Ask Sanders: Kristin's Green Bedroom

In Thursday's installment of Ask Sanders, I promised help for Kristin's bedroom. She asked our opinion on Kelly Green as a choice for bedroom paint, and Sanders was more than happy to oblige with a paint palette of greens in hues that range from shocking to sophisticated:

And a few darker, more traditional greens:

Personally, I have found that green can be a difficult color to work with, because it requires a sense of confidence that many more soothing shades do not. But when done right, green really sings. And I love the idea of using green and blue (blue in Kristin's bathroom) as a base for a household palette, since blue and green can mix and match in so many interesting ways.

John Paul Urizar

You'll need a pair to go all out kelly green on four walls, floor to ceiling. But this spare little bedroom courtesy of The Sweet Line gets it right with simple furnishings and accents. In a small room with strong color, paint is the star and everything else plays a supporting role.

I'm thinking that Kelly Wearstler may have kicked off the kelly green movement in a moment of vanity (hello, kelly - kelly?), but love her or hate her, the lady is not afraid of color. This bathroom shows how slick classic green (looks like Rainforest Foliage to me), black, white and chrome can be.

This tiny kelly green kitchen from Domino can cook. A very restricted palette with lots of white keeps the color from overwhelming.

In this room from House to Home, forest green goes a little too country for my taste, but with more streamlined shapes, the color could be fresh. Imagine Danish teak instead of these tradtional furnishings. Throw in lots of white linens and a black pillow or two and you've got modern classic.

If all out green seems too heavy for you, you can break the color up in several ways.

Hidden in France

Patterned kelly green and gold wallpaper keeps the color light. If wallpaper isn't an option (renters, I'm talking to you), try stretching fabric over a a wooden frame, or wallpaper a large piece of masonite and frame with cheap, painted quarter round. Beep beep, beep beep, yeah.

House to Home

Homes with lots of molding and windows can handle the color because it covers less surface area. With deep greens, black, white and brown rocks.

Per Ranung

If you don't have glorious architecture and the bones to prove it, consider painting a feature wall in deep green; keep the rest of the room bright and light.

James Merrell

Maybe kelly green isn't for you, but Stokes Forest Green is looking mighty fine. Pair it with lots of neutrals and blood orange for a pop of unexpected color. Lighter colors need less white to balance them out.

Brave souls may spring for chartreuse, like this Benjamin Moore Pear Green featured in Domino.

Boring picture, but the color is divine. And Designer's Brew shows how blue and chartreuse make magic. For a bedroom, maybe just a feature wall or nook would do.

Fear of commitment? No problem -- we all get cold feet sometimes. Consider green accents or furnishings instead.

Fawn Galli's boho-glam apartment uses bright green curtains and upholstery to funk up her space.

Gaelle le Boulicaut

Use that kelly green paint to spiff up a set of chairs in an otherwise neutral room. The wall paint in the photo looks a lot like my office paint -- Silver Fox by BM. It's a lovely, medium deep neutral.

Living Etc.

Even a simple emerald throw adds depth to this dark and cozy bedroom.

Or maybe instead of feeling green at the gills by all this color, you're green with envy. If you're feeling emboldened by the power of green, don't hold back.

Apartment Therapy

Try mixing and matching several shades in one room, like this Moroccan guest house. Lots of white space helps forest green, stokes forest green, and a pear green, go together like peas and... peas.

That's it for this installment of Ask Sanders. Hopefully you and Kristin got some new ideas and inspiration on ways to green up your space. For me, suddenly chartreuse is sounding like a fabulous nursery color...

If you would like to have your home featured on Ask Sanders, need help matching colors you may have spied in magazines, or just want advice on what paint colors could possibly make those peach wall tiles in your bathroom look like you MEANT to do that, email us at hollaback@design-crisis.com to ask Sanders, our resident Paint Guru, for help.

Thanks, Sanders!

