Paint Colors, Light Bulbs and John Boomsma

Posted on September 4, 2012August 6, 2019

The other day, I received a call from the Manager at our Jenison RepcoLite, John Boomsma (see inset). He had just run into a crazy situation in the store and figured I could make use of the information on our blog.

John explained that he had received a phone call earlier in the week from a customer who was extremely frustrated. She was at a loss–didn’t know what to do. See, she had just painted two rooms in her home. As most people do when getting ready to paint, she had agonized for a few days or weeks over colors.

Finally, after much effort and after asking her family 100 times which color they liked the most (and then opting for the color she liked the best despite what they said), she painted both rooms.

And that’s when things got weird.

In room 1, she loved the color. It was perfect. It blended with the fabrics, the carpet, the trim and so on. It was exactly the look she had wanted.

However, she was shocked to discover that she hated room 2. The color looked terrible with the fabrics, the carpet, the trim, and so on.

The weird thing? The color was the same in both rooms. So was the fabric. And the carpet. And the trim. Identical rooms painted with the exact same color out of the exact same gallon and room 1 looked beautiful and room 2 looked terrible.

So she called RepcoLite in Jenison where she bought the paint, wanting to know what was going on.

Now, I’ll admit that while John was telling me this story, I was a little intrigued. These things are sometimes like mysteries and it can be fun and rewarding to puzzle them out and find a solution. However, I have to be honest: I wasn’t sure, from what I was hearing, what the problem could possibly be.

I assumed maybe a paint color problem. Maybe the roller she used had paint in it from another job. Maybe the previous color on the wall was showing through, making the color in room 2 look different.

I had a number of different theories, but then John said “you know what the problem was? You know what went wrong?”

I waited. He waited. (Turns out he wanted me to say “no, I don’t know what the problem was” before he’d continue.) So I admitted ignorance (which made him happy), and he explained, in a single, compound word: “lightbulbs!”

He went on to explain that the customer had an incandescent lightbulb in room 1–the room she loved. In room 2, the lightbulb was one of those fluorescent, energy-saving bulbs. The tone of the light coming from each of those bulbs was enough to visually alter the color on her walls.

The fix? Simple: change bulbs.

The customer tried the fix and was back in the store a day or so later to report that everything turned out well. Instead of repainting a room–going through all that work and spending that extra money–all she had to do was change a lightbulb.

So the point of the story, if it’s not obvious, is this: lighting matters! Check out your colors in your room, in your lighting before you buy and before you paint. And likewise, before you give up on a color that you thought you liked but find that you really hate when you see it on your wall, give some thought to the lighting in your room. Could a simple changing of a lightbulb make all the difference? It’s at least worth a try!

3 Ways to Compromise With Your Kids about Paint Colors

Posted on May 29, 2012August 6, 2019

Once upon a time, probably about 6 years ago or so, my wife and I walked with our kids to the Zeeland Bakery. Caleb (who was 5 at the time) waited outside with me while my wife and the other kids sauntered into the shop and ordered various donuts and cookies and different types of bread. (It’s always a huge undertaking whenever we go to the bakery).

Anyway, while Caleb and I were waiting outside, a lady walked by with a 1-year-old boy in a stroller. I smiled at the lady and Caleb smiled at the lady and he even went so far as to say “Hello.” I was proud that the little guy was so polite. And it was this pride which eventually led to my downfall.

See, as the lady was walking away, but while she was still within earshot, I thought I’d demonstrate how polite and kind my little guy was. So I said, loud enough for the lady to hear, “Wasn’t that a nice little boy?”

Oh, it was a question that he should have been able to hit out of the park. It was an easy one. A no-brainer. All he had to say was “Yes Dad, that boy seemed very nice, indeed.” Had he said that, the lady would have thought I was a super parent because I’d raised such a wonderfully polite little lad. In fact, I figured there was always the off chance that she’d turn her stroller around, shake my hand and ask my advice as to how to raise her own child.

Yes, my mind was brimming with the possibilities and the glory when Caleb spoke up. He raised his little voice to match my raised voice and suddenly, as is always the case when this kind of thing happens, the entire world quit moving. Suddenly, there were no cars–no road noise. The shop doors quit opening and closing. The clocks that had been ticking ceased their workings for a few split seconds. Even the birds and the wind and the airplanes and the fountains went silent. A whisper at one end of Main Street would have been audible at the other. And it was into this utter and complete silence that Caleb bellowed his answer, informing me, the lady, her poor, poor child and everybody else within earshot that, “No,” he didn’t think that kid was all that much. “In fact,” he went on to say, “the kid was actually kind of ugly. His ears were big and his nose was all turned up and his eyes were squinty. Like a rat.” As if this wasn’t bad enough, Caleb ended by informing me (and all of Zeeland) that he had only said “hello” to the kid because “he felt sorry for him.”

