bio. Wouldn’t be much of a bio without one. I also think that if you take the time to look at my site you find out that I am my company. There’s no mention of any team. There’s no mention of any partners. So this company is too lazy, or doesn’t have the technology, to add my name to the salutation of their form letter.

It’s clear to me that this company hasn’t taken any time to get to know me.  What they also don’t know is that I designed my website myself. Yes, mea culpa. That’s me using outdated design techniques. I can’t blame it on some other schmuck, I’m entirely to blame. While I’m at it I may as well admit that I’m also to blame for that logo that you see on the home page. You know, those coloured circles that are on every page and if you click on it it takes you back to the home page. Hmmm, is that good design?

I know absolutely nothing about html. I am however a Mac user. I have been using Macintosh computers for (dare I say it) more than twenty years. The reason why I started on a Mac is because I have worked as – wait for it – a graphic designer! Yes, I think that point is stated on my “about” page. One of the reasons that I love Mac computers is because I can use something called iWeb to build my own website. Since I have been a graphic designer at one point in life, I do actually know a thing or two about fonts and page layouts and I think I might even know a bit about colour.

Is iWeb a pro way to build a website? No, it isn’t. Does it give me access to every single bell and whistle that’s out there? No, it doesn’t. That said, I know people who have spent shocking amounts of money on a website only to be dissatisfied with it. There are both limitations and restrictions when building in iWeb. I have spent three decades working in one type of creative field or another and one of the most valuable things that I have learned is that the greatest amount of creativity comes out of having restrictions placed upon you.

Does this very special web design company think that my website has outdated design techniques because I don’t have Facebook and Twitter? Maybe I don’t have links to Facebook and Twitter because I don’t care. Maybe I don’t have those things because I happen to know my demographic. Maybe I’m too busy working with clients to while away hours on Facebook. Maybe I like to write complete sentences, with words spelled in their entirety.

I have had my own website for about five years now. I have built every site myself and with each site I have learned something new, made improvements and found creative ways to work around restrictions. If I were to build another site tomorrow it would be better than the current one. One thing I have never done on any site is to have before and after pictures. I have pictures of what I have accomplished in partnership with my clients. The before picture is an insult. The before picture is the disaster, the mess, the loser. I don’t judge my clients in that way. My clients have done the best they could have done without having a colour education. Or they have done their best with no one to bounce an idea off of. I am a graduate of Studio 58’s theatre training program. Any good actor will tell you that one of the most important things they must do is to not judge the character they are playing. I took that bit of wisdom away with me and use it to this day.

So you see this posting isn’t just a rant. For those who follow my posts or for anyone who happens to come across it, I have two cardinal rules that I will share with you.

If you are in any kind of business where you work with clients;

1.  Never judge them.

2. Never insult them.

Judging and insulting is no way to do business. My business is built on relationships, most businesses are. You’re not going to keep clients or get new ones if you go around insulting people.

This very special web design company passed a judgment on my website. They insulted me, my work and my creativity. I worked hard to build my website and frankly I’m proud of my work. I also happen to like my website. Funny thing, when I ask clients why they called me, they almost always say because I liked your website.

One day I will hire someone to build a website for me, anyone want to take any bets on who I won’t be calling.

Kora Sevier is a Vancouver Colour Consultant. She works with both residential and commercial clients to take the frustration and guesswork out of choosing colours. For more information, visit www.kcolour.com

Interested in cocktails? visit www.astaswhiskers.wordpress.com

The Paint Tester Pot – Friend or Foe

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deciding on paint colour, paint tester pot, painted colour samples

Too many samples in too many colours is a sure path to confusion and frustration.

My heart always goes out to people when I see them standing paralyzed in front of that wall of tiny colour samples at various paint stores. I can see a state of confusion overtaking them. They either don’t know where to begin or grab so many samples that they’re bound to be just as confused when they get home. It’s difficult to make an intelligent decision based on samples that’s are so small. Enter the paint tester pot, or sample pot. The idea seems like a good one, a few ounces of paint that you can purchase to try at home before you commit to a gallon or two. Paint retailers actively promote these testers as a great way to lessen the anxiety that goes along with choosing colours. Available in the full colour palette from most paint manufacturers, a test pot will cover approximately two square feet and costs around eight dollars, depending upon the paint company.

