What do they all have in common? All neutral colors? No. I think Nessie is probably a seaweed green which would make her a warm color.  Actually, they’re all figments of our imagination.

When I get that initial call for a color consultation, somewhere inside of me a little voice cries when I hear a request to find the “perfect” beige.  The idea of a perfect beige evokes fantasies of a color that is not too gray, not too green, not too yellow, not too pink.   A homeowner’s dream of that elusive color comes crashing down in living rooms all across America, when they realize that, of the 300 paint chips they’ve taken home from the warehouse store, none of the beiges are neutral or perfect enough for them.

That is a sad, sad, scenario. But, there is hope! There are secrets to finding that perfect wall color. At the risk of shaking up the faerie tale world, here they are:

1) Sometimes the perfect beige may not be beige at all.  Have you considered other neutrals? Greens, grays, and browns, can give you that simplicity and elegance you crave.  Try this green from ICI, Silent Fog - 884; Try this gray from Benjamin Moore Thunder - AF-685; or this brown from Benjamin Moore, Truffle - AF-130.

2) Pay attention to adjacent colors inside and outside of your home. I recently bought a house with emerald green carpet (what was I thinking?). Every paint sample I tried had a ghastly green cast. Until I replaced the carpet, nothing appeared as expected. If you have flooring with a strong  color, or dark or red-toned wood floors, take that into account when you choose your colors. If everything you believed to be neutral comes out “too something” over and over, look around the room and see what’s causing that.  You don’t have to  remove the influencing color, but you’ll want to take that into account when you make your wall color choices.

3) Every beige can be “too something.” Beige is a tone of brown, which is a mix of a primary colors. When you mix red, blue, and yellow together, something is going to dominate.  The key is to find a beige that has a hint of a color you can live with.  If you are a warm-color person, try this beige from Benjamin Moore, Standish White HC-32; If you like cool colors, try this: Restoration Hardware, Silver Sage; Love those soothing grays? Try this: Benjamin Moore, Clay Beige OC-11.

4) Test your paint colors. Seriously. Test your colors. I test colors for my own home.  It’s just not enough to hold those little paint chips up to your wall. To know exactly what a color will do in your house, you have to test it in your home. Purchase generous paint color samples so you can get a realistic idea of the color in your home.  While I’ve been known to paint test squares all around my rooms, against my better judgement, your best bet is to paint your samples on foam color tester boards so that you can move them around, and have nothing to paint over later.  I tell my clients to live with their paint samples for a few days, watch how the color changes at different times of day and in different corners.

5) Relax.  After spending days or weeks focusing on your perfect beige, the subtle nuances start to take on massive importance. People coming to your home won’t critique the cast of your beige, (if they do, then they get no dessert!)

Armed with these secrets, and access to almost unlimited paint color choices, your perfect beige will leave the murky realm of imagination, and materialize in the real world as your perfect wall color.

Visit MyPerfectColor.com for more information on paint colors and painting.