DESIGN BLOG
Thoughts
&
Musings
Finding the Right Color for the Exterior of Your Home
I truly love working with homeowners and helping them create a place to live that exceeds what they thought was possible.
Recently, I met with a new client, Andy, in Los Angeles who had chosen the colors himself for the exterior of his Los Angeles Spanish style home then hired contractors to do the work. They did a brilliant job painting.
Sadly, every time he came home, he was disappointed. The result wasn’t the cozy, inviting, cheerful, classic Spanish he had hoped for but the color combination resulted in a depressing vibe. He was frustrated that he had spent money and effort trying to improve his lovely home and found the outcome to be so wrong.
After a few months of living with the results, Andy did a search on Yelp and found my listing and called me for a consultation.
The result is fabulous, but even more touching was his review on Yelp about his experience and my services. It made made me so happy that I had turned a bad situation around for him and helped him get the look he was after.
Here is his wonderful review by Andy S. from Yelp posted August 2, 2020:
Choosing paint color is NOT my strong suit. After 17 years in my home, I finally had the nerve to have the exterior painted this past March. After it was all done (bummer alert) I HATED the colors I chose. It turned out dark, drab and depressing -- not exactly the vibe I was going for. After a couple of months, I realized that I couldn't live with it, so I did a quick Google search for a local color consultant. Luckily I found Nathalie Tierce. I called her right away -- and in a bizarre twist of fate, we realized that she had done the color consulting for the house directly across the street from me (which I LOVE). It was meant to be! She came out to see me a few days later (with mask and proper social distancing, of course). Let me just say that she did NOT disappoint.
Nathalie is billed as a color consultant, but I would swear she's more of a color PSYCHIC. It sounds weird (yeah, I know), but it's almost as if the house communicates with her. She took one look at my place and instantly told me that the color I had chosen for the trim was a really "handsome" color -- but that the dark color I had chosen for the stucco was dragging the whole house down. She was certain that I could keep the existing trim color and we could just pick a new color for the stucco that would be a better complement. That scenario would also be far less labor intensive...and CHEAPER. I was ALL for that!
I might mention that Nathalie not only knows color, but she also has a downright scientific understanding of how light, shade, sun direction and landscaping AFFECT that color. Because my house faces North and never gets direct sunlight on the front, she immediately started looking at lighter/brighter options that would give my house a much needed "lift" (as she described). After deciding on two possible candidates and having me do the proper tests, we were in total agreement about which color worked best. Fast-forward a week later and my painters already had the new color up. What a difference (and what a relief)! It's GORGEOUS! Thank you, Nathalie!
And after just a couple of days, I soon came to realize that the new lighter/brighter stucco color brought with it a huge and unexpected extra added bonus. The interior of my house is now a full 5 to 7 degrees COOLER. No lie! My A/C barely even needs to kick on now. I never would've believed the exterior color could make THAT much of a difference on the inside. It's been life-altering for me -- and The DWP savings alone will far and away make up for the expense of repainting.
So, to recap: If you're getting ready to paint your house and are feeling a little (or a lot) overwhelmed, please don't be a dumb-a$# like me and waste a lot of time, energy and cash on avoidable mistakes. Call Nathalie FIRST and then relax and have a cocktail. You'll be SO glad you did. I know I am. :-)
A Surreal Life
What could be more bizarre than the times in which we live? Inspired by dreams, fantasy, and the occasional despondent nightmare, we embark upon a journey into destinations unknown, through surreal and figurative art. Curated by Dale Youngman, “A Surreal Life” runs from July 2 through November 30 by Castelli Art Space on Artsy. The exhibition includes the work of five artists, Nathalie Tierce, Randi Matushevitz, Luis Sanchez, Cory Sewelson, and Julie Gardner.
Founded in 2016 by Fred Goldstein, Castelli Art Space continues to provide contemporary exhibits in all mediums by local and international artists through Artsy. Featuring undiscovered and emerging through mid-career artists, their curated online programming is designed to be provocative, creative, thought-provoking, eclectic, and distinctive.
Setting the Right Mood
Establishing the style for a renovation project is one of the first phases of a renovation project. This Mood Board was created expressly for this purpose. A Mood Board illustrates the tone an environment will have by merit of the scale, textures, colors, materials applied.
In the conversations with this client embarking on a major renovation of their Marina Del Rey home, the strong geometry of the house was going to be complemented by a combination of smooth and heavily textured materials.
Using a palette of warm whites, greys, and terracotta/rust tones for the exterior paint colors and hardscaping to play against landscaping with special focal points such as an exterior living green wall.
The Mystery and History of the Color Red
Passionate and exciting, the history of red, it’s uses, symbolism and procurement is as fascinating as the color itself.
Inspired Design From Nature's Palette
I love being in my garden. It’s a lot of work, but it’s all worth it. It’s an ever-evolving type of project, always changing. Plants need transplanting or pruning. It’s like a painting that I keep tweaking.
Another fascinating aspect of the garden is the things I notice about light and color and how they affect each other.
My take away from all this is are new ways of thinking about grouping hues and palettes. It recharges me and gives me further insight into the power of color in a design.
Understanding How Color Changes Through the Day
Part of the struggle people have with choosing colors for the exterior and interior of their homes is not understanding the subjective quality of color in relation to the light it receives.
Here, I've done a time-lapse film that illustrates the magical, transformative affect the time of day has on local color. The color in question, "Abalone" by Ben Moore can be seen changing in all it's glory on a partly cloudy day, facing West. this was filmed from 9am to 5pm.
Mid Century Charm and Style in Palm Springs
My clients wanted a second home in Palm Springs and found it in this gem designed by the famed architect William Krisel, AIA. Built in 1961, the home has an iconic butterfly roofline and loads of curb appeal. The bones of the house were there, they just wanted to make it their own.
Keeping the furnishings clean and simple, we stayed with light neutrals for the walls and furnishings with pops of color for accents.
Hung in the main seating area is one of my abstract paintings that pulls in the gold color that is used throughout the house and green that pulls the outside garden landscaping inside.
More pictures to come…
#vacation #losangeles #design #color #color consultant
Welcome Home
The phone call came from a long time client; her daughter (who was grown and owned her own home) was a huge fan of the sports team “The Wolverines” from Michigan U. She was determined to change the front door color in order to honor them.
While mom recognized her daughter’s passion to support her sport’s team, she didn’t want it to result in a huge design disaster.
She called me, and I found an interpretation of the team’s color, Dunn Edwards’ “San Gabriel Blue” DET557 that had the power and depth of the Wolverine’s color but also had to touch of warmth or yellow that connected it to the rest of the house.
The sweetest part of this story is the lovely note my client wrote to me after:
“Nathalie, I can’t thank you enough! My daughter learned a big lesson in color. She said you are like a scientist. I said, Yes! It is scientific - and that’s why so many people get it wrong. I think she has a new respect for me that I have a “friend” like YOU!! So appreciated, Judy
Artists, Art & Story
I’m honored that one of my paintings “Prehistoric Violence” and writing about the painting was chosen to be included in a collection of artist’s stories about events that led to the creation of a piece of work.