I can’t argue that having a large painted sample isn’t far superior to a tiny one printed in ink. I have no doubt the tester pot has helped many people and has proven to be just what was needed to solve a colour crisis. I also know from experience that they can be a costly and frustrating experiment, one that leaves people feeling even more confused than when they began. I’ve walked into the houses of new clients and been faced with the chaos of eight or ten colour patches painted at random around a room. Their initial eight dollar purchase has mushroomed into something closer to eighty or ninety dollars and they’re on the verge of a meltdown. Nothing looks the way they thought it would and they’re not happy with any of them. Having larger samples seems to increase the level of frustration people experience at their inability to make the right choice. The toll this takes is much more than financial. There’s also been serious damage done to their belief in their decision making process. It also reinforces the idea that painting is nothing but a big pain in the neck that should be avoided at all costs. The tester pot isn’t a bad idea but it has its limitations. It’s something that must be used at the right time and in the right way, and frankly it’s not for everyone. Let me put it this way. If someone gives you a book in a foreign language that you can’t read, it’s not going to help if they give you another copy with a larger typeface. If you don’t have a clear idea of the changes that will occur when a sample goes from two square feet to all four walls then you’re no further along.

Tester pots are a great way to decide between to different variations on the same colour.

Here are some things to keep in mind regarding tester pots.

They come in only one sheen level. Sheen makes a difference to colour, so make sure you know what sheen level the tester pot comes in and whether your final product will have greater or lesser sheen.

Try not to use tester pots to make a decision between three or four entirely different colours. Use it when you have things narrowed down to a couple of variations on one colour. Colour has a tendency to change as it covers more surface area, so tester pots are good indicators of the different directions two seemingly similar colours may take.

It’s a good idea to live with a sample for awhile, you’ll be amazed at how your feelings can change.

Paint your sample onto a piece of poster paper. Poster paper is heavy weight and made for ink or paint applications. Tape the paper down and do two coats. Let me repeat that, do two coats. I’ve spent close to three decades working with colour and as far as I’m concerned there’s no such thing as one coat of paint. Leave the paper taped down until dry, this will prevent large ripples from occurring. Afterwards, write the colour name and number on the back. If you do get into the situation of purchasing several different samples, it will become important to know which is which. Some people recommend leaving a white border around the edge to interrupt one colour from the other. While this method has its merits I think it’s better to take your colour to the edge. You can always tape your sample onto a blank sheet if need be. Try to view the colour in isolation, such as the edge of a wall. It’s best to try to look directly into the colour and not compare it with what’s already there. One of the most common complaints I hear from clients is that they like the colour on one wall but not another. When they move it around it doesn’t look the same. This is to be expected because of the way lighting changes throughout a room. When the painting is complete the colour will fill in and even out. However you must keep in mind that when all is said and done a colour will still vary slightly from wall to wall, which is as it should be. Tape your sample up in a place that gets a good amount of natural light and leave it there, live with it for awhile. Colours are like people, you have to get to know them and you should never make quick judgments about them. Don’t ask too many questions, that’s a direct route to second guessing yourself. Second guessing comes from over analyzing and is the left side of the brain at its worst. Colour is an emotional experience. It’s not like deciding what shoes to wear or what to order from a menu. Choosing a colour is a process. It’s your process, which is why you must choose colours that please you – not your painter, or your friends or that person you work with who you think has such good taste. If you like it and it seems to work with your furniture, then go for it. If you can’t figure it out after two or three tester pots then please consider hiring a professional.

It’s important to remember that what you’re looking at is just a sample and as such it’s there to give you assistance, not concrete answers. The tester pot doesn’t have any magical qualities to it. It’s not going to make the decision for you, that is something you have to do for yourself. It’s a large sample, which is great, but it will still be affected by whatever colour is already in the room. Even if that colour is white.

We live in a time where people expect to have definitive answers to everything before they partake in it. Colour cannot be pigeon holed in that manner. When it comes to colour there’s only so much that can be predicted beforehand. Painting your walls is an act of creativity. At a certain point any creative act takes on a life of its own. You must be willing to let that happen and venture into the unknown.

Kora Sevier is a Vancouver Colour Consultant. She works with both residential and commercial clients to take the frustration and guesswork out of choosing colours. For more information, visit www.kcolour.com

Interested in cocktails? visit www.astaswhiskers.wordpress.com

Choosing Colour For Your Mantle

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Farrow & Ball Down Pipe, stylish mantle colours

This piece was featured in The Vancouver Sun. 05 December 2011

Pratt & Lambert, Olive Bark

Whether it’s wood burning, gas, or electric a fireplace is a great addition to any room and invariably becomes a focal point.  Clients are often taken by surprise when I suggest that their mantle need not be painted the same colour as the trim.

For many people it’s a thought that hasn’t occurred to them before and can make them feel a bit nervous, but they’re usually intrigued enough to see where I’m going with it.  A mantle is like a front door, it’s an entity unto itself.  This is your opportunity to do something unique and even a little dramatic. As with the front door it’s important to remember that ultimately all elements must work together harmoniously.

