Key Takeaways:-
- Swatches are the right tool for choosing paint. The problem is choosing from one isolated chip with nothing to relate it to.
- Each of our palettes is 12 coordinated Benjamin Moore® paint colors in usable, isolated 4" swatches, with no colors repeated.
- Your palette sets the “key” for your home, so every color you pull from it works with the others.
- Swatches belong in your space, held on the same plane as the surface, next to your existing finishes.
- The same 12 swatches can guide your sofa, rug, tile, countertops, and art, not just your walls.
- FAQs
If you’re the kind of person who walks into a paint store, ignores the strips of swatches, finds the larger, isolated swatches, and trusts what you see in your hand, then you’re on the right track. Isolated swatches are exactly how color should be chosen, and our entire method is built around them.
But a swatch can only do its job when it’s used the right way. One chip, picked from a strip under store lighting, tells you very little about how that color will live in your home alongside your floors, cabinets, furniture, and light. The good news is that you don’t have to give up your swatch habit. You just need better swatches and a better way of reading them.
Swatches Are the Right Tool. One Swatch Usually Isn’t Enough.
We understand color as light reflected and absorbed. A color’s appearance shifts in response to light and, even more importantly, in response to the colors and finishes beside it. This natural shift is called metamerism, and it explains why a chip that looks perfect in the store can feel different once it’s on your wall.
That’s why the Color in Space Method doesn’t start with a single color. It starts with a palette. The magic, as Emily Lauderback Stewart describes it, is in how the colors relate to one another so that they hum and sing.
What a Coordinated Palette Gives You That a Single Chip Can’t
A single chip on a strip shows how that color relates to the others on the strip separated by white lines. The chips are also not much larger than a postage stamp!
A palette shows how twelve colors relate, creating a roadmap for your home. These are larger 4” swatches: large enough that your eyes can actually experience the color, small enough that you do not need to move your eyes to experience it, and flexible enough that you can choose how to use the 12 colors in your home. Isolating 2-3 color swatches, walking around the house in different light, holding them to different architectural finishes and décor items. Flip the colors like playing cards in your hand, creating smaller groupings from the palette. From the 12 colors, you can build a color plan for an entire home project.
Twelve Colors Chosen to Work Together
Each palette contains 12 coordinated Benjamin Moore® paint colors, and no color is repeated. The 12 colors are intentionally selected so they’re energetically balanced, the same way we experience color in nature. They harmonize in a subtly natural way to soothe your nervous system and soul.
The intentional selection of the colors is seamless, when seen as digital images. Comparing only the white swatches from MOMMA’s Palettes illustrates the intentional specification and skill used. Compared simultaneously, we can see what has gone in to balancing each palette.
A Key for Your Whole Home
In music, the key sets the rules for how the notes relate to create a song. Selecting your palette establishes the key for the colors of your home. Once you’ve chosen the palette, every color you pull from it already belongs.
Isolated 4" Swatches You Can Actually Use
The swatches are usable and isolated, which means you can hold one against a wall, a floor sample, or a fabric without the distraction of a crowded chip strip.
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Choosing From a Store Chip |
Choosing From a Color in Space Palette |
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Monochromatic color strip with chips barely larger than a postage stamp, separated by white lines |
12 individual, coordinated 4” color swatches, chosen to harmonize with each other |
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No guide for the rest of the room |
A roadmap for paint, finishes, and décor |
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Easy to second-guess every decision |
The palette sets the key, so choices flow together |
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Viewed under store lighting |
Designed to be viewed in your own space |
How Your Swatches Are Meant to Be Viewed
Photographs and screens do not represent architectural colors accurately. Viewing paint color swatches in the space is necessary. A few principles from our method guide how swatches are read:
● Look at them in the room they’re for. The light in your home is the light your paint will live in.
● Hold them on the same plane as the surface. Light reflects very differently off a horizontal surface than a vertical one. Hold a wall color vertically, the way it will appear on your wall.
● Isolate them beside your finishes. Cabinetry, flooring, décor, and other architectural finishes all affect how a paint color appears. Seeing the swatch in relation to them is how you know it will look and feel the same once it’s painted at a larger scale.
