Anybody used a colour consultant for painting your home?

[amelapanderson]

was it worth it? was it expensive?  I've looked into Dulux they refer you to a consultant, can cost up to $195 per hour, you can claim back $100 if you buy their paint.  

[nevillesdaughter]

If you have a local smaller type paint place (as opposed to a Bunnings or whatever), they are often owned/operated as an individual franchise. Our local guy was a tradesman, had been trained by the paint companies that he sold, and was as good as any consultant (just didn't produce a flash-looking mood board and written report etc. He even came around to our house to check things out, check out the condition of old painted surfaces and make suggestions. Admittedly we were long term customers, kids at the same school etc.

Also if you Google "mood board", the paint companies etc have heaps of tips/suggested schemes which can help you make a start on it yourself.

I'm not knocking professional advisors, but it can create a feeling of obligation. A little time tooling around on the net might help you bring your own tastes/ideas together.

Hope this helps,

Marina.

[lind9650]

What kind of palace do you want to create to need a colour consultant?

Only you know what colours you like. Pastels, bright colours or a blend of similar shades in each room.

Colour consultants in my mind are for people with lots of money and no idea of what they want. In comes the professional Interior Decorator and creates what he / she wants.

For instant; I am not a yellow person. Don't even have one item of clothing in yellow. A colour consultant would tell me that yellow is a brighht, sunny and uplifting colour.

Get some magazines and have a good look at different colour combinations and choose the ones you like. May cost you around $25.- for two or three good Home Decorating magazines.

JMO, Erica

[youcandoityoucandoityoucandoit]

It depends on so many factors-

Exterior or interior?

Whats your budget?

Are you getting a professional to paint the place?

Are you wanting advice for a specific effect- eg a 'period' home?

Also, if the consultant works for Dulux, do you like their paint range? Is there a minimum fee- you mention up to $195 an hour, with a $100 voucher for Dulux paint- does their service only take an hour?

[bushies.girl]

We have done heaps of interior painting in the past 2 yrs and havent felt the need to use a colour consultant   .... Given you have a bit of idea of the colour you want to use, paint shop/hardware places have heaps of colour swatches you can bring home and pin around your walls.  Leave them there for a while and look a them under different lighting, you will soon discorver, what you like and what you dont and save heaps of $$ as well

[amelapanderson]

thanks everyone, it's the exterior and it's a big job that is going to cost big $$$.  Hence I want to get it right.  The interior I will do myself. Im hoping it is not going to be more than 2 hours, their website says most are 1.5 hours. We will be getting it professionally painted, we are over painting after just selling our last house and doing all the painting ourselves.!!  OH is never lifiting another paint brush he tells me, and it's not one of my favourite jobs either.  I'll come back and give an update once I have the consultation early next week.

[lloydslights]

How to pick a contrast colour?  

Take the Hakea leaf to the paint counter and ask them to match the underside colour.

Result?  Balcony rails that blend with the colours of the native gardens.

It will be interesting to hear of your experience with the Consultant.

DEB

[youcandoityoucandoityoucandoit]

Seeing as its the exterior, could you take a photo and then use photoshop (or similar) to scan colors onto the photo?

That way you will get an idea of the scale of the colour- thats where a lot of exterior paintjobs get it wrong..

Also, have you seen the colour that you like already used on an exterior? I would try to research from real life, existing examples, rather than small colour charts or pots or even magazine photos, which could have been photoshopped anyway.

The consultant is there to guide you, and hopefully sell you a lot of paint! Theyre not there to push you into a colour you dont like or want- which can happen in retail shops, selling off excess and colours that noone really wants.

[this-one-time-at-bandcamp]

One of the problems with selecting a color pallete is a difference of opinion/tastes........when we were preparing to repaint the casa we drove through various new neighborhoods looking at existing schemes.  When we finally found a green that we agreed on, we went up to the house, asked the owners if they had the paint mixture numbers.  They didn't, but they gave us the name of the builder, who gave us the name of the painter, who gave us the paint store............which actually had a record of the numbers.

To demonstrate the absurdity of a consultant, another time I had finished the hall bathroom, tile, paint, and wallpaper, in Mauve and Gray.  A friend (old girlfriend) who was employed by a big box store, pooh-poohed my choices, saying it was so "last year", and that I should have gone with lime and peach.  I then asked her what next year's colors were going to be.........she said she had no idea.   Wooooooosh!

[this-one-time-at-bandcamp]

selling off excess and colours that noone really wants.

How would they go about that since 99% of colors are mixed after selection?