There’s no set rule as to what colour a mantle should be.  In general it needs to

set off whatever wonderful items you plan to place on top of it but more importantly it must act as a colour bridge between your walls, the surround and the firebox.

Gas and electric fireplaces have a black firebox. This isn’t just to give them the black soot look of a wood burning fireplace.  What it does is draw attention to the flames and makes them glow brighter. This black element is the final destination on one side of your colour bridge and is why a smooth transition of colour is so important.

Farrow & Ball Down Pipe. A magical colour.

Fireplaces often have a surround and hearth made of tile or brick and it’s this area that usually proves to be the greatest colour challenge and source of misery to many a homeowner.

Painted brick can look great and is usually an easy way to breath new life into a tired looking fireplace. There’s something about brick that looks wonderful when painted in creamy off whites or warm, stony grays. A word of advice is to avoid painting brick a brick red colour.  Attempts to imitate the surface that you’ve painted over tend to be a visual disappointment. Seize the opportunity to give it a new and interesting life.

An unfortunate colour choice in terms of paint is easily remedied, not so when it comes to tile.  What the previous owner or builder may have loved often has the current owner pulling their hair out.  I’m frequently asked if tile can be painted.  While the answer is yes, I usually stress to my clients that it’s something to consider only as a last resort. My first piece of advice is to get a fabulous new colour on the walls and mantle and then see if the surround is still an issue.  Colour is a remarkable medium, capable of so many things. Through the correct colour choice in one area you can diminish an unfortunate and unchangeable colour in another area, making it virtually disappear. I say over and over again that colour is all about relationships. A colour will change depending upon what colour you put next to it. This is very important in terms of things like tile or bathroom amenities.

With a fabulous new colour on your walls the surround can easily become a non issue. The tile that was previously a nightmare now manages to look great because all the colours are working together.

I consider painting tile a last resort because the outcome often doesn’t give great results. This has to do with texture. Brick has an overall texture that gives it a cohesive look when painted. Tile usually has a very slick surface with only the grout lines to break it up. There’s an intrinsic relationship between tile and its grout lines that painting over can adversely affect. Because most tile is glazed it has a very shiny surface that even a high gloss paint cannot match. I think one of the reasons why painted tile often fails to be esthetically pleasing is because we hold the memory of how shiny that surface used to be, and it seems somehow unfortunate that we removed that shine.

It’s not any easier to pick a colour for a small surface just because of its size.

The reality is that choosing a colour for a mantle is complicated because it has to relate to so many other elements in the room.

Farrow & Ball. Tanner’s Brown on walls with Pigeon on mantle.

F. Scott Fitzgerald once said that the test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in the mind at the same time. In a way this is what you must do when considering your mantle. On the one hand you want it to stand out and be unique and on the other it must live harmoniously within the room. It’s easy to get stuck, so here are a couple of things to keep in mind. Try not to second-guess yourself. Colour is an emotional experience and your gut instinct is often the best. Don’t be afraid to be bold. Half measures are a sure route to failure. If you’re really uncertain a straightforward solution is to take the colour that’s in the room and find it’s darker cousin. Building tone on tone layers is one good method for building a colour bridge.

Kora Sevier is a Vancouver colour consultant. She works with both residential and commercial clients to take the frustration and guesswork out of choosing colours. For more information please visit www.kcolour.com

Paint Colour For Dark Rooms

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dark colours in dark spaces

This piece was featured in The Vancouver Sun as Colour Courage. 14 October 2011

Farrow & Ball, Green Ground & Blue Green

Rooms that don’t receive much natural light can be especially challenging when it comes to colour choice. It’s not uncommon for people to apply a faulty logic and assume that the best way to remedy the situation will be to use a very light colour, or something from a family of whites.

Afterwards they don’t understand why they didn’t succeed in brightening things up. Often they’ll feel even more dissatisfied because they’ve spent time and money on an improvement that didn’t materialize. Faced with defeat they may stop using the room or, will use it but not feel happy in it. I’ve encountered clients who’ve left entire sections of their homes essentially unused. I have one simple piece of information that I give to anyone in this situation. Don’t fight the light.

I think every room in your house should be a joy to walk into and a pleasure to be in. Embracing the darkness of a space is the best way to work with it a

nd will ultimately give you the most satisfying results. Colour and light are soul mates in an endless dance, I can’t stress this point enough. A bright space gives you a lot of colour freedom of choice. Dim spaces require consideration, it’s a very different dance when the lights are low.