Well, I just stared at him in horror and disbelief as he continued to rattle off all sorts of uncomplimentary descriptions that reverberated off the buildings and up and down the silent streets. Silent, that is, except for the wildly squeaking wheels of the lady’s stroller as she pushed her child rapidly away from that horrible father and his nasty little son….

I mention this little episode partly as penance but also because it’s the perfect example of how kids think and act. If you ask for a child’s opinion, you’re going to get it. They’ll typically tell you exactly what they think. Problem is, while they’re usually honest, they don’t always exercise the best judgment.

In an earlier article (which you can read HERE), I suggested that it’s important to involve your kids in the process of decorating their rooms. You should let them pick the colors, ask them what they like and what they hope to see in their rooms. However, when you do that, you’re going to have to be ready for some crazy answers from time to time. In fact, when you ask an 8-year-old what colors he’d like on his walls, don’t plan on hearing him say “Oh, a nice medium-beige with an earthy brown would do just lovely.” No, get ready for black and orange (halloween colors). Or bright blue and red and yellow (Superman colors).

So, with that said, if you do decide to let them help you decorate their own rooms (which I still believe to be a great idea), you better have a method in mind as to how to incorporate their ideas without completely abandoning the overall look of the room. You both need to be happy with the outcome. And that means compromise. Here are 3 tips:

1. PICK AN ACCENT WALL

When your kids choose the brightest yellows and oranges, the flashiest greens and blues, a great compromise is to paint one of the walls–an accent wall–with one of those bright, flashy colors. Have them settle on which color they like best and see if you can’t work that into a small wall–a wall with a window or a door.

Now, in most cases, when you paint an accent wall, you’d pick the focal point of the room to do this with. In this case, however . . . well, not so much. If you’re trying to minimize the effect of the color, then picking the focal point of the room is the last thing you want to do. Just pick a small wall–a wall that’s not the first thing you see when you walk into the room–and see if you can’t put their color there. They’ll be happy, feeling proud when they see their bright wall and you’ll be happy because the room doesn’t glow like the face of the sun.

2. PICK MUTED VERSIONS OF THEIR COLOR

Another great compromise that sometimes works in the paint store is to steer kids toward more muted versions of their colors. If they love bright reds and yellows, maybe throw out some options like a rusty red or terracotta and a more muted yellow. Sometimes they’ll see these new colors and be completely willing to compromise. Again, with this type of scenario, both of you can potentially reach a mutually happy outcome.

3. ACCESSORIZE, ACCESSORIZE, ACCESSORIZE

Perhaps the best way of working wild, crazy colors into a decorating scheme is to bring those colors in with accessories. If your kids want to see black and orange or some other funky combination of colors on their walls, but you can’t bring yourself to do it, then offer this: coat the walls with a nice neutral color and then bring in accessories that fit your child’s desired color scheme. Bring in lampshades with bright colors, find art prints with the colors, switchplates and any number of other accessories that will serve to fill the room with the chosen colors without overloading the walls and driving you crazy.

The bottom line is this: when you bring your kids into the decorating picture, you’ve got to be ready to compromise. Don’t let them decide everything when you hate what they’re coming up with. Likewise, don’t decide everything yourself when they hate what you’re coming up with. You both have to be happy with the outcome for this little project to work. If you hate the room, you’re always going to feel irritated when you walk past it. If they hate the room, don’t worry, they’ll find a way to let you know about it.

So work together, have fun, and compromise!

Let Them Help: Decorating With Your Kids’ Input!

Posted on May 12, 2012August 6, 2019

Every now and then I hit upon something that I know is a good idea. And, though this doesn’t happen very often, this is one of those times. There’s no way around it: decorating your kids’ rooms with their help is a great opportunity for you and for them. Oh, I know there are lots of little bugs in the idea and potential complications–but that doesn’t change the fact that it’s a good thing to do.

Taking a room that was decorated with younger kids in mind and turning it into “hip, way cool pad” is a great way to let your kids know that YOU know that they’re growing up. Taking down the wallpaper borders of stuffed bears and turtles and replacing it with something more age-appropriate will make your kids feel important. And involving them in that process, seeking their input and listening to their suggestions will make them feel that they are on the path to growing up–they’re actually an active force in the creation of their new room.

Surprise Makeovers are Cool on TV, But Not So Much In Real Life

If you still need convincing that it’s a good idea to involve your kids in the process, then think about it this way: on TV, surprise makeovers are cool. They really are. But that’s because we don’t normally watch the recipient of the new room beyond their initial reaction. We see them when they first whip off a blindfold and stand blinking and squinting in the bright lights as they try to take in their new surroundings. Everybody’s happy and giggly and the show ends. We don’t see the couple standing there 12 hours later, now that the cameras and energetic TV personalities are gone, staring at the new walls and wondering what happened and how anybody ever thought that bright orange was a good look.

