My online presence has been a little quiet lately because we are getting down to the “finishing touches” of prepping my new art studio for move-in. After my lights were installed, I finally came to a decision about the color of the walls, and I’ve spent the majority of my time in the last couple of weeks painting the walls and trim, installing picture moulding, painting more trim, and touching up walls and trim some more. (Just one more door to go!) Not only am I body-weary, but I am also decision-making weary. So it is a good thing that most of the big decisions are now behind us.
I really had a time trying to decide on wall color. I knew I wanted a color (as opposed to white/off-white). But having had yellow walls in my last studio, (great color for the gallery walls, not great for art-making) I also knew I wanted something that was neutral enough so as not to cast the wall color onto my paintings and palette.
While the color that’s so popular right now with many portrait painters (mentioned in this previous blog post) was waaay too dark for my taste, I did like the idea of a neutral gray/green. So I decided to start my quest by playing with a sample of the portrait painters’ color (Benjamin Moore’s “Mohegan Sage”, #2138-30) to see if I could figure out the underlying base color by tinting it with a bit of white.
It may look a little more “colorful” on the computer monitor, but the lightest tint was a fairly dead-looking gray. Benjamin Moore lists Mohegan Sage as a “black”, and having tinted it I can see why. It probably is a combination of black with just a touch of yellow. It’s very rich in its full strength, but none too inspiring in my tinting experiment! Still, tinting up to an almost elephant gray, I couldn’t deny that it is a very neutral color, and thought I could use my tinted sample against some other color swatches to find a related color that was both lighter and more inspiring but still neutral for my studio walls.
What I found was a beautiful rich color that seemed to be in line with the darker sage, though perhaps a tiny bit cooler. It’s a color called “Storm Cloud Gray” (also by Benjamin Moore, # 2140-40.)
While this color is a good deal lighter than the dark sage, I was still a little concerned that it would be too dark. So I decided to use it on just one wall as an accent and do the rest of the walls in an even lighter shade that I also liked– again a gray green called “Paris Rain,” (BM color #1501). Here is the result:
Here are the lighter walls running into the deeper accent wall, complete with sleepy husband reporting for cleanup duty last Saturday morning (what a guy!)
I find both of these colors really lovely and pleasing. Sometimes they look more gray, sometimes more green; though in either instance they still remain neutral enough not to overpower.Â
In the above picture you can also see the picture moulding we installed so that I can hang artwork. Unlike the trim moulding, I decided to paint the picture rail the same color as the walls, both because I wanted to keep the high walls looking “high” and because the picture moulding was fairly plain and nothing special.
Since Dave (and friends) installed both the floors and the trim moulding, I wanted to do all of the painting myself to give the poor man a break. I totally underestimated how much time it would take. I guess it was those high walls that fooled me, but at last it’s more or less done and we’ve had the “SmartBox” delivered (portable storage box). Over the next few we can actually start the process of moving in, assembling furniture, and piecing together my various work stations. This too will take a while (and likely a few more trips to IKEA) but it’s actually starting to feel like a real art studio now. I’m excited about the prospect of being in there and getting back to painting again (as in ART) on a regular basis!
The next big challenge will be figuring out some storage solutions that make sense for the new space. Much of that will have to be dealt with after I’ve gotten my main workstations set up, but I will be sure to blog about it as I go along. Meanwhile, I doubt I’ll do much blogging over the next few days, as we will be moving and dismantling my office for a bit.
Jennifer
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Before I saw the photo of your hubby I was thinking you must be driving him crazy! Then I saw the pic and his body gesture says it all. lol
Your studio is looking wonderful. You are like me in that when I paint I put a lot of time and effort in getting everything right. It is exausting! (that’s why I knew that you were driving your husband crazy-mine got stuck that way).
Lol! Yes. Totally true but I am afraid he is used to it. He usually just shakes his head and laughs. (Usually.) You should have seen me deciding on the wall color. I had about 20 contenders “narrowed down” and pasted their swatches on the wall. Then about 5 larger swatches like the sage one above. You’d think I was redecorating the white house!
Hello Fair Artist, who has a beautiful studio that we are most jealous of,
We have been watching you. We are artist also. At least that’s what they call us. You may even know us. We’d like to invite you to a member of our very Private Club. We’re very selective and only an elite few are welcome on our hallowed grounds. We pick you.
We even have a little ‘chit chat’ room just for the likes of you. It’s rightfully called Dante’s Pub. But when your enter BEWARE! You are entering the abyss of the artist mind! You may not find your way out.
You’re welcome to watch from afar while drinking your brew or pull up a chair and join us for a little chat. Be sure and register and then log in. After all, this is a very private club. We don’t allow just any wanderer in our midst.
Don’t dilly dally now! It wont cost you a pence. Check out The Artist Challenge and Dante’s Pub- that is if your daring and think yourself worthy to be amongst the souls we’ve claimed?
Farewell…until we hear from you,
Master Mike and the Pub Wench
Artist Challenge- http://www.theartistchallenge.com/
Dante‘s Pub – http://www.theartistchallenge.com/art-forum/
Hello Fellow Artist,
I miss those days when you used to paint and talk about used cars and easels, before, when you weren’t a building contractor. Just kidding. I like the grey, but the smell of sage makes me think of turkey dressing. Nice place. I like the wall mount HVAC. It looks like it will be a great place to produce beautiful painting.
Ahh! What a beautiful things! I’ll definitelycheck this work. I find this is awesome!
Oh, here I find the answer to my earlier question about your wall color. I too went through the mohegan sage experiment, and have been looking at a benjamin moore color called tranquility that I thought might be an acceptable lighter version. Yes, decisions, decisions. Exhausting! I so appreciate you sharing your process. Your room looks lovely AND functional, which is what we strive for. Nice going!
@Lynn- Thanks for the compliments, and glad you’ve found these posts of help. It’s been a number of months now and I still really love the wall colors. Having had yellow walls in my last studio/gallery (!) I can say that by contrast, the combination of my new studio lighting, the natural light, and paint colors leave no discernable cast at all on my paintings now. It used to be that I’d find quite a surprise at how different my paintings looked in other lighting, particularly at other galleries. Now I don’t seem to have those surprises any more. My last show looked just as nice in the gallery as it did in my studio when I was painting.
Of course, wall color is very much determined by the amount and quality of the light you have going on in your environment (both natural and artificial). So I advise getting your lights right first, and then working from there to find the right color. BM has a number of their colors now in large 2×2′ swatches, and still others in small sample size jars. So it’s pretty easy to experiment before taking the leap. Good luck!
Hi,
Thanks for sharing your color choices and information. I painted my metalsmithing studio the same colors and really like it. I was wondering what blue you used on the door? Thanks
Lauren
Hi Lauren,
LOL! That blue is painter’s tape, not yet removed…but good idea to paint the grilles blue if you want an extra touch of color. Glad you are enjoying your new studio. As for me, the colors have held up beautifully, no regrets.