# What’s the worst color you’ve been asked to use on a home?



## Admin (Jan 4, 2010)

> You’ve probably been asked at least once to paint a home a color that made you cringe or took you back to your grandma’s house that wasn’t updated after 1945. Some people either don’t test sample colors or simply have a unique perspective on what colors go together.
> 
> Some colors look different depending on existing elements in the room, like the trim or carpet color, so what a customer loved in their friend’s home might not look great in their kitchen. When you’re asked to paint a room a color you know will look bad when it’s done, what should you do? *Should You Intervene with Paint Colors?*


When you’re asked to paint a room a color you know will look bad when it’s done, what should you do?

What’s the worst color you’ve been asked to use on a home?


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## RH (Sep 7, 2010)

Only doing interiors, some “ dramatic” colors are often chosen, especially for kids’ rooms. I can’t recall any truly terrible color choices. Once did a guy’s home office in a really intense orange, but that’s one of the main colors of a nearby state college, and he was a big fan, so it made sense.
Once was doing a big job where the chosen main color was an off white with slight pink cast called “Bunny Cake”. Every time I went in to my supplier to order more and had to say the name, the guys behind the counter would give me a hard time. I was glad when that job was over.


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## Brushman4 (Oct 18, 2014)

I did a lot of work for a woman whose son was a friend of mine and I was doing things there every year or so.
Her daughter was about 26 when she finally decided to move out on her own and the lady called me to paint the daughter's old bedroom.
I went over there and she had a Wedgewood blue already picked out, she said that was the color of the hotel room she and her husband used to stay in when they made their yearly trip in the springtime to the North Carolina coast.
She said it had a large crown molding, high baseboards all in cherry, along with antique cherry furniture. I tried pointing out that this room didn't have the same type of furniture, didn't have any crown, had three-inch ranch trim and it wouldn't look like the hotel room.
She insisted that was what she wanted, so I painted it the blue and when I finished I told her to take a look. We walked into the room and she all of a sudden had this unpleasant look on her face and I never worked or heard from her again.
So I guess that she blamed me for pointing out that the room didn't have the accouterments of the hotel room.


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## stelzerpaintinginc. (May 9, 2012)

I'll verify that paint samples have been put up so they'd have a better grasp as to the final outcome. Beyond that, it's entirely situational. Folks who ask for suggestions or feedback will get it. There's a handful of beige-taupe colors that actually give off a pinkish hue, so I'll inform people of that to make sure they're into that sorta thing. Most of the older crowd chooses a color which they've used in the past, so you've got to be tactful. I once painted an older ladies home the same color her late husband always painted it...Lobster red on the bottom half and pink on the upper. Had I even questioned the color scheme initially I'm sure I would've been given the boot. She was absolutely tickled when we finished. Despite her elation, I opted not to include it in my before & after portfolio.


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## Joe67 (Aug 12, 2016)

I couldn't say it's the worst or even such a terrible color. It was just somewhat recent, and the thing that made it terrible is that it was a small kitchen with relatively low ceilings (7' ish). And she wanted all of it done in that color - ceiling, walls, trim. And it's actually a little greener than it appears on my screen. So when it was done, it felt a little like standing in a pot of pea soup. 

https://www.benjaminmoore.com/en-us...r-color/color/csp-770/sagebrush?color=CSP-770


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## Repaint Florida (May 31, 2012)

6 years ago we painted complete home including wall, doors, base, crown everything but ceilings flat black on a 3 bedroom ... even the closet, he loved it but called last year wanting to sell and needed it all repainted in white $$$$$$


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## Joe67 (Aug 12, 2016)

Repaint Florida said:


> 6 years ago we painted complete home including wall, doors, base, crown everything but ceilings flat black on a 3 bedroom ... even the closet, he loved it but called last year wanting to sell and needed it all repainted in white $$$$$$



Did he maybe look a little like Rob Zombie?


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## Brushman4 (Oct 18, 2014)

Repaint Florida said:


> 6 years ago we painted complete home including wall, doors, base, crown everything but ceilings flat black on a 3 bedroom ... even the closet, he loved it but called last year wanting to sell and needed it all repainted in white $$$$$$


Ha, Ha, Ha, Ha, Ha, the joke was on him.


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## PaintShopTillamook (May 14, 2020)

I sold a contractor 20 gallons of a lime green paint designed to match sticky note green. A lady was going to paint her house this color, then paint her foundation a chocolate brown with regal blue shutters.

I also had a lady last week request 2 gallons of flat black paint for her bathroom. Eeegh.