Ask Sanders: Kristin's Blue Bathroom

Here at Design Crisis, we're a little obsessed with paint. What else can completely transform a room for just a few bucks and some elbow grease? Sadly, adventures in painting can go horribly awry -- the golden yellow you hoped for goes macaroni and cheese, the perfect shade of crimson you envisioned turns into a bloody nightmare, or the warm gray you yearned for reads as icy blue instead. These domestic disasters happen everyday, but our resident Paint Guru, Sander Gibbs, is here to provide all the expert help you need to ditch the heartache and pick the perfect shade the first time around.

For our first installment of the Ask Sanders column, DC reader Kristin writes with an urgent dilemma -- what shade of blue to paint the bathroom in her rental apartment? Since Kristin is planning to cover her existing flooring with peel and stick white tiles (I've seen these in action, and they're not a bad option for renters), she could choose from a multitude of colors. She says:

"I'm looking for a super-saturated shade of blue. I had originally hoped for a Vermeer/Dutch blue... Anywho, my perfect shade would be not too deep, and very refreshing. Let me know what you think! I'd also move over towards something more tropical and punchy."

The particular shade on the walls of this room in the Gramercy Park Hotel is what inspired her to ask for a color match in the first place, so I sent the image over to Sanders for inspiration:

Judging by the image and his own experience with blues that woo the eye, Sanders put together this saturated blue palette for Kristin:

While the top colors are Benjamin Moore shades, the bottom pics are from Pratt and Lambert. Sanders informed me that P&L is actually a Sherwin Williams brand, but SW doesn't carry it in their stores. In Austin, Benjamin Moore is the only store that carries P&L, so if Kristin (or you) would like to try one of the P&L shades, check out the nearest Benjamin Moore for their selection.

Sanders picks look pretty close to the top picture to me, especially Clearest Ocean Blue and Paradise Lost, but as Sanders always says, "Buy a sample and make sure you paint on two coats! Two coats!" Paint shades can look totally different depending on lighting conditions, so even though you might think you're wasting your money on a sample, you could be wasting a lot more on unwanted gallons of paint. Always sample first!

I also asked Sanders to put together a palette of blues he likes, just in case his color matches don't quite hit the spot. Many of his picks are more muted, but still punchy yet versatile:

Top choices are Benjamin Moore colors, bottom row is from Pratt and Lambert's palette (and Sanders' cute lil' face).

And now I think we need some eye candy to see how fresh the ever popular blue really can be when paired with the right environment. For Kristin's sake, many of my picks feature shades of blue in bathrooms, but blue is a flexible shade for many rooms (except kitchens, in my opinion).

Living Etc

Blue gets paired with glossy chocolate leather and a sleek mirrored cube in this minimalist treatment.

Annie Schlecter

In the olden days, blue was a highly prized, very expensive pigment due to its relative instability and difficulty to manufacture, so it was only seen in special circumstances, like the Virgin Mary's robes. These cool blue walls and door highlight the red and green robes of a saint who must have been a little low on the totem pole.

Domino

Multiple shades of blue work together in this eclectic bathroom. I'm really thinking someone should make colorful toilets...

Per Ranung

Sky blue tile mixes with chartreuse, indigo and royal purple, in this otherwise spare bathroom. A healthy dose of white keeps things from going utterly schizophrenic.

Living Etc

Monochromatic tile makes this bathroom feel spacious. Sexy skylights and minimal fixtures don't hurt, either.

Paul Costello

A sun filled living room mixes aqua with oregano and mimosa yellow for a fun, but sophisticated palette. Chocolate, white and gold, keep the color from getting out of control.

Marie Claire Maison

I have no freaking clue how this bathroom is constructed, but I'd love to have a cerulean aquatic labyrinth of my very own. The green window frames add subtle contrast to an otherwise all over color scheme where form and texture rule.

Living Etc

If that much color scares the Scandi pants off you, paint can always freshen up an old treasure and add a jolt of unexpected color. I myself wouldn't be unhappy with this bathroom in the least.

Domino

A soft, green based blue highlights the architecture of this traditional bathroom, bringing a little piece of the sky indoors.

Annie Schlecter

Moody blue covers wall and woodwork in this spare but funky bedroom. I love the little punches of yellow and pink.