If your light is weak, your colour must be strong. Rooms that are dark or

used in the evening will feel much more comfortable if painted a darker colour. What most people don’t understand is that whites or light colours need a great deal of light to come alive and look their best in big bright rooms. Deeper colours have more muscle so they don’t fizzle out and die when the light is lacking. Many are afraid of colour because they don’t want to make a mistake. Yet in my experience it’s the whites, light colours and beiges that suffer the most abuse. When I ask clients how they want their homes to feel words like warm, comfortable and welcoming are what I hear the most. Unfortunately a dark room that is painted white isn’t going to feel like any of those things. It’s going to feel cool, clinical or bland. We all want comfort, and deep rich colours can create that feeling for us.

Farrow & Ball, Tanner’s Brown

I don’t know why there’s such a fear of dark colours. If I had a dollar for every time someone asked me if a colour was going to be too dark I’d be a rich woman. I do know that each time a client has trusted me and taken that terrifying leap into a dark colour, they’ve landed in a room they love.

Utilizing rich, deep colours means that anything that’s lighter gets brighter through sheer force of contrast. In a dull space this actually creates light. Your walls may be dark but other things such as trim or furniture provide a contrast for the darkness to play off of. The eye is drawn to the lightest thing in a room, so it’s not the dark walls that stand out but other objects whose brightness level has been magically amped up. What the dark walls provide is a rich backdrop for art and mirrors. The glow of a lamp stands out rather than blending in with some amorphous shade of gray. Saturation of colour can give similar results. Saturation is a common stumbling block when choosing colour based on a tiny sample from the paint store. It’s an important subject and worthy of an article of it’s own, but essentially saturation is about purity of colour. A highly saturated colour hasn’t been toned down. Saturated colours also have muscle. It’s a different type of muscle but it’s still going to work. However the colour still needs to have some depth, otherwise without enough light it can vanish.

In the accompanying photos there’s a room that’s painted light green above the picture rail and blue green below. It’s a large room with high ceilings. If it was on the top floor of the building and had southern exposure white would stand a chance. In spite of the fact that it’s full of colourful objects and art it was suffering from that cool, bland, shadowy gray feeling. This is because it’s on the first floor and has northern exposure with several tall trees across the street. Here we went for saturation. The light green above the picture rail wouldn’t have done the trick on its own, therefore was paired with a deeper blue green. The art and colourful furniture now feel like they’re in a room full of friends. The white trim stands out as do other lighter elements not pictured. In another photo we have a room painted chocolate brown. With two windows it still isn’t bright and is used mostly in the evening and for entertaining. At night the room feels comfortable and rich. Once again it’s the art and furniture that stand out. The lamp casts a defined warm glow.

Rainy, dark and overcast days are a part of life here in Vancouver. For those of you with a gloomy room that’s getting you down, there’s a saying that I like. Leap and the net will appear. Chances are good you’ll land in a room that you’ll love and enjoy.

Kora Sevier is a Vancouver colour consultant. She works with both residential and commercial clients to take the frustration and guesswork out of choosing colours. For more information please visit  www.kcolour.com

What Are Heritage Colours Anyway?

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Benjamin Moore, craftsman colours, Farrow & Ball, General Paints, Heritage Colours, Vancouver exterior house colours

This piece was featured in The Vancouver Sun as Before the Birth of the Paint Store. 20 May 2011

Heritage colour palettes from Farrow & Ball, Benjamin Moore and General Paints.

As a colour consultant I could arguably say that talking about heritage colours is promoting yet another colour myth.  Colour is relationship bound, which means that it changes depending upon its context. Colour cannot be locked in time. You can’t cage it in and say that a particular dark green exists only for a Craftsman style home built in Vancouver in 1910.

I could just as easily take a heritage palette and have the colours make sense on a completely modernist structure. The fact that they are heritage colours isn’t going to make the perfect rectangles and clean lines look like a home that has fretwork and assorted ornamentation.

Colour is a chameleon, it is complex and multi dimensional. It wants you to work with it and have a relationship with it, not be your slave. These are all reasons why I’m in love with it and am continually learning from it.

Settlers arrived in Vancouver from England, Scotland and Ireland in the 19^th and early 20^th centuries. To talk about colour in the context of this time, we must understand that the paint store as we know it didn’t exist until the 1920’s. Tradesman from the painting guild would have been amongst the recent settlers. They purchased dried pigments from the chemist and made paint on site by mixing it with linseed oil.

Homeowners had a sound understanding of colour, because at that time a general education in the arts was considered important. The 19^th century was a time of great innovation and discovery in the world of colour. The interested and educated public would have made a point of learning what was new in the same way that we want to know what the latest iPad has to offer.

