Speaking about color and painting…

…Mary, a cute (tiny little thing:)) co-worker of mine, came to work a week ago a little frazzled. She simply couldn’t decide what color her dining room should be. For the rest of her house Mary and her husband had chosen warm, earthy colors: gold, brown, and Mediterranean orange with reddish undertones. I love this color palette, very balmy and incredibly inviting. Generally speaking, I like earthy colors, but I equally enjoy rich, regal jewel-tone colors, which are very much in right now.
Mary’s dining room, on the other hand, is positioned a little far from the rest of the other rooms, and Mary’s concern was that if she painted her dining room a jewel-tone color, it wouldn’t work with the rest of the rooms. I agree there should be a flow, a repeated theme of colors through out the entire house. Mary was thinking burgundy (burgundy is a nice, rich color) would go well with the grayish carpet she had in her dining room, and it would be a great color overall. I mean, yeah, burgundy is grand, but don’t you think that everybody goes for burgundy in their dining rooms? A little too corny I’d say!
So, I thought a gallant, regal purple with reddish/brownish undertones would be just perfect for her. It would make a statement (that is for sure!), and it is original yet elegant. Also, it would not be far from the burgundy color she had initially chosen. I did a little research, resorting to one of my favorite home design websites, HGTV, and voila, there it was a gorgeous, striking purple/reddish color. (Have I mentioned that I love HGTV!)
I send her the link (http://www.hgtv.com/hgtv/rm_walls_other/article/0,1797,HGTV_3805_1394033,00.html), and just minutes later she was looking at different paints trying to match the color I suggested. The next day, Mary showed me all the different matching paint samples she could find. We chose a few, but the most important thing was that Mary already knew what to look for. She decided to go with Benjamin Moore paint, Bordeaux Red (1365), which very much resembled the color we liked.