Paints that Bring Emotion to Your Walls
Categories: Decorating, Color, Your Home, Projects, Design, etc
Wall-color drama increases with designer paints that blush, turn pale or flash hints of envious green.
Three designer paints brands offer custom wall colors with rich undertones that create amazing effects as light changes in the room.
Marketed as "full spectrum" paints, their appeal is "complex" wall color. "During the day it's very creamy and rosy. During the evening it's like candlelight," says avid DIYer Ivette Timmins, about Kaufman's #3, which she used in her master bath in suburban Virginia after reading about DKC in a decorating book.
Kaufman is the color world's big kahuna, with an elite client list of designers and architects. "We are artist-painters who specialize in colors for architecture," he says. All we try to do is get someone to paint one room [with our paint]. There is an addictive quality."
Each designer has a tightly edited color range plus a way for consumers to connect directly, via a website, books, blogs, classes or by phone. "Talking to me is included in the price of the paint," notes Ellen Kennon, who often answers when clients call, and helps plan their color schemes.
Each brand can be ordered online and delivered to your door. All have sample pots to test colors at home. While Kennon's and Kaufman's paints also are sold through stores authorized to mix their special formulas, Volk has a Citron boutique in Tucson, where she also gives color theory classes.
So what do they cost? "There is no difference in price between my paint and Aura," Volk insists. Since her interior flat retails for $50-$54 per gallon, it's actually $2 less. Kennon's interior flat gallons run $52-$56. Kaufman charges $95-105 – about as high as paint goes. But, Timmins insists, it "was worth the extra money to me. It's gorgeous."
Which Full-Spectrum Paint?
While some colors work everywhere, finding a source close to home can make choices easier – and keep shipping costs to a minimum.
Donald Kaufman Color (New York, NY)
Focus: Nuanced whites, neutrals and urban pales.
Colors: 104
Pigments/gallon: 7-13
Top Color: DKC 5 (a warm white)
Phone Order: The Color Factory, 201-568-2226
Ellen Kennon (Saint Francisville, LA)
Focus: Land-sea greens & blues, historical hues, soft golds & yellows.
Colors: 90 stock; 150 total
Pigments/gallon: 7-8
Top Color: "Buttercream is my best-seller. Gustavian Grey is my favorite."
Phone Order: 877-877-7628
Citron Paint (Tucson, AZ)
Focus: Rich earth colors, cool neutrals, high-energy brights.
Colors: 99
Pigments/gallon: 8-16
Top Color: Cool Sheets (slightly warm off-white), Khakis (warm gray), Mr. Darcy (vivid blue).
Phone Order: 520-886-5800
ADD MORE IMPACT TO YOUR HOME
Turquoise: The Color of 2010 -- decor8
How You Can Stencil Your Floors, Really -- CasaSugar
Flowers, Flowers Everywhere! -- Design*Sponge
Three designer paints brands offer custom wall colors with rich undertones that create amazing effects as light changes in the room.
Bedroom painted Donald Kaufman Color #5, which designer Mariette Himes Gomez calls "the Chanel #5 of paint." Photo: DKC
Color experts Donald Kaufman Color in New York, Ellen Kennon in Louisiana, and C.J. Volk of Citron Paint, in Arizona, mix seven or more pigments in their paint colors -- double the number used in mass-market brands – but they don't use black so that colors can reveal themselves.
Marketed as "full spectrum" paints, their appeal is "complex" wall color. "During the day it's very creamy and rosy. During the evening it's like candlelight," says avid DIYer Ivette Timmins, about Kaufman's #3, which she used in her master bath in suburban Virginia after reading about DKC in a decorating book.
Kaufman is the color world's big kahuna, with an elite client list of designers and architects. "We are artist-painters who specialize in colors for architecture," he says. All we try to do is get someone to paint one room [with our paint]. There is an addictive quality."
Each designer has a tightly edited color range plus a way for consumers to connect directly, via a website, books, blogs, classes or by phone. "Talking to me is included in the price of the paint," notes Ellen Kennon, who often answers when clients call, and helps plan their color schemes.
Ellen Kennon's Gustavian Grey goes grey-blue and grey-green on different walls in a room. Photo: Lori Sawaya
Each brand can be ordered online and delivered to your door. All have sample pots to test colors at home. While Kennon's and Kaufman's paints also are sold through stores authorized to mix their special formulas, Volk has a Citron boutique in Tucson, where she also gives color theory classes.
So what do they cost? "There is no difference in price between my paint and Aura," Volk insists. Since her interior flat retails for $50-$54 per gallon, it's actually $2 less. Kennon's interior flat gallons run $52-$56. Kaufman charges $95-105 – about as high as paint goes. But, Timmins insists, it "was worth the extra money to me. It's gorgeous."
Citron Paint's Soul Sister has hints of a desert sunset. Photo: Citron Paint
"Specialized brands are fine-tuned and honed-down to colors that really are going to work together," explains Rachel Perls, author of Hue, the highly-regarded color blog. "That's helpful for taking away the usual anxiety of having so many different color choices at Home Depot."
Which Full-Spectrum Paint?
While some colors work everywhere, finding a source close to home can make choices easier – and keep shipping costs to a minimum.
Donald Kaufman Color (New York, NY)
Focus: Nuanced whites, neutrals and urban pales.