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## jennifertemple (Oct 30, 2011)

Bright Pink & Chartreuse in the same room! If Ho wants something hideous I offer my services as an artist/ colour consultant. If they refuse, I say, sure, you can do that but you'll need another company to do the work because I can't have my name on it. that tends to make them think. Most often they allow me to advise them.


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## RH (Sep 7, 2010)

I never turned down a job based on color choices. If they asked, I would give them my honest opinion with the proviso that I wasn’t going to have to live with it. If they didn’t ask, I didn’t volunteer any opinion. Sometimes, you just don’t know how it’s going to work until it’s on the walls and I ended up redoing a room or two (on their dime) over the years.


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## jennifertemple (Oct 30, 2011)

RH said:


> I never turned down a job based on color choices.


 My entire advertising plan was referral only. It does not matter that I do not pick the colours, if it looks like heck there is no way I'll get a call from anyone that sees it. I great colour consult can work out to many more, spin off jobs. So, I never, once, agreed to do a job I thought would look bad.


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## Redux (Oct 27, 2018)

Topping the worst color list was a stuccoed modern beach house that the client wanted painted flamingo pink, combined with garish aqua-marine greens/blues & purple colors on architectural steel accents scattered all over the property. The building inspector stopped by the project my first week into finish, telling me that it wasn’t Miami Beach, the colors being in violation of village ordinances, and placed a stop work order pending village approval. After the flamingo pink color was disapproved, we ended up changing the color after having purchased all the pink paint.


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## hasnazameer (Jul 20, 2020)

I am fond of light colors and I felt very sad to use bright colors. As the client insisted to use dark colors, I have painted it with it.


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## cleaningguy (Aug 14, 2020)

*That's kinda fun to read*

Been painting for quite a long time never been demanded with some weird colors. But would like to hear these stories, hilarious lol.







Henry D.
West Auckland
09-888-0736
house painter west auckland


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## Cory29 (Jul 21, 2020)

My editor never says that, but when I submit proposals and receive comments on the final color, he may ask me, “Was this color too much of a bubblegum pink?” or “Your changes seem to have made the green look like Chinese Elm bark.” (I’m getting really tired of the color orange.)


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## Fman (Aug 20, 2011)

Plaid. Worst color ever! They were Scottish and the customer couldn't make up their mind between Tartan plaid and catholic schoolgirl skirt plaid. They finally settled on the Tartan (DUH!). The paint store hated me because they burned a few dozen gallons before they got it right.


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## Joe67 (Aug 12, 2016)

Ok, not a home, but a business. Some manner of rolling stand-up shelving "cart" in a very high end, chic clothing store. It sits in front of one of the front plate glass windows. I have no idea if I'd have conjured this color thought at any given moment, but this thread was reactivated now, and I got this color spec today.

I might wear a welders helmet to apply it. Or at the very least some dark sunglasses.


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## Masterwork (Sep 13, 2020)

15 different colours in one tiny dental office... 8 of those were different shades of purple.


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## finishesbykevyn (Apr 14, 2010)

I once did a feature wall in "Deep Space Blue". Must have done 4 coats and still wouldn't cover. Told the lady I wasn't doing any more coats.


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## Fman (Aug 20, 2011)

Masterwork said:


> 15 different colours in one tiny dental office... 8 of those were different shades of purple.


We did a Mexican restaurant that had 28 color breaks, mostly pastels. The theme was supposed to look like the architect's decorator's idea of what a slapped together restaurant might look like in Mexico, with (seemingly) random paint colors on half doors used as wainscoating and the like. We really had to pay attention!


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## Pete Martin the Painter (Nov 8, 2012)

I did not do these colors because I talked the HO out of it. Normally I never question the colors a HO picks but I had done a lot of work for this guy. He wanted a bedroom painted black walls and lime green trim.

Sent from my SM-A600U using Tapatalk


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## Wildbill7145 (Apr 30, 2014)

I'm starting to hate Simply White. Seems like everyone who had gone nuts with previous colours (deep reds, dark blues/browns) is flip flopping. Then they find it hard to believe it's going to take 3 coats to cover it up.


"It's just white right? What's the problem?"


Going over bright pink today with it in Regal. Hopefully it covers in two because I don't want to do anything related to painting over the long weekend.


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## RH (Sep 7, 2010)

Had a customer that I had painted the interior of his house. He then asked me to paint his office. He was a psychiatrist and his office was the living room in an older home that had been divided into offices. Neat room that had all sorts of nooks and crannies and cubby holes. 
He hired a designer to pick the colors and where to put them and the guy literally had every single section of wall designated a different color - and they were bold ones. The end effect was interesting but I always felt it was extremely chaotic for a professional space where many of the patients had stress and anxiety issues. It was far from soothing and calming.