● Consider your lighting. We recommend 2700 K LED bulbs indoors, so colors read naturally both in daylight and at night. Each palette also notes the light conditions it was designed for.
● Make your choice and stick with it. From the moment you choose until the paint job is finished, you can’t accurately judge the new color. The old color underneath, even blue painter’s tape, affects how it looks. Even Emily tries not to look while it’s in progress. Trust the process.
Your Swatches Aren’t Just for Paint
One of the biggest advantages of our palettes is that they go far beyond the walls. One color could work as your sofa, another as the rug, and another as a dominant color in a piece of art. You can use them to guide the tile on your kitchen backsplash too. That gives you confidence that your paint color will flow with your décor and architectural finishes. Take them with you!
The Penthouse Palette in Action
A condominium in downtown Seattle was completely renovated, and the whole design was guided by the Penthouse Palette. Five of the 12 colors were used for paint. The other swatches helped select the new flooring, tile, two different kitchen cabinet finishes, carpet, and countertops. Bringing the palette along when shopping for décor made finishing the project “a snap.”
The Bungalow Palette in Action
A kitchen and bathroom remodel opened the kitchen to the dining room, so a cohesive color plan across the communal spaces became essential. Seven of the 12 Bungalow Palette colors were used for paint. The remaining swatches guided the bathroom and kitchen tile and countertops, and led to fabric choices for new Roman shades. To choose the right white tile, the different options were simply held up against the paint swatches.
What Swatch Lovers Say
Our clients have found the same thing:
● One homeowner building a new house said the palettes stay in her pocketbook at all times, and she pulls them out in furniture stores. She called them “the best $50 I’ve ever spent.”
● A family rebuilding a cottage in Canada ordered the Cabin and Bungalow palettes and laid them out with their flooring and other elements. All their colors came from the Cabin palette, and the finished room looks and feels “exactly the way we had hoped.”
● Another client wrote: “Much nicer than the samples from stores.”
Swatches vs. Paint Samples on the Wall
Paint companies often encourage you to buy samples and test them on your walls, which sells a lot of paint. We consider this the worst advice for getting an accurate idea of how a color will truly read. The existing wall color changes how the sample looks, so you’re judging the new color against something that won’t be there when the job is done. For exteriors, we put it simply: please don’t buy paint samples and test them on your house.
Isolated swatches, viewed in the space beside your finishes, are the more reliable path.
Choosing Exterior Colors From Swatches
Swatches matter outdoors too. When you purchase one of our Exterior Paint Designs, you receive the Benjamin Moore® paint specifications by email, including which architectural element each color goes on. You also receive 8" x 9" swatches of the colors directly from Benjamin Moore®. The best time to assess exterior colors is outside between 10 a.m. and 3 p.m., depending on the time of year and your location.
Three Ways to Get Your Palette
Whether you want swatches alone or expert guidance, every option includes twelve coordinated Benjamin Moore® swatches to start your design.
- Purchase a palette for $25 and receive twelve 4" x 4" naturally balanced Benjamin Moore® paint swatches through USPS.
- Purchase a Virtual Consultation for $150 and receive a complimentary palette, used during your 60-minute Zoom consultation.
- Purchase a Virtual Consultation Package, starting at $300, which includes a complimentary palette.
Choose from three series: the Dwelling Palettes™, MOMMA’s Palettes™, and Chakra Palettes™.
FAQs
Is it okay to choose paint colors from swatches?
Yes. Swatches are central to the Color in Space approach. The key is choosing from coordinated swatches and viewing them in your own space, beside your existing finishes.
Why does a swatch look different once it’s on my wall?
Color is light reflected. Its appearance changes with the light and with the colors and finishes around it. This is called metamerism, and it’s why color should be judged in relationships, not in isolation.
Can I use the swatches for more than paint?
Absolutely. The 12 colors can guide your furniture, rug, art, tile, flooring, and countertops, so everything in your home flows together.
What if I can’t decide which palette is right for me?
That’s what our virtual consultations are for. The “Where do I even begin?!” The package is designed for people who love many palettes and can’t choose, or who are starting from a blank slate.
Love choosing paint from swatches? Make every one count with a palette or virtual consultation from Color in Space. Contact us today via email or call +1 (206) 781-0296.