When a painter met with the lady of the house they would have understood that the choice of colour they were about to make was not an arbitrary one, but would be based on the harmonious marriage of colour and architectural style.

Instead of branded colour names they would have decided on a dark green body with buff trim and the use of golden yellow on a particular detail. Without question the sash windows would have been high gloss black. These people were not afraid of colour. There would be no screaming white windows and trim breaking everything up and making the house look as if it was holding its breath.

Though this may seem unlikely, it is nevertheless true that, even with a limited palette to choose from each home would have had its own character. People understood how to express individuality within the confines of a tight framework. In terms of street appeal this would have led to an interesting and pleasing cohesion. Rather like being in a room full of your cousins and seeing the family resemblance but knowing that each person is a unique individual.

In 1999 the Vancouver Heritage Foundation started the True Colours program, in partnership with Benjamin Moore paints. They were able to detail original exterior colours and have produced a colour card showing this palette. They also have a range of historic colours that would have been drawn from cities throughout North America.

Almost all paint manufacturer’s offer a historic palette. The similarities in colour between them are not surprising considering they’re coming from the same cultural gene pool. General Paints, a local company that is celebrating their 100^th anniversary this year, offers a Canadian historic range of colours. Most historic colours migrated from England so it’s not surprising to find “local” colours in the Farrow & Ball palette.

What we consider heritage or historical colours are colours that would have been made from natural pigments. They predate what we now commonly consider synthetic pigments and brighteners to be. (Though in reality the ancient Egyptians were making synthetic pigments as far back as 2500 B.C.). This is why virtually every paint manufacturer’s historical palette looks similar.

Certain historic reds are very similar to the red used by the First Nations people long before any Europeans arrived on these shores. Certain historic yellows are similar to the golden, slightly brownish yellow in the robes of the Hindu god Krishna in an 18^th century watercolour.

Joseph Addison understood the cross cultural nature of colour when he said, “colours speak all languages”.

No matter what the style or when it was built, an exterior colour scheme should support and enhance a home’s architecture, offer something pleasing to the passerby and be a source of pride to its owner.

Kora Sevier is a Vancouver colour consultant. She works with both residential and commercial clients to take the frustration and guesswork out of choosing colours. For more information please visit  www.kcolour.com

The Farrow and Ball Look

Tags

Farrow & Ball Down Pipe, Farrow & Ball India Yellow, Farrow & Ball Lime White, Farrow & Ball Pigeon

This piece originally appeared in The Vancouver Sun. 20 April 2011

Saxon Green

I have an unabashed love for Farrow & Ball paints and am filled with delight when a client requests it for a colour consultation. It’s a brand that continues to gain popularity in this country, but I would still say that the single most common question I am asked is what makes this paint different from other brands on the market.

Farrow & Ball have been making paint and wallpaper at the same factory in Dorset England since the company was first formed in the 1930’s by chemists John Farrow & Richard Ball. Unlike other paint manufacturers who switched to less expensive acrylic formulations after the war, F&B remains virtually unchanged. They continue to use traditional methods and high quality raw ingredients such as umber, chalk and china clay.

Their paints are factory tinted. This allows for stringent quality and colour control and most importantly the use of greater quantities of pigments.

Pigments are what gives paint its colour and are the most expensive ingredient in the formulation. The quality of a pigment will have an effect on depth of colour as well as a paint’s ability to give good coverage and have a long life span. Farrow & Ball asserts that their paints contain 32% more pigment than what is the typical industry standard.

Within the Farrow & Ball line of paints probably the most well known is Estate Emulsion. Don’t be intimidated by the word emulsion, it’s really just another name for paint. Estate Emulsion is what sets F&B apart from other brands. The reason for this is the use of clay in the binding agent. All paints need a binding agent to adhere them to the surface and to suspend the pigments.

I’m about to get a bit technical here but if you bear with me you’ll find out why a clay binding agent is important. It has to due with light.

Colour and light are soul mates and the way that light interacts with paint can change the characteristics of its colour.  Acrylic paint is a form of plastic, so when light hits the wall it immediately bounces back off the surface. This is called “reflection”.

With clay, light that hits it is absorbed at various levels and shifted in multiple directions prior to exiting. This is called “refraction”.

India Yellow

What this translates into for our eyes is an added depth to both the surface and the colour. What we are seeing are pigments on multiple levels, not just on the topmost layer.

