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I recently had the opportunity to circle back with a favorite client to see the results of a top to bottom (almost) paint job in her Great Falls, Virginia home. Our first Color Consultation was in September 2010, and we had a follow-up one year later to pick colors for the final phase: kitchen, laundry area and 3 baths. Virginia was great fun to work with and kept me informed of progress via a series of emails (excerpted below with feedback and lessons learned):
"Dear Susan:
Thanks so very much, not only for all your advice, but for making it so much fun---the way decorating is supposed to be. 'Thinking paint' had become a chore due to 'analysis paralysis' and I'd still be collecting paint chips if it weren't for you. You were a great spring board for my decorating personality: one who has really strong opinions, thinks she knows what she wants, and actually might, but doesn't have a clue how to get there.
 | | Foyer Before |
Although I ended up changing some of the colors we chose together, you picked the family room, trim, ceiling, entry and hall colors, all of which look great.
Plus our working together on the other rooms helped me narrow the focus and eventually make those decisions.
 | | Foyer After |
After painting 11 rooms, I am pleased with the results but have learned a few lessons the hard way...
1. Understand the impact on your living space of where the painters establish their 'base of operations': The garage was first choice but it was too cold, so the painters set up the base of operations in the living room. Once the living room painting was done, it could not be put back together because it remained ground zero for the workers for weeks afterwards (I actually considered stringing Christmas lights on the ladders last December!).
2. Be prepared for the mess: The kitchen and dining room became repositories early on for everything moved out of other rooms. I never anticipated it would take 6+ weeks to finish and that these rooms would be a mess for the length of the project. So, next time it will be one room at a time!
 | | Living Room Before |
3. There is no substitute for putting a sample of the actual paint on the walls:
The Living Room had to be repainted because the C2 color I chose changed dramatically with the light (and not in a good way).
 | | Living Room After |
Note to readers: a defining characteristic of C2 colors is that they can change a lot based on lighting conditions.
 | | Office Before |
4. It's wrong to consider only colors you really like in and of themselves: I kept gravitating to blue/greens for the office and while I like BLUE greens, they didn't work with my existing furn- ishings and art.
 | | Office After |
The office color looks like wet sand by the ocean (a C2 color called Range). It doesn't look green on the sample card and I'd never have picked it when i was thinking 'green'. On a bit of a whim, I pulled it out of some C2 samples on hand and now the office color is exactly what I pictured in my head.
 | | Family Room Before |
5. Keep track of your decisions: I didn't listen to my painter, forgot what we had discussed, and painted the interior of the skylights the
same color
as the slanted ceiling in the
 | | Family Room After |
great room. (Note: considered a "5th wall", the ceiling was painted 1/2 strength of the wall color). They aren't terrible, but they are 'windows' and shouldn't match the ceiling color ... so they needed to be repainted. "
Well Virginia, it might feel like you ran a marathon but the view from the finish line looks fantastic!
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In consulting with Dr. Maull, we determined that the coat closet would make a perfect hang out for the grim reaper to greet patients upon their arrival and the play nook ideal for the cemetery (replete with spiders, skeletons, tombstones and ravens).
With all hands on deck ( including moving and unpacking help from the staff) the Halloween make-over was completed in three hours, a 50%+ reduction from the set-up time in prior years. 