Your kids feel the same way about their room as you would about your home. Their room is their space–their world away from the world, especially as they get older. Just as you wouldn’t likely appreciate it if your husband or your neighbor just dropped by one afternoon and repainted your living room in colors of their choosing, neither will your kids necessarily be receptive to the changes you bring about one day while they’re off at school. Your vision for their room isn’t necessarily their vision for the room. You’ve got to make it your goal to discover a mutually acceptable vision.

Involve Them, But Remember Their Limitations

To that end, involve them in every aspect of the process. Take them to the store and let them look at colors. Let them flip through wallpaper books and mural books. Let them explore the world of Faux Painting. However, make sure that you keep the outings short and sweet–no marathon shopping trips that will frustrate and wear your kids out. Remember that their attention spans are not like yours–keeping the trips to a limited amount of time will make sure both of you enjoy the outings. And don’t forget to think bigger than just a trip to the paint store or the furniture store: try to tie your decorating trips in with a nice dinner out or something like that.

Taking the kids to the paint store and listening to their suggestions and then taking them out to dinner will be one of those special moments kids remember. If you treat their opinions as valid options and listen to their thoughts and take the time to discuss things with them over dinner, they will start to feel like an intricate part in the decision process. And trust me, I may have young kids and I may not have had much experience in the world of psychology, but I know this is a good thing. You don’t have to be a genius to see that by involving your kids in something so small as decorating their rooms, you’re basically telling them that their opinions matter and that you value their thoughts.

What If . . ?

Alright, now you’re probably thinking that I’m living in a world where everything is puppy dogs and lollipops. Sure it sounds good to involve the kids in the decorating process, but what’s going to happen when they pick out Sponge-Bob Yellow and Bright Red for their walls? We’ll cover that in the next post.

Decorating Made Easy: Decorating with the 60-30-10 Rule

Posted on September 7, 2011August 6, 2019

The 60-30-10 rule is a tested concept used by interior decorators everywhere. It’s a simple proportion that spells out the ideal amounts of color to use in your decorating.

To keep it as simple as possible, 60% of your room should be composed of your dominant color, 30% should be composed of a secondary color and that final 10% should be reserved for accents. Now, maybe that sounds a little confusing . . . so here are some examples:

This room is a perfect example of the 60-30-10 rule in practice.
60% = Lavendar (walls and blanket)
30% = White (bed and fireplace)
10% = brown/tan (chairs, dresser, floor)

Another great example:
60% = Tan (walls, floors) 30% Brown (couch, tables)
10% Blue and White (pillows, vases, etc.)

A classic example showing that you don’t need a soft, muted color on your walls to make this work.
60% = Red (walls, accessories)
30% = Cream (furniture, rug)
10% = Tan (floor, accessories)

Another great example that clearly demonstrates that the main color doesn’t need to be calm, simple, neutral or BORING!
60% = Green (walls, accessories)
30% = White (furniture, art prints)
10% = Dark Brown (floors, chair legs)

An example that proves you can use the 60-30-10 rule to work incredibly vibrant and bold colors smoothly into your decorating.
60% = Blue (walls, light)
30% = Pink (bedspread, chair, painted leaves)
10% = White (trim, doors)

The color options are endless and it’s not difficult to see that using this rule helps you keep your color scheme under control and helps you produce an end result that’s very focused, very clean and very inviting!

Bad Uniforms and What They Teach Us About Paint

Posted on August 2, 2011August 6, 2019

The year was 1976. The team was the Chicago White Sox. The Sport? Major League Baseball. Yes. Major League Baseball.

Maybe some of you remember this, maybe this is new to many of you, but for 3 games in 1976, the White Sox sent their players out on the field wearing…yes, shorts. And not cool, baggy shorts. No. Tight, clingy shorts. With their socks pulled up all the way to their knees.

This alone would have been bad–a fashion faux-pas of epic proportions–but the designers of this sleek little number weren’t done. They added to the shorts what would have been a boring white shirt were it not for the GI-NORMOUS 1970’s black collar.

Together, the whole outfit was so horrible, I’m pretty sure opposing teams refused to even take the field against the White Sox. White Sox players themselves likely spent hours in counseling and therapy sessions after being ridiculed and laughed into oblivion by former fans.

And yet, what’s interesting to me is that underneath that ridiculous outfit, these men were still Major League Baseball players. They are/were more successful than me by a long shot and yet, looking at the pictures, it’s almost impossible to think of them that way.

It’s a perfect example of that old saying about how the clothes make the man (or, of course, woman). When we say that, we know that clothes don’t CHANGE who we are, but they certainly affect how we are perceived.