Pigeon

The use of clay gives a beautiful flat finish and produces a variety of results. It gives colours such as Pigeon or Lime White the look of natural stone materials. It brings out the chameleon nature in a colour such as Down Pipe. It can make seemingly bright and bold colours elegant, Saxon Green is my own personal experience of this.

Lime White

The highly edited palette of 132 colours is easy to work with and doesn’t overwhelm. The icing on the cake is that F&B paints contain no formaldehyde or ammonia. Open a gallon of Estate Emulsion and you will notice that there is no smell. These paints were environmentally friendly long before the term was coined. All their products are low in odour and are classified as zero VOC with the exception of a primer and an undercoat that are listed as low VOC.

Read the back of a colour card and you’ll find many of these colours have a historical context. Farrow & Ball have worked closely with the National Trust on various restoration projects. It was Tom Helm, a former National Trust advisor on decoration, who brought Farrow & Ball to the world stage in the 1990’s.

F&B has been used in Windsor Castle and Highgrove, the home of Prince Charles. Here in Canada they have been used in several art galleries, including the National Gallery in Ottawa.

It would be a mistake to think that Farrow & Ball colours are useful only for heritage projects. This versatile palette can be used even in the most modern of settings.

Down Pipe

As a colour consultant I appreciate their large painted colour samples that assist me with the task of helping my clients visualize what the finished result will look like. Ultimately what impresses me most about Farrow & Ball paints is how they always improve in the translation from sample to painted surface. Even a colour with a name like Dead Salmon manages to become a beautiful and complex delight to the eyes.

Kora Sevier is a Vancouver colour consultant. She works with both residential and commercial clients to take the frustration and guesswork out of choosing colours. For more information please visit  www.kcolour.com

How To Use Bold Colours

Tags

Accent walls, Benjamin Moore, Farrow & Ball James White, Pratt & Lambert, Yolo Colorhouse

This piece was featured in The Vancouver Sun as Don’t Be Afraid To Indulge A Love Of Colour. 11 March 2011

Pratt & Lambert Heather Dusk.

As a colour designer I love busting colour myths. One of the many floating around out there is that using several different colours will make a space look chopped up. If done badly yes, that will be the case. But this is just one of many misconceptions in which colour gets the undeserved bad rap. It’s rather like blaming the car for being a lemon rather than the car manufacturer. Done correctly, even a multitude of colours can make a space feel cohesive, harmonious and engaging.

Just over a year ago I worked with a long time client on the renovations and colour choices for her new townhouse. When she called I was very excited because this is a woman who loves colour and its complexity. Little did I know I was in for a shock.  When I arrived she told me she wanted to use white throughout the majority of the space. I put my disappointment aside and set about finding the best possible white for her new home.

An off-white was chosen to give my client the modern yet elegant feel that she wanted. The same flat finish was used on walls, ceiling and crown moulding to give all three elements the sense of being an architectural whole. Colour was used in the private spaces of the townhouse but all public areas were done in white.

The client got what she wanted and I certainly couldn’t complain about the results, her home looked beautiful.

Recently I received the call that I had always suspected would come. My client was tired of having so much white and was ready for colour. She had acquired new artwork for a large wall in the dining room that we both felt would look spectacular with a dark colour as its background, however she still wanted to keep most of the walls white. I felt that if colour was to be added then it had to be done in several areas throughout the space in order to create balance, not just one wall screaming for attention.

The main floor of the townhouse comprises an open plan living room, dining room and kitchen. To maintain the modern yet elegant look desired we chose a colour that can only be described as purple, blue, grey. It’s a wonderfully complex colour that’s hard to pin down. It’s dark and rich and when you look at it you can’t make up your mind what colour it is but soon enough you don’t care about figuring it out, you just want to enjoy it. It’s so beautiful on it’s own that it actually took my client quite some time to hang the artwork.

The kitchen has zebrawood cabinets that extend to the ceiling. We had chosen black for both the countertop and the backsplash. My client tells me people constantly comment on what a sexy kitchen it is. I knew the white ceiling had to go and used two different shades of a blue/grey colour for the bulkhead and the recessed centre of the ceiling, with the recessed section being the darker of the two. Getting rid of the white ceiling was the final touch in making the kitchen feel complete. Your eyes now follow the dark vertical line of the zebrawood into two shades of receding blues rather than the abruptness of white.

On a small wall in the entrance area across from the dining room we used another complex colour. Still in the purple, blue, grey family but lighter this time because of how much white would be surrounding it.

Farrow & Ball, James White with Pratt & Lambert, Motherlode.

