I Saw it Again

One of the things we have always said about C2 Paint is that it's formulations create colors that are 'luminous'. Well. What does that mean?

Yesterday I went to a client's rather large home that is perched on a steep hill overlooking Puget Sound. The house was a very dated pukey-beige (for lack of a better description), and the clients were looking for a more sophisticated scheme. We found a color that bridges between a rich gray and saddle brown. I got to see the final results yesterday, and it is really true. The color possesses a luminosity - almost a shimmer. It plays with the changing light conditions, picking up different characteristics over the course of the day.

It also made the house feel very up-to-date and fresh.

How does a simple paint do this? A lot had to do with how the color is formulated. Lets say you want to make a brown. In the world of paint, you can get there in more than one way. You can create a formulation that uses the fewest number of colorants (or pigments) or you can make it a bit more complex by using more colorants to add up to the same color. The more colorants, the more play with changing light conditions. This is a bit simplified, but the basic concept is there.

And it makes a difference to the eye. You actually perceive the color differently. I love it when paint become more than just 'paint'. It is not a static film, but a mutable tool that can highlight and evolve. Pretty soon I'm going to think that house paint is poetic, so I'd better stop for all of our sakes... (But the house looked very pretty in the light!)