Blues of varying intensity and sheen create depth in this tiny bathroom. Blue toilet set: yes or no?

Kristin, we'd love to feature before and after pictures of your bathroom here on DC, so I really hope that Sanders' suggestions inspired you to take the plunge and get to painting! I myself am feeling so serene and relaxed from this azure haze that I think I'll present Part II of this (very special, of course) inaugural Ask Sanders column next Monday. Tune in Monday and see Sanders' expert advice for Kristin's bedroom: To kelly green, or not to kelly green? That is the question.

In the meantime, feel free to send your own paint queries for Sanders to our email address: hollback@design-crisis.com. Depending on demand, we'd like to feature picks from Sanders on a monthly basis, so don't go sending us any problems that need to be solved yesterday! Sanders is good, but he can't turn back time. Not even Cher can do that.

King of Paint: Interview With Sanders P. Gibbs III

I am officially a paint snob, and it's all Sanders' fault. When we first started painting our house, I giddily skipped around the corner to Home Depot and completely denuded their paint sample wall. I mean, I took every. single. sample. While I ended up choosing one of their colors for my bathroom (which was a HIDEOUS and GLOSSY macaroni yellow mistake that got painted over not once, but twice), I couldn't find a color for my kitchen or bedroom to save my life. I must have bought 30 samples (no lie!) and every one of them skewed red or blue or looked muddy or garish -- I'm sure many of you have had the same frustrating experience with paint. Dragging my heels in defeat, I drove the extra two whole miles to Benjamin Moore after reading countless blogs' shining praise of their paint and color selections. That's where I met Sanders.

Sanders has this crazy encyclopedic knowledge of color that he started accruing way back in 1997 while working for Benjamin Moore, and he's now the manager of South Austin's Hill Country Paint. If you tell him a color name, that man can give you the number. He helped me pick several different shades for my house, and remembers every color I've even chosen. In short, even though Benjamin Moore's paint is more expensive than Home Depot's, Sanders has saved me a lot of money and time. He even talked my cheap behind (and Karly's) into buying the $50 a gallon Aura paint, and I will never buy another paint again. It covers like a dream, and it even smells delicious (low VOC rocks!). Do I sound like I get my paint for free? I don't. It's just good paint.

The power of paint to transform a space is divine, and since I first met Sanders I've painted almost every room in this house, so we've seen each other relatively frequently. When Karly and I started this blog, we told him about it and Sanders is now one of our oldest readers. He still reads it every night, and can recite all of our adventures in detail (which is slightly unnerving, and reminds me that I need to be more careful about what I write). So I promised Sanders that as soon as we had more than 5 readers, I would make him TOTALLY FAMOUS by interviewing him.

When the day finally comes, I walk in and ask if he's ready, and he says he's so nervous he couldn't sleep last night. I laugh because I'm pretty used to Sanders telling me what's what in his kingdom, and it's mildly entertaining to see his swagger a little diminished. But as soon as we sit down to talk paint, he's all cool, calm and collected business again. I tell him that a lot of interior designers are currently painting spaces black and ask him what he thinks about that. (photo via Living etc.)

He looks a little bemused, pointing at himself in his black shirt, and stutters slightly, "W-w-wellllll...." It's pretty clear he doesn't like the idea, but to say so goes against his first priority, which is to give the customer what he or she wants. He goes on to say that he wouldn't personally paint his home black, and certainly not black black, but maybe a "shade of black. It's a personal choice." I ask him if he thinks dark colors make small spaces look smaller, and he says, "Dark colors are fine for small spaces. The right tone of color works for a certain unique space. You don't have to stick to whites and pastels. Dark colors can lend masculinity and power to a room." He does say that natural light is helpful for a small, dark space, "because light is your ally," and also to stick to "small scale, sleek furnishings" so that the room doesn't feel too heavy and oppressive. I ask him to pick a black color palette, and this is what he chooses.

I then ask him about white, since it seems overwhelmingly to be the most popular paint color in all the decor magazines. (photo via Living etc.)

