A client gave me the best answer: talking to a color consultant is having a soundboard for what you really think and feel about selecting colors.

This client is building a new house. She needs to decide on everything and there is a budget that is generous but not unlimited. Flooring, kitchen, bathrooms, basement, paint.....

The builder is offering her a designer to work with and my client has welcomed her suggestions. Yet, she is not sure about her selection and feels that she doesn't have room to doubt. "I can get talked into something when we meet for my half an hour and then later I regret not speaking up. The designer is trying to sell me stuff and I have discovered she is limiting me in certain choices. I don't mean to be rude, but that just isn’t me. I don't feel good about it. My husband is telling me that this is my responsibility and although he is interested, he is not the one who gives me ideas".

I wasn't sure if I could help her but we could try......We set up an initial meeting to find out and I suggested doing this at her house. For a very specific reason: I wanted to see how her current house looks like and what her general taste is. As we were meeting I asked her what she really likes and what she is planning to take with her: what is dear to your heart? Always important! We need to know what we love and what we don't. After many years of family life, every house is cluttered. What can go, what needs to stay to be who you are? What is essential? What makes your home happy? She has quite some furniture that came from family members and that is loaded with memories. Beautiful pieces that all have more or less the same color brown. She has a rug with different colors that she really loves. It has a soft color cream in it, that would work beautifully for wall painting. Her color palette was getting a start. I didn't decide anything. I listened to what she told me and I pointed out the colors in her story. I have nothing to sell to her, I’m independent and no company is paying me. She did it herself.

She had swatches of everything, but nothing was decided on. She was all over the place. Some tiles for a bathroom, wood for a bar, flooring samples. websites with kitchen pictures, stones for a fireplace, granite for countertop. She described how this house should have a rustic feel and her husband proudly showed me the floor plan. It was beautiful indeed, with lots of natural daylight and beautiful views. Without knowing the exact location, I could tell her a couple of things that were quite obvious. With those windows over here, this corner will be the darkest. If you are putting dark cabinets there, it will become a dark section. It is an open floor plan: you see the kitchen wherever you are sitting in the living area. That requires connections that work. Can the stone for the fireplace be used somewhere in the kitchen as well? The kitchen needs to look nice with your furniture! 

The designer had suggested to them Honey Spice cabinets on Alder wood for the kitchen. Yea, that would bring out the rustic feel as Alder shows a lot of natural texture, but the color Honey Spice is so close to all her furniture. The designer didn't know this, of course. The whole house would look the same! I suddenly understood perfectly well why my client was so uncertain about everything. It was boring, too monochromatic, too much of the same. We talked for a longer time about what was more important: Alder Wood or color? Again, I didn't have to tell her anything.... she herself said that it didn't necessarily had to be that particular wood. Just by asking that question, I opened up a whole new world for kitchen cabinets. 

We continued our conversation at Lowe's. Not so much to decide on anything, but to open her mind for possibilities. We got ideas for colors for the kitchen area, looked at flooring that would work with her furniture and I went over to the paint section and grabbed a couple of swatches that I thought were close to the cream in her rug. When back home, she could try to identify the color paint closest to the rug.

She still has so much work to do with the builder and designer. Quality, price point of kitchen. Which color is available in which line? Drawers or shelves? Where will the sink be? Is there any laminate flooring available in this color? We saw a sample, but we don't know if that color is available to this builder. 

She has a lot of homework to do before she is ready for any decision, but I think I have given her a method to approach it. First flooring and kitchen, then everything else. No buying of anything else until it has to be decided on: step by step, building up a color palette with what you love. Having samples of everything in your hand before the next decision.

And more importantly: within 5 hours, my client who had felt frustrated and overwhelmed when we started, was getting excited about her house. She had gained a vision and had more tools. Even the designer will love this!