The Business Of Color

have used Teresa Tullio with Business of Color several times, and she has consistently recommended "spot on" color suggestions that I have just loved; colors I would not have known about myself, but that in the end look gorgeous, professions, and simply "work". I highly recommend Teresa & have enjoyed working with her. This is a great service that is one of the best kept secrets.

I was very excited about the prospect of getting help with paint colors for our house. My husband and I have very similar tastes, but I am very uncertain about color and was nervous about the process of selecting paint for every room in our new house. We were starting with ALL WHITE WALLS (and 10 yr old white trim & wainscotting - slightly yellowed with age). Teresa was great to "chat" with via email. She was reassuring and supportive. I was excited to have her come out - my husband on the other hand was a little apprehenive, but gave in to me to make me happy. We scheduled her to come on a day when my husband could participate. She and her partner were prompt and professional. We discussed the feeling we wanted in the house, and the colors we like / dislike. We walked through the house with 9x9 squares of color and they recommended what they thought would be great in each room. We had a few rooms where we questioned the selections, but they assured us that it would be wonderful, and we decided to default to them - as they are the pros. About 5 days later, I received the official "color map". It was a sheet of paper with each room listed, and a 1/2" circle of color for each room (and the name of the color was provided along with the finish). We hired painters and had the entire house painted with the recommended colors. Overall, we like all the colors in the rooms and like the way it flows and all goes together. This was why we hired someone to help us. We wanted to cohesive house - one that all went together...not choppy with random colors everywhere. The one issue we have have is that in 4 of the rooms, we had specific things in the rooms that we wanted to coordinate with. These were the rooms where it wasn't just a clean slate. 2 of the rooms are fine - the other two, we had issue with. * Family Room and Kitchen - in this room we have the woodwork / cabinets, hardwood floors, carpet and furniture. The issue in this room was the furniture - we have a couch and a chair that we love. They are a taupe / brown / green color (I am not a color person, not sure how to describe it). Teresa picked a green that both my husband and I thought would NOT work with the couch and chair. We questioned it and they said it would look great, we would just need to get pillows to pull in the flooring color and it would look great. * Our daughters room - we had bedding and wall decor that we had used in a previous house and wanted to continue to use it. It had dark pink, light pink, light green and dark green. They selected a green that they only had in a little 1" swatch, so it was hard for us to see how it would coordinate. Needless to say, after the paint was complete... Family Room: We had to move the couch and chair out of the family room. It looked horrible in there. Luckily we have a futon from our play room that we could use until we find another couch / chair to purchase and use in the space. This is a room we use all the time...so it's critical that we love it. I do love the color now that the offending couch and chair are no longer there. Daughter's Room: The green picked is a light green, but it seems to have more blue in it than the bedding/decor. We have stored away most of the decor and have purchased a few new things to make it work. We like the room color with the new drapes - but we just weren't quite prepared to have to redecorate the whole room based on the wall color (selected because it was to go with the decor in the first place). We have made it all work, but were disappointed that one of the key requests (to coordinate with a few existing items) was not fulfilled. We trusted in the experts a little too much, I think. Overall, I liked the process of selecting the colors - and getting the house all painted. And in the end, we do love the colors in the house. We have just had to make more purchases that we planned on to make the rooms work with the colors on the wall. If you have a clean slate to start with - I think this process is great. It's nice to have a "palette" of colors. They do all look great together. If you have a room or rooms that you are looking for coordination with existing items - just make sure you really work with them if you aren't sure you like the selected colors.