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## Fman (Aug 20, 2011)

Did a diamond warehouse and it was bold primary colors- like schools we had done. The guy was from Ireland- very Irish- and pretty straight forward about how he didn't care for the colors. He said he had been told the bright red and yellow were psychologically _calming_ colors. Huh? Red is an angry color! I'm mad just thinking about it and it was 20 years ago.


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## finishesbykevyn (Apr 14, 2010)

Fman said:


> Did a diamond warehouse and it was bold primary colors- like schools we had done. The guy was from Ireland- very Irish- and pretty straight forward about how he didn't care for the colors. He said he had been told the bright red and yellow were psychologically _calming_ colors. Huh? Red is an angry color! I'm mad just thinking about it and it was 20 years ago.


Haha. Honestly, that reminds me of a house I was renting. Someone had painted the bathroom a deep Red. It was such an angry colour in the bathroom.
One day I got a nose bleed and my blood looked orange!
Well that was it, I found some coventry grey in garage and rid of that nasty red.. Morning dueces were so much nicer after that.:biggrin:


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## Redux (Oct 27, 2018)

$70K ugly color re-do...I had a designer spec out an ugly oil enamel battleship gray finish in a newly built home’s entry foyer, 3 level stairway, and 3 adjoining corridors, all spaces having floor to ceiling millwork w/no drywall. Everything had originally been finished by the builder’s painters with white Satin Impervo just weeks before being hired to change everything to gray after the client took delivery of the newly built home. My price for the color change in the above mentioned spaces was ~$70K. Shortly after I repainted everything in gray oil, I ended up getting hired and paid “again” to revert it back to white due to the client not liking the gray after hiring a new interior designer. It went from white, to gray, and then back to white all in a matter of months. 

That was just the tip of the iceberg...on the same home I ended up getting paid to redo 8 additional rooms which I had just completed, the client & new designer not liking the equally ugly colors, finishes, and wall treatments, one of which involved removing an equally ugly $32K gray string cloth in the master suite which my paper hanger had just installed. The 8 additional rooms all originally had Phillip Jeffries wall coverings installed by the builder’s paper hanger only weeks before I started tearing everything off and redoing those rooms, yet being hired to redo the rooms “again”, for what would be the third time in only a few short months.


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## CApainter (Jun 29, 2007)

My worst ugly color experience wasn't necessarily with a color, but more with an effect.

It was the late 70's and I worked with a band of bandits that applied that notorious Sears coating product known as TexCoat. Frankly, we were a hard working crew that tried to follow the best practices for applying this crazy material that had in it's specifications, to sand blast all masonry surfaces prior to application. What a mess! There were maybe three colors that I could remember. White, Tan, and Biege followed mostly with Kelly Moore's oil based "Mesa Brown" for the trim. 

So we deploy to this fairly large Ranch style home located in the outskirts of Lodi CA. The house stucco exterior was painted in an off white that wasn't really in that bad of shape. The owner wanted us to apply the white TexCoat color, which was reasonable considering the house looked fine as it was. That was before I knew that I would soon find myself right behind the sprayman, twirling the handle of a Glitter Gun like some Fairy warrior from a fantasy novel, desperately dodging ricocheting perlites in an attempt to maintain a steady stream of sparkle.

I know. But it was the 70's afterall.


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## finishesbykevyn (Apr 14, 2010)

Redux said:


> $70K ugly color re-do...I had a designer spec out an ugly oil enamel battleship gray finish in a newly built home’s entry foyer, 3 level stairway, and 3 adjoining corridors, all spaces having floor to ceiling millwork w/no drywall. Everything had originally been finished by the builder’s painters with white Satin Impervo just weeks before being hired to change everything to gray after the client took delivery of the newly built home. My price for the color change in the above mentioned spaces was ~$70K. Shortly after I repainted everything in gray oil, I ended up getting hired and paid “again” to revert it back to white due to the client not liking the gray after hiring a new interior designer. It went from white, to gray, and then back to white all in a matter of months.
> 
> That was just the tip of the iceberg...on the same home I ended up getting paid to redo 8 additional rooms which I had just completed, the client & new designer not liking the equally ugly colors, finishes, and wall treatments, one of which involved removing an equally ugly $32K gray string cloth in the master suite which my paper hanger had just installed. The 8 additional rooms all originally had Phillip Jeffries wall coverings installed by the builder’s paper hanger only weeks before I started tearing everything off and redoing those rooms, yet being hired to redo the rooms “again”, for what would be the third time in only a few short months.