A small wall at the top of the second floor landing was going to be a challenge. It’s a space that doesn’t get much light so normally I would suggest using a dark colour (another colour myth to tackle in the future). However I didn’t want that wall to be in competition with the dining room wall. The colour needed to have a higher saturation level in order to hold its own in a dark space but also had to maintain the elegant feel desired by my client. Ultimately we chose a slightly desaturated turquoise and it’s perfect. A flat finish was crucial as any sheen would have robbed it of its sophistication.

Benjamin Moore, Florida Keys Blue

Another small wall at the top of the third floor landing gets a lot of light, so this time we went for a lighter and bluer version of turquoise.

Yolo Colorhouse, Sprout #1.

The new blocks of colour lead you around the room, giving it a wonderful flow from wall colour to art to furnishings. Artwork and furniture come alive now that colour is supporting and connecting all the elements. The colour at the top of each staircase acts as an introduction to that level. The darker green turquoise on the second floor harmonizes with the blues and greens used in the private spaces. The lighter and bluer turquoise leads you outdoors to the rooftop deck.

When the home was entirely white everything felt disparate, as though each element was suspended in space without relating to other pieces in the room. Instead of chopping up the space, colour has succeeded in making it feel cohesive, harmonious and whole.

Key Points;

There must be an architectural logic to which walls will receive colour. Picking random walls will defeat the purpose and make the space feel disjointed.

Use variations on a theme. The four colours introduced on the main level all bear a family resemblance. The same colour over and over will leave people perplexed. Wildly different colours can easily lead you down the chopped up path.

Saturation is important. Because we had used an off white we were able to harmonize with slightly desaturated colours thus maintaining the level of elegance desired by the client.

Kora Sevier is a Vancouver colour consultant. She works with both residential and commercial clients to take the frustration and guesswork out of choosing colours. For more information please visit, www.kcolour.com

The Challenge of Exterior Paint Colours

Tags

colours for stucco house, exterior door colour, Trim colours for grey house

Farrow & Ball Down Pipe with Blue Gray trim and Hague Blue door.
No folks, this trim isn’t white, it’s Blue Gray which has a nice green undertone to it.

Choosing exterior colours is one of the most challenging decisions a homeowner can make.  Without a solid education in colour it’s easy to end up with one of the two evil twins, bland or boldly bad.  Many homeowners simply throw up their hands in defeat and repaint in the same colours – what a shame.

People often turn to web sites with interactive programs that allow them to change exterior colours on either a preset series of homes (maybe you’ll find one that looks like yours) or to upload a photo and then alter the colours.

While this can be helpful in order to get a broad sense of how things might look the fundamental flaw is that a computer screen cannot accurately represent texture.  Texture and light have a profound impact on colour that’s why seeing a colour “in situ” (meaning in the space or location) is so important.

As an artist and set designer I know from experience that size and perspective are critical to the outcome and must also be taken into consideration. Things always change in the transition from two dimensions to three and frankly no, I don’t think the advent of 3D imagery on computers will improve things very much.

However, most people are visual so photographs in any medium can indeed be very helpful, but use these as broad brushstrokes not as your final decision maker.

Looking at colours on a computer screen (or in a magazine) and the reality of paint under varying natural light is like going to Las Vegas to see the Eiffel Tower, it’s just not the real thing.

When choosing exterior colours there are several factors to keep in mind.

Undertone: if the neutral colour that you are considering has any undertone of another colour in it, let’s say pink, then the pinkish tone will become more pronounced as it is applied.  Thus turning your desire for neutral beige into the pink house and the task of explaining the results to your neighbours.

Light: colours appear lighter under daylight, this is coupled with the fact that colours always become lighter in the transition from paint chip to painted surface.

Contrast: the colour you chose for the body for the house will appear different depending upon what colour you use for your trim and vice versa.  In general, colours look darker against white but with exteriors there can be exceptions to the rules.  The amount of body colour is so much greater than trim colour, so a mid tone blue for example, will seem light and airy with white trim.  Put the same colour with black trim and the blue will seem more serious and grounded.  The number of windows and the size of their frames must also be taken into consideration.  Speaking of windows, please don’t be a slave to the harsh bright white or awful beige of metal windows.  The look of your home should not be dictated by the uninspired two colour palette of a factory.  In most cases you would be far better off to do all that you can to draw attention away from these windows rather than have them be the highlight of your house.

Saturation: while painting a room within your house is similar to amplifying a musical instrument, painting the exterior is like a large outdoor concert.  Think carefully about colour intensity or how “bright” a color is versus something that is more grayed out.  Blues and yellows have a tendency to intensify more so than other colours.  Be aware also of the difference that sheen level (ranging from flat to high gloss) can have on a colour.  Most paint manufacturers offer tester pots but these typically only come in one sheen level.  Ask to see samples of the variety of finishes that are available for their exterior paint products.