He frowns a little and hesitates. Nope, not white, either -- although he is careful not to say that explicitly. He says that if you have great architecture and lots of light, white can be good, but again, not pure white. "Off white is rich and soft." I ask for his favorite whites, and this is the palette he chooses:

By the way, if you buy the Aura paint and you're painting a light color over a light color, you can probably get away with only one coat if you're a good painter. It worked for me in several rooms, it looks good, and I saved a lot of time and paint. But sssshhhhhh, don't tell Sanders, ok?! His favorite thing to say is "Two coats! two coats!"

Alright, I say, how about gray? His face lights up. A string of happy expletives tumble out. Mothereffing yes! Yes, gray is good! In fact, Sanders knows many of them by heart, including the ones I have chosen for my house (Abalone and Silver Fox, as well as Karly's Harbor Gray). "Gray is neutral, but not boring. It's versatile." (photo courtesy of Jeffrey Bilhuber)

If you've ever tried to pick a shade of gray paint, you know how hard it is. Nothing is quite pure gray. Sanders points to all the undertones in the different shades, and stresses the importance of choosing a gray that looks good in your personal space. "The biggest mistake people make is not buying samples. Everyone's light is different and paint changes in the environment it's in." I ask him if people often come in complaining about their paint selections and he says, "No. It's 'cause I make sure they get a sample." That and Sanders is a color matching wizard, capable of choosing something great to match the rest of your house, or custom mixing the shade of your dreams. Here are his picks for grays:

As we chat, Sanders eats his lunch and we reminisce about how we became friends. For some reason, early on he asked me where I was from and when I told him it was Texarkana (a tiny town at the corner of Texas, Arkansas, and Louisiana), he said he had lived there for several years, too. We spent the better part of an hour laughing about how craptacular T-town can be, and we've been pals ever since. There's nothing like bonding over harrowing times, to be sure. I ask him about his son, who is now three months old, and his face is downright beatific. "He's growing and changing and adapting to his new world." It's obvious that his son is the apple of his eye, and I ask him what colors he painted the nursery. He tells me that he has light wood floors and this is his household color palette:

And I imagine that his house looks something like this, with a shot of lime in the baby's room:

(photo via The Style Files) Very cozy, right?

Since so many people are pretty clueless about the nuances of color, I ask him how he might help a person who has no idea what they want. "I would ask them about their favorite foods, you know, places where they might go to vacation, what their interests are." What about the whole psychology of color theory, where red is hungry, blue is soothing, etc? Sanders shakes his head and says, "Different strokes for different folks. People should have unique colors. The Dewey Decimal System of color is not the way to go. It's an outdated idea." What about the idea that you choose colors that look good on you, so you always look good in your environment? He shakes his head again. Another string of verrrrrry funny expletives, and I start giggling. A browsing customer looks my way and I try to take it down a notch. "You don't need to choose colors that look good on you, but clothing choices may reveal fondness for colors. You don't have to keep the staus quo, though."

I go on to quiz Sanders on some technical stuff and things, so here is Sanders' Wisdom, from him to you:

For walls, matte or glossy: MATTE. Definitely.

Even for bathrooms: Yes.

What about for trim: Glossy, and oil will give it that extra kapow ZING. (insert hand motions here)

What kind of paint do you use for concrete floors: For low sheen, use paint grade concrete stain, which is not a true acid stain. For an opaque paint, use latex Porch and Floor paint (also good for wood floors). For a glossy finish, use an oil base paint.

Can you paint tile: Yes, but you MUST use a 100% acrylic primer. Then you can cover with any paint, but the primer is the key.

How about a bathtub: No. You need an epoxy paint for that.

As we finish up, I thank Sanders for his time and expertise, and he gets all nervous again. "Don't bash me, ok?" Don't worry, Sanders. There's nothing to bash!

THANKS SANDERS!

This write up is running long, so tune in on Thursday to see Sanders' picks for the hottest new color trends. His palette is so on point, Elle Decor UK is currently running some of the same picks. I promise it will be the super antidote to fall and winter's dreary, gray days.