Jaazus Redux. How many people did you have on your crew to pull that off?!


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## Redux (Oct 27, 2018)

finishesbykevyn said:


> Jaazus Redux. How many people did you have on your crew to pull that off?!


Time was not of the essence being it was a summer home and not occupied during the off season while the work was being performed. I kept the crew size to 3 including myself (plus my paper hanger and an in-law hardwood floor finisher), stretching it over a long duration, which made for a terrific winter project. Despite all of what were near borderline insane changes, it was one of the most pleasant projects I’ve ever worked on.


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## Redux (Oct 27, 2018)

CApainter said:


> My worst ugly color experience wasn't necessarily with a color, but more with an effect.
> 
> It was the late 70's and I worked with a band of bandits that applied that notorious Sears coating product known as TexCoat. Frankly, we were a hard working crew that tried to follow the best practices for applying this crazy material that had in it's specifications, to sand blast all masonry surfaces prior to application. What a mess! There were maybe three colors that I could remember. White, Tan, and Biege followed mostly with Kelly Moore's oil based "Mesa Brown" for the trim.
> 
> ...



Although I can’t say I’ve ever heard of glitter being applied to a wet stucco-like film finish by a fantasy fairy warrior, I’ve seen mica flakes added to stucco and plaster renders which provide a shimmery look.


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## CApainter (Jun 29, 2007)

Redux said:


> Although I can’t say I’ve ever heard of glitter being applied to a wet stucco-like film finish by a fantasy fairy warrior, I’ve seen mica flakes added to stucco and plaster renders which provide a shimmery look.


It was the same cheesy glitter that was used on sprayed acoustic ceilings. Very popular here back in the 70's. It was delivered by a hand held metal hopper that would whine the faster you turned the handle. Very weird. 

Are you familiar with the Sears TexCoat product? There was a lot of controversy with it because of many failures due to it's vapor barrier properties. We would typically apply it with a pneumatic king pump out of metal fifty five gallon drums from the factory. A lot of logistics for a residential exterior paint job. But between hauling those drums around, stretching blast hose, and handling 100 lb. sandbags, it prepared me for the industrial painting I would experience years later. Especially the clean up! 

I've never seen a house with exterior glitter since. Thank God.


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## Wildbill7145 (Apr 30, 2014)

CApainter said:


> I've never seen a house with exterior glitter since. Thank God.



You ever seen houses finished with the stucco/crushed up beer bottle mixed in (brown and green) look? Not sure if it's just a Canadian thing or not. It's generally pretty ugly and I think it was probably just a 70's thing. So many things from the 70's were just plain ugly. Not all, but some.


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## CApainter (Jun 29, 2007)

Wildbill7145 said:


> You ever seen houses finished with the stucco/crushed up beer bottle mixed in (brown and green) look? Not sure if it's just a Canadian thing or not. It's generally pretty ugly and I think it was probably just a 70's thing. So many things from the 70's were just plain ugly. Not all, but some.


It sounds like a clever way to recycle. But no, I've never seen an exterior stucco house with imbedded crushed bottles. At least not in person. I'm sure there's fifty million of them on the internet. 

What may explain some of the strange 70's architectural designs (from a "normal" perspective) is the experimentation with LSD and pscyilicibin during that era.


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## slinger58 (Feb 11, 2013)

Man! Crushed beer bottles and LSD. 

I’m kinda starting to hear Grace Slick’s voice in the background here. 


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## finishesbykevyn (Apr 14, 2010)

Wildbill7145 said:


> You ever seen houses finished with the stucco/crushed up beer bottle mixed in (brown and green) look? Not sure if it's just a Canadian thing or not. It's generally pretty ugly and I think it was probably just a 70's thing. So many things from the 70's were just plain ugly. Not all, but some.


All the older houses in Vancouver from the 80's were done in that glass stucco. Or maybe it was the 60's?
Trying to repair them was tricky. We would find rocks from a near by school yard and trowel it into some cement. Only way to paint was by spray only.


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## Redux (Oct 27, 2018)

I was working for an associate of Donald Trump back in the early 80’s who was an architect by the name of Jordan Gruzen, and one evening when doing my laundry, I accidentally threw a maroon shirt in with my whites, the bleach turning the shirt a shocking light crimson color along with turning my painter’s whites pink. I ended up wearing the electrifying shirt to work the following day. When Jordan’s wife saw the shirt, she blurted out “That’s it!....That’s the color!” 

