Professional Colorist – Paint the Town
You tore out pages of magazines with the colors you liked. With great hope, you gathered all those paint cards. You narrowed your choices, bought sample pots of your short list of colors and painted test patches on your walls. After looking at them at various times of day, you evaluated them and made your selection with confidence. The painters came and coated the walls with your dream color and, when they left, you had that awful sickening feeling. You absolutely hated the color; it’d never work. In spite of all your research, effort and best wishes, it failed.
Discouraging as it is, you don’t have to live with your bad choice reminder – you can call in a professional color consultant, to help correct the color or, better yet, advise you before a brush ever touches a wall again in the future.
Like paint whisperers, a consultant takes into account all things that can affect color such as adjacent room colors, furnishings and lighting. Most importantly, they listen to what it is you want to achieve. Are you looking for dramatic flair, something cheery and bright, or perhaps peaceful respite? Seek their advice for your luxury home be it choosing the best hues to showcase your art collection, make smaller rooms appear less tiny, or how to unify your furnishings with the ideal wall, ceiling and trim color choices.
Margaret Larcade
Larcade Larcade
www.larcadelarcade.com | (210) 733-0260
Margaret’s personal favorite paint: PRATT & LAMBERT 6-13 “A rosy orange, different from a terra-cotta, but with the same warm and dramatic effect.”
Margaret Larcade, a seasoned interior designer who got her start in New York City, is also a professional colorist who’s provided color guidance for residential clients all over San Antonio and beyond for 35 years. In addition to her frequent interior and exterior color projects in the historic Monte Vista area and Alamo Heights, she has often done work in San Miguel de Allende and the Texas coast. It’s not surprising that she draws from her passions for design and art, but also folk arts and crafts from around the world.
Seeing her home color work as three dimensional canvases, she believes the best guidance comes from responding to the psychological and factual information on projects. Primarily, she’s guided by the interests of the homeowner and what they are trying to create. In Texas, she says, “color choices are often about how to make use of the abundant natural light or lack thereof in a home.”
Emmett Fiore
Fine Paints of Europe
www.finepaintsofeurope.com | (800) 332-1556
Emmett’s personal favorite paint: LP-16 (a yellow ochre) Fine Paints of Europe Designer Collection II
“Yellow ochre’s earthy reddish-yellow pigment by itself is responsible for a wide range of glorious creams, straw, parchment, butterscotch and deep gold hues. Think Tuscany. It's one of the unsung, work horses of the paint industry.”
While the cost may initially seem high in comparison to the paint you get from the big box home stores, you get, as they say, what you pay for. Most of the Fine Paints of Europe finishes are in the $100-$120 per Eurogallon™ price range and contain the highest quality, finely ground 100% pigments that provide superior luminosity and effervescence. A Eurogallon™ will normally provide the same coverage as a U.S. gallon of similar gloss. Imported from Holland, these lush, complex, earth-friendly interior and exterior paints, are some of the finest and most durable you can find, and are worthy of some of the most notable homes, including George Washington’s Mount Vernon Estate for which a collection, the Mount Vernon Estate of Colours®, was created.
Along with your premium paint, you can engage the services of the affable Emmett Fiore, Color Strategist for professional color advice. Fiore’s complimentary professional color advice and technical support is available to Fine Paints of Europe clients throughout North America. Fiore cites, “I don’t spend my day thinking about color, instead I think about the people I’m talking to and their perspective to guide me in consultations.” Fiore can develop a color scheme for your entire home or work with you on a small project like picking a juicy front door color while providing coating and primers most suitable for your project. To help facilitate his consultations, clients are encouraged to provide images of their home interiors and furniture, as well as fabric swatches. Clients can experiment with "test cans" and Sample Pots™ before making a final decision on the perfect shade. Fine Paints of Europe can even recommend paint contractors for your project.
Linda Richardson
By Design Home Staging and Decorating
http://bydesignsa.com | (210) 722-1633
Linda’s personal favorite paint: Sherwin Williams, Naval.
“It’s a deep navy blue. I love it because it can go neutral or be paired with a bright color; it can be feminine or masculine; it makes a great backdrop for all the metals. Its diversity is unlimited.”
Linda Richardson is an interior designer and professional colorist at By Design. She brings her 20 years of experience to homes throughout San Antonio, as well as New Braunfels and Dallas. Additionally, she works with custom home builder John Merritt in the Stone Creek and Fair Oaks Ranch neighborhoods.
Richardson develops color design and palettes throughout her home projects. She states that most clients want color, but with a clean design. “I enjoy teaching them to use color but keeping it clean and pure.” She says there’s a new mentality of wanting calmness in our hectic lives. To start, she determines what colors clients hate or fear, helps them unleash their creativity through encouragement and helps them have fun with the process.
Who is Portfolio Real Estate?
We are top performing real estate professionals, experienced in representing exclusive properties and the people who buy and sell them. Where you live is a reflection of who you are and the life you prefer to live, and WE have the keys to the finest our area has to offer.
Ready to start your San Antonio luxury home search? Search for homes now. Already have something in mind? Talk to a lender about your options.