For example, think of the manliest man playing the game today–I’m not going to name names, you just get somebody in your mind. Picture that player and then dress him–in your mind–in this bozo outfit from the 1970s. Give him shorts and white socks with black stripes pulled up to his ankles. Put that little shirt on him with the big fluffy disco collar. I guarantee if you do that, you’ll be unable to take him seriously. The goofy get-up doesn’t change who he is, but it certainly changes who we think him to be.

Now let’s shift gears and talk about paint.

Your home–your living room, your kitchen, the exterior of your home itself–can be in great shape. It can be solid, well-built, brand-new. It can be composed of the highest quality materials and consist of the best workmanship known to mankind. It can be all of those things, but if the paint colors are boring or were poorly chosen, all of the quality underneath remains hidden.

Look again at the pitcher in the top picture. He may be a tremendous athlete (and even if he wasn’t, he’s still likely 20X more fit than most of us). And yet, even though that may all be true, he looks so silly in his little shorts and his big collar and pulled-up socks that I look more manly sitting here typing this story about paint colors than he does throwing curveballs and 4-seam fastballs.

As I said earlier, clothes MAKE the man–they alter our perceptions–and the same is true with your home. You can take the best, highest quality workmanship and hide all that quality beneath poor paint jobs and lousy color choices.

It’s a remarkable concept: an athlete takes years and years of sweat and work and effort to hone him or herself to be the best he or she can be in their sport. Just like those White Sox players. And yet, all that work can be tossed out in a minute when you cover them over with a stupid-looking uniform. You can spend hours and hours and tons of money making your home exactly the way you want it, but if you choose the wrong paint color–something that simple and that superficial–the rest of the work is cheapened.

So all that to say, choose wisely. Color matters. The right colors can make your home look like something out of a magazine and the wrong colors can make it look like kids built it. Choose the right colors!

4 Tips to Help You Decorate With Color!

Posted on May 17, 2011August 6, 2019

Have you tried bringing color into your home only to find that it didn’t work? That the colors didn’t look good together? That they were too bold or too overpowering? And then, when that happened, did you simply go back to painting in soft whites and neutrals?

This happens to a lot of people we run into at RepcoLite–they branch out into the world of “color” only to find that the colors they chose didn’t look very good. Typically, many of those folks then assume that “color’s not for them” or that “they’re just not cut out to decorate in color” and they return to the safety of neutral.

If that’s you, then hold on for a second: color adds interest and visual appeal to our decorating. It can take a boring room and turn it into something that turns heads and starts conversations. The trick is to use the right colors in the right quantities.

And here are 4 quick ideas to help you do that:

CHECK OUT YOUR COLOR IN ALL LIGHTING SITUATIONS

Many folks come into the store, pick out some color samples, scrutinize them, and then order a gallon or two of paint. Then they go home and paint their walls only to find that when night comes and the room darkens the color’s way too dark on their walls. Avoid this mistake by taking your color chips home and examining them in YOUR lighting and in all lighting situations. Look at the colors at night in the rooms in which they’ll be well before you start rolling them out!

CHOOSE YOUR PAINT LAST

In the decorating process, many folks start with the paint. They’ll come to the paint store and try to establish their paint colors before they step into the furniture stores or the carpet stores. This is a mistake. Folks will come in, pick a bold, bright color for their walls, and then later discover they can’t find a couch or carpet that looks good with those colors. They then, mistakenly, assume that bold colors are just not their thing. The problem isn’t bold colors, it’s the timing of the color choice. Remember: Paint is the most adjustable aspect of any home decorating project and should therefore, be selected after everything else is chosen. First find your couch, your carpet, your wall hangings, etc. and then have the paint made to pull colors from those items. Doing it this way makes decorating with color easy. Doing it backwards makes decorating with color seem impossible!

PLAN AHEAD

Another thing to think about applies especially to those folks who are working their way through their house. They start with one room, get it finished and then move on to the next one. If this is you, plan your steps and your decorating with an eye on your next move. Don’t find a beautiful, bold color for your living room, make everything work together beautifully only to discover that you have no idea what color will go with it when you move to your hallway. Plan your living room with your hallway in mind. Make sure the colors will harmonize as you work your way through the house.

DON’T BE FOOLED BY COLOR CHIPS

This last tip is important! When you look at a standard color chip, you’ll see a light color at the top and a darker version of that color at the bottom with five or six variations in between. The typical response many of us have to this way of displaying color is to assume that the top color is an off white. From there, we gauge the depth of the subsequent colors on the chip. The mistake comes in our initial assumption: often, the colors on the top of the chips are already significantly darker than off whites. So, while the third color on the chip may look–by comparison to the other colors–to be a “medium-toned” color, we are often surprised to see how dark it actually is on our walls. So all that to say, one of the best things you can do is take that color swatch you like and hold it up to some standard whites or off whites to give yourself a good perception of the true depth of the colors–that way you won’t be too surprised when you get them on your wall.