Stay realistic about the nature of paint and what it can and can’t do.  Don’t expect a colour to look the same under all lighting conditions and on all parts of the house.  Colours change depending upon light, which is really a wonderful thing as it shows we are living in a natural world and not a phony controlled environment.

The exterior of your home is the face that you show to the world.  A new coat of paint and the right selection of colours can work wonders and give you the confidence to show that face with pleasure and pride.  Keeping a few key factors in mind regarding paint and paint colours will ease the process and help you to stay clear of the two evil twins.

Generally I dislike before and after pictures – things almost always look much better after a coat of paint has been applied!

But these may prove useful to those of you who are contemplating new exterior colours.

Here’s the before, white trim and black door with a body colour that can only be described as some kind of beige.

This is a beautiful home and it deserved much better in terms of paint colours.

I used the Farrow & Ball color palette and the painter colour matched it to whatever brand of paint he wanted to use. When it comes to exteriors I always leave the choice of paint up to the painter.

A beautiful charcoal grey was used for the body colour – I love the way it looks with the landscaping and the brick steps. This colour is called Down Pipe.  For the trim I chose a colour called Blue Grey, which is actually rather more green than blue. I find Down Pipe and Blue Grey to be the elegant combination that this home deserves. The icing on the cake was to do the door in Hague Blue.

I’m not against white trim, and I’m not against black (or red) doors, sometimes those are the perfect colours but I do find them to be overused and I would dearly love to see more of the wonderful exterior colour combinations that you see in Europe or the U.K.

Let us strive for the fantastic!

A bientot,

Kora

Kora Sevier is a Vancouver colour consultant. She works with both residential and commercial clients to take the frustration and guesswork out of choosing colours. For more information please visit, www.kcolour.com

PAINT

Tags

Pantone colour of the year, Pratt & Lambert, Ted Harris Paints

Ted Harris Paints

Vancouver recently lost a colourful gem that was known as Ted Harris Paints.

Anyone who has ever entered the doors of their East Hastings store knows what a fantastic paint shop it was. For me it has been “the” place to buy Pratt & Lambert paints and I am very, very sad to see that those doors have now closed for good.

When I was starting out in my painting and colour consultation business Ted Harris himself gave me a Pratt & Lambert architect/designer book which had large individual samples of each colour. I could have kissed him. There was no possible way I would have been able to afford to buy such a thing at the time and his giving it to me felt like a sign from the universe that I was on the right path. Ted Harris was happy to tell me all about Pratt & Lambert paints and I soaked up every word – I love information and I love to pass information on to my clients.

I believe that each person is a unique individual, it is the approach I take with every client. Ted Harris Paints was a unique place, there was nothing cookie cutter about it. From the creaky wooden floors and the staff with their short blue jackets, to the fantastic neon PAINT sign out front, Ted Harris Paints was an original. There was no phony baloney customer service there. Only down to earth knowledgeable staff with the utterly simple capacity to do their jobs well. There were two paint tinting carousels at Ted Harris Paints, one was on the ground floor and it was used by whatever staff member was assisting you at the time. The other was in the basement and it was where the big orders were tinted. I can remember watching the fellow who manned that carousel and thinking that I would never be able to touch the amount of knowledge that he had about tinting paint. I would have loved to have talked to him about his experience of colour, it would have been in an entirely different realm from what most other people including myself experience.

All things have their time and all things must pass. The next generation of the Harris family has other goals in life and I wish them the best. I do think it’s too bad though, I know the paint business is a tough one and having your shop on East Hastings can be a challenge, but as Vancouver changes and evolves I have a feeling that more than ever that area will need a paint store. It seems to me that people love unique places where they can find something different, that they are tired of the same stores carrying the same things over and over, even when it comes to paint. Oh how I’d love to see that space taken over by someone else who had a wonderful and unique line of paints to sell. Someone who was just being themselves and believed in what they did, how simple is that?

There is of course the question of the neon sign. It seems there’s not enough room for it at the Vancouver Museum, so let’s hope some philanthropically minded person comes to its rescue.

I don’t want to leave you feeling blue, so I’ll leave you feeling turquoise instead.

The people at Pantone have decided that turquoise is the colour of the year for 2010

The combination of serene blue and invigorating green, turquoise is believed to be a colour of compassion and healing, faith and truth.

That’s the note I’ll leave you on.

A bientot

Kora

Kora Sevier is a Vancouver colour consultant. She works with both residential and commercial clients to take the frustration and guesswork out of choosing colours. For more information please visit, www.kcolour.com