Jordan and his wife ended up dragging me from room to room making me stand against different walls in different lighting conditions, using me and my shirt as a human color sample for all the drywall walls. His wife broke out a pair of scissors cutting a huge piece of my shirt off which we had color matched in flat oil SaniFlat which I ended up using on all the drywall throughout their entire home. It was a close runner up to being the worst color I’d ever done, aside from the flamingo pink exterior that had the stop work order placed on it by the local building department.


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## Fman (Aug 20, 2011)

Redux said:


> I was working for an associate of Donald Trump back in the early 80’s who was an architect by the name of Jordan Gruzen, and one evening when doing my laundry, I accidentally threw a maroon shirt in with my whites, the bleach turning the shirt a shocking light crimson color along with turning my painter’s whites pink. I ended up wearing the electrifying shirt to work the following day. When Jordan’s wife saw the shirt, she blurted out “That’s it!....That’s the color!”
> 
> Jordan and his wife ended up dragging me from room to room making me stand against different walls in different lighting conditions, using me and my shirt as a human color sample for all the drywall walls. His wife broke out a pair of scissors cutting a huge piece of my shirt off which we had color matched in flat oil SaniFlat which I ended up using on all the drywall throughout their entire home. It was a close runner up to being the worst color I’d ever done, aside from the flamingo pink exterior that had the stop work order placed on it by the local building department.


Lucky for you it was an associate and you got paid. :wink:


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## Redux (Oct 27, 2018)

Fman said:


> Lucky for you it was an associate and you got paid. :wink:


I had a business relationship with the principal owner of one of NYC’s larger privately held commercial construction outfits, the firm having comparable annual revenues to that of the Trump Organization. The firm had been defendant in 300% more lawsuits over non-payment than the Trump Organization did from 1987-present. It pretty much goes with the turf, yet it’s publicized more when it’s a political figure.


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## Fman (Aug 20, 2011)

Redux said:


> I had a business relationship with the principal owner of one of NYC’s larger privately held commercial construction outfits, the firm having comparable annual revenues to that of the Trump Organization. The firm had been defendant in 300% more lawsuits over non-payment than the Trump Organization did from 1987-present. It pretty much goes with the turf, yet it’s publicized more when it’s a political figure.


Yikes. I guess a full construction crew includes lawyers in New York.


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## finishesbykevyn (Apr 14, 2010)

Redux said:


> I was working for an associate of Donald Trump back in the early 80’s who was an architect by the name of Jordan Gruzen, and one evening when doing my laundry, I accidentally threw a maroon shirt in with my whites, the bleach turning the shirt a shocking light crimson color along with turning my painter’s whites pink. I ended up wearing the electrifying shirt to work the following day. When Jordan’s wife saw the shirt, she blurted out “That’s it!....That’s the color!”
> 
> Jordan and his wife ended up dragging me from room to room making me stand against different walls in different lighting conditions, using me and my shirt as a human color sample for all the drywall walls. His wife broke out a pair of scissors cutting a huge piece of my shirt off which we had color matched in flat oil SaniFlat which I ended up using on all the drywall throughout their entire home. It was a close runner up to being the worst color I’d ever done, aside from the flamingo pink exterior that had the stop work order placed on it by the local building department.


So did you work the rest of the day with a hole in your shirt. Or did you just turn it into a bandana and go shirtless.?:vs_lol:


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## Holland (Feb 18, 2011)

This is from a few years ago. The customer who owns this house was one of my very first customers when I went off on my own, and is always fun to work for. I have painted several homes, cottages, offices for her over the years. VIP.

This was for a business near downtown- the colors were effective at drawing attention.
This orange paint, however... was among the most difficult I've worked with. *I don't get involved with picking colors- too much liability.

It took 4 coats of Orange (deep base clear) over a grey primer to look halfway decent (You can see how transparent the paint is from the top photo). Also ended up fading quickly, and had to be re-done in about 5-7 years. Don't have pictures that I can find, but we added 24k gold leafing accents to the door the last time we painted it (will add if I can locate photos).


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## Pete Martin the Painter (Nov 8, 2012)

Lime green and black in a bedroom. I almost never question a home owners color choice (only 2 times in 8+ years). I talked the guy out of this one...thankfully.


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## RH (Sep 7, 2010)

Nice work - different color combos but I actually like it. 
Once did a guy’s office in an orange (fan of Oregon State University) and to this day it was the hardest color to cover with - ever. Can’t specifically remember how many coats, but it was at least four.


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