Colors: 104
Pigments/gallon: 7-13
Top Color: DKC 5 (a warm white)
Phone Order: The Color Factory, 201-568-2226
Ellen Kennon (Saint Francisville, LA)
Focus: Land-sea greens & blues, historical hues, soft golds & yellows.
Colors: 90 stock; 150 total
Pigments/gallon: 7-8
Top Color: "Buttercream is my best-seller. Gustavian Grey is my favorite."
Phone Order: 877-877-7628
Citron Paint (Tucson, AZ)
Focus: Rich earth colors, cool neutrals, high-energy brights.
Colors: 99
Pigments/gallon: 8-16
Top Color: Cool Sheets (slightly warm off-white), Khakis (warm gray), Mr. Darcy (vivid blue).
Phone Order: 520-886-5800
ADD MORE IMPACT TO YOUR HOME
Turquoise: The Color of 2010 -- decor8
How You Can Stencil Your Floors, Really -- CasaSugar
Flowers, Flowers Everywhere! -- Design*Sponge
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Dorcas Brown 1-29-2010 @ 3:24PM
I used Ellen's paints in my cabin and it was transformed...from a dark wood based room to a beautiful light hue of greens and blues. It's the best!
Reply
Julia Rogers Hamrick 1-29-2010 @ 4:01PM
I love Ellen Kennon's Full Spectrum Paints--GORGEOUS colors and low/no VOC.
I love that I was able to pick mine up locally as she has an arrangement with Akzo Nobel/ICI to mix the paints in their stores according to her proprietary formulas. So it almost doesn't matter where in the US you live as long as there's a store within range--and they're all over the country.
Reply
Ellen Kennon 1-29-2010 @ 4:49PM
Thanks Dorcas & Julia! Yes, there are no shipping fees because we can fax our formulas to over 470 stores nationwide.
barbara jacobs 1-29-2010 @ 10:43PM
As an architectural color consultant I'm an enthusiastic fan of Ellen Kennon Full Spectrum Paints. It's actually my first choice of product and colors for many clients. In fact, clients who are not familiar with this method of creating paint colors appreciate learning about the difference that full spectrum color can bring to their homes. I enjoyed the article and the beautiful illustrations that accompany it.
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Mary 1-31-2010 @ 11:36PM
Are the paints flat, eggshell, satin, or semigloss? I prefer satin over flat, because satin can be wiped down easier. I use semi gloss in the kitchen and bathrooms to make wiping down even easier. I have mixed paint to do my ceilings using Ralph Lauren's ballroom colors mixed with satins of a slightly different color, and one ceiling goes from gray to blue to kind of a blue violet depending on the lighting. I mixed semi gloss violet satin with Lauren's Sapphire blue and got a really pretty sunset violet that kind of glows for my dining room. I find that when you mix silky satins with regular satins, you get a really interesting color effect with different lighting. I think that is what these designers hit upon. The paints remind me of Iridescent organza fabric. You can create your own if you have the patience to play with mixing different kinds of paints. It will not cost nearly as much and you can make them in different paint finishes.
Reply
Lori Sawaya 2-01-2010 @ 2:34PM
The paint bases for full spectrum color do come in a variety of sheen levels -- just like 'regular' paints.
What makes full spectrum color special is the way it is mixed. As Jane mentions in the article, full spectrum color designers "mix seven or more pigments in their paint colors -- double the number used in mass-market brands – but they don't use black so that colors can reveal themselves." Even though the full spectrum brands use top grades of paint to mix their colors, it's not the paint that makes the colors unique.
Modern advancements in paint has given us matte finishes that are extremely durable and burnish resistant. It's exciting because using a glossier finish is now a choice, not a necessity. We're no longer locked into using satin and semi-gloss in kitchens, bathrooms, or high-traffic areas of the home. We have more options than ever when it comes to paint -- and color.
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Jim 2-01-2010 @ 11:47AM
I find it hard to believe that you can't go to a Sherwin-Williams, Porter, ICI, etc. and find a paint deck (the ones with over 1000 colors in it) and find a color that looks as good as these overprice "designer" paints. As Lucy says - good grief Charlie Brown.
But as a contractor, I would probably want to deal with the people that have this kind of money to waste. There just can't be that much difference in paints. And if, as one designer says, they can fax their formula to over 450 paint stores in the USA, then they're not really doing anything that the stores can't already do themselves.
Now if you want to say you're paying $25.00 per gallon for a designer fee and $25.00 per gallon for the paint then I can see what you're getting. Why not just pay the designer their hourly rate and buy all the paint you want?
Reply
Ellen Kennon 2-04-2010 @ 5:58PM
Jim,
Just like in cooking, instead of it being about the recipe, it's all about the formulas. The more varied the ingredients, the more layered the flavors of the dish. We use ICI's top of the line "certified green" products. But in addition to our colors having more luminosity and depth than the formulas ICI Paints' uses, you are also getting help in putting together color palettes or advice on a color for one room (free of charge, as opposed to paying my hourly rate of $200). So sometimes I may spend an hour with someone, looking at photos and consulting, all to sell one gallon of paint. I do this because I enjoy helping people with something most find daunting - the task of selecting paint colors. I have never advertised in the eight years I have been doing this, so I think it's fair to say our customer service plays a big part in our success. I just happen to be a designer that loves color and is fascinated by it as a healing modality.