Holidaly Fun!

It's Been a Loooong Time Since My Last Post!

My how time flies when you are crazy-busy!


We found our two Christmas trees this weekend: one for the family room with colorful kid decorations, and one for the living room with sparkly, more formal decor.


This year, the kids hung their own tree - and it looks totally great. Oh sure, there are lots of branches where my 6-year old has clustered 3 ornaments on the same low branch, in exactly the same spot - but that adds to the overall effect and charm. And nobody was able to get to the uppermost branches - so it's a touch sparse at the top. At night we've been singing carols around the tree before bedtime.


I ask you, how much more "holiday" does it get than that?


I'm getting ready to head out to New York on Sunday for a Deskside Media Tour to introduce a new C2 product to a bunch of great design and home magazines. I am so excited! NYC at Christmas-time.


So in preparation for the blitz, I needed to visit the salon to get my hair done. I've been visiting Gene Juarez for about the last year, and they just relocated the salon to a new space.


About that space...


On first blush, it's great. Contemporary, but with an approachable aesthetic that helps inform clients that modern doesn't necessarily mean "cold". However, the more I really looked at the details (and when you are getting your hair colored, you have time to look!), the more the details weren't appropriate for the function of the salon (At least from my point-of-view).


In design school you learn "Form follows function", meaning that if it looks great but doesn't work well, you have not successfully accomplished your design goals. Well, the salon looks GREAT. I LOOOVE the curtain of ball-bearing chain beads behind the front counter. You just want to play with it.


And the fireplace in the waiting area - nice touch. Especially during the months from October through March.


But the banquette-styled sofas were a bust. Not comfortable and nowhere to support myself and rest my arms. Not comfortable is not a feature I am looking for when paying a premium price in a salon. No, no, no, I want to feel LUXE (which happens to also be a great C2 color, #361, by the way).


Apparently, the row of hairdryers is a real problem. They are also situated in a row with banquette seating, instead of individual chairs. My concern was that clients personal space would feel violated because there is no real designation between drying stations. And I saw a woman try and balance her lovely cup of tea on the seat, because there was no place to set the cup.


Worse still... apparently the banquette is too high and many women cannot even rest their feet on the ground! Imagine! Sitting there feeling like a little kid. So the short-term solution has been to add some throw pillows for added back support (apparently that not working so well, either), but they are going to have to devise a foot-rest or something to accommodate. And if you are a person of size - you can't stay seated easily because of the design. Yikes. One month into the new space, and that is not fixed yet. Oh boy.


I am going to be watching how the pearlized floor tiles age. They are white with a pearlized glaze and an interesting texture that gives them a lot of surface interest. They are also getting splotches on them where hair color drips onto them. Even with quick clean-up, they are getting ghost stains if you look closely. I noticed that the stylists also have this as their flooring around the chairs - wouldn't that increase leg and foot fatigue for people who must be on their feet all day? This is where "Form follows function" is IMPERATIVE, in my book. Make the staff happy and they will make their clients happy! The traffic areas are some sort of warm wood laminate flooring.


The white walls are tasty. And yes, I can't believe I'm saying that either!

The citrus green accent shots, love 'em.


I found more of that purpley-gray I've been noticing lately. Yummy.


I think it will be interesting to see how things evolve there. Will the salon age well? What changes will need to be made now that it's real-life time rather than just a concept?

Quote of the Day

"Life is a great big canvas and you should throw all the paint you can on it." - Danny Kaye

Color Inspiration

Inspiration for color and color combinations happens in the most unusual places sometimes.

This weekend I had to haul myself across the country to Tampa, FL for two nights. It's not a trip I recommend for the faint-of-heart - especially considering that those 7am business breakfasts really happen at 4am Seattle-time! Ouch.

However, as I was traveling home I found some really beautiful uses of color. Specifically, when I was going to Terminal E at the Tampa airport, I noticed a large WPA mural (originally painted in the 1930's by artist George Snow Hill. They were restored decades later by the artist himself) over the security line. The subject of the mural was the first flight landing in Tampa - but it was the use of color that really stood out.

The colors were all from a palette that was both colorful and muted at the same time. There were reds, blues, browns, golds and such, but none of the colors were "pure" or "clear". It created a harmony between all the colors and let the artist use a large variety of color without it looking like a mish-mash.

The same skills can be applied when using color in a home. This is how some people are very successful in having different colored rooms that all seem to flow together harmoniously. If the colors were "acid" or "bright", they would stick out like a sore thumb and not feel very good to live with.

My other experience happened on the airplane. The movie "Evening" was the selection on the way home. Starring Claire Danes, Vanessa Redgrave, Meryl Streep, Mamie Gummer, Toni Colette and Natasha Richardson (whew! what a cast!).

I chose not to watch the movie (too tired for an emotional film), but I ended up watching the colors used in the different scenes. They skillfully used color to help define the different times and eras that took place in the film.

I got sucked into looking at the color combinations, without the sound. It was pretty cool to watch a movie without being involved in the story. You certainly notice different things.

The scene where Meryl Streep's character visits the dying Vanessa Redgrave character is all done with white. White suit, white pearls, white sheets, white nightgown, white light and white hair. In unskilled hands this would have been the most boring, washed-out scene imaginable. But every white was different and again, there was no "pure" white - it was all rich and warm. Tough to pull off, but very pretty.

I love these greens. I love the whitewall tires that aren't icy white. I love the intense light on the actors from the sun. A feast for the eyes.

2000 and Counting...

In June I mentioned we had placed a post on Craig's List that we were giving away our designer scrap paint (perfect high quality paint that was accidentally mis-tinted). To date these astute bargain hunters have picked up over 2,000 gallons.

That's a lot of paint!

It's a win-win for everyone. We aren't sitting on product we cannot sell in our stores and somebody gets a $40-50 product for FREE. Instead of ending up in some landfill contributing to waste, I am so happy to think of this ending up in someones home adding beauty.

How cool is that?

Regarding Fall Exterior Painting...

Oh sure, the weather is supposed to hit 70 degrees today!

Again, It's Time To Stop Exterior Painting Projects!

One of the great things about this digital communication format is that I can see how people have found this blog - one of the main searches of late has been Exterior Painting. So I KNOW there are a lot of folks out there wondering if they can squeeze one last exterior painting project in under the wire...

Folks, if you live in the Pacific Northwest, it is time to put your brushes down for the season. Really.

Why? Well, unless there is a terrible storm your paint won't melt off (although that would look very interesting) - but the weather is too risky to predict a long enough dry patch to ensure that you will have the optimum result for your efforts.

Paint contains a lot of moisture, and if it is overcast, misty, drizzly (or any of the other descriptive words we use for rain), the moisture in the air hampers the ability for the moisture to evaporate from the paint and it will be sloooooooow going until the paint film is truly dry.

And if you have a high level of moisture on the surface to be painted, even worse. Trust me, this happened at my house and we had to have a whole side repainted in just a few short years due to moisture. This Paint Princess knows of what she speaks!

Paint may dry to the touch in a few hours, but it is not dry all the way through for quite a while afterwards - we call this the cure time. Cooler temperatures and moisture inhibit this cure process. So don't paint outside anymore (unless you really have too!) (And I understand this happens to the best of us!).

Instead, let's chat about some lovely interior color trends and turn our attention inside for a while...

Firing Our Customers

Yes, it happens - we have to respectfully break-up with our customers sometimes. It's never fun, and it upsets everyone. But you have to know where your line is in the sand.

Yesterday, I was called upon to do just that. A small mix-up in communication (from our perspective, no mix-up, but that's a story for another time!) resulted in the customer yelling, swearing and carrying on to the point where he not only alienated our two Design Resources staff, but the installer also insisted he would NEVER do work for that client.

I called the gentleman and as he was going on about our lacking service and attention to OBVIOUS details - I had to inform him that it was not acceptable to swear at THREE of our people over the relatively small issue at hand.

This is my favorite part, and the reason I wanted to share this: He hotly replied, "I swore at TWO of your people, not three!". (Isn't that like the sibling who tells his Mom, "Yeah, well he hit me back first!")

... Sending him a refund... (and besides, nobody refers to my momma as "THAT woman!")

Color Perception

We had a customer come in to pick up a color chip from a color consultation she had earlier. She was looking for the color "Chutney" by C2 Paint. When she pulled it out of the rack, we could see that she was a bit surprised at how intense the color appeared.

Luckily we have a small wall painted that color right in the showroom - what a difference! The color on the chip looked a lot stronger than when applied on the wall. However, when you compare the little chip to the wall, they match.

This is a good reminder about why we often stress the importance of trying a new color out in sample form before making a final decision. If she hadn't seen the color in a larger example she probably wouldn't have felt the "Chutney" was the right color after all. Seeing a life-sized sample allows the eye to read the color itself, and not the contrast of the color against it's surroundings. Color is all about relationships, one color to the other...

Northwest Designers Showcase Event

Friday night I attended the opening party for a designer showcase event called The Northwest Designer Showcase, presented by Glenn Richards.

Glenn Richards is this great store in Seattle featuring a huge space filled with antique Chinese and Japanese furniture, architectural elements and accessories from all over Southeast Asia. Downstairs you'll find a very cool furniture designer, Rom Lee, who uses many reclaimed items and beautiful wood elements in his custom designs.

The itinerant proprietors of Glenn Richards (pictured above) John and Laurie Fairman have decided to create a gallery space within their store, and from now through November 17th, you'll find different rooms decorated by local designers:


Lisa Staton, Kathleen Williams, Rachel Marez of Fix Design, Rom Lee, and of course Christina Ursino!

Each installation in their gallery space will be quite different, with plans to feature specific artists and let them have a run at the space.Kudos to that!

Here are some more images from the showcase (and yes, we happily provided the designers with all the C2 Paint they desired! We LOVE designers!)



Here's Lisa Staton in her luxurious living room (a little alliteration on a Monday never hurt anyone...). Note too, that Lisa just had a baby 8 weeks ago AND pulled off a showcase room...



Christian outdid himself AGAIN designing a dining room - I think my favorite touch is the leopard pattern on the dining chairs.


Speaking of babies, Rachel Marez of Fix Design Studio was worried that her baby bump wouldn't look good on camera... as if that is a worry! And look at the cool bathroom she created too!

Kathleen Williams created a romantic bedroom that just GLOWED - I only wish my camera could do justice to these spaces! Sigh...

Isn't This Pretty?

We have lots of great, creative people here at Daly's. Sarah, who works our of our Seattle store is also an artist. She whipped this out for fun the other day - it was also quite lovely in it's simple black and white phase before she laid on the color.

Click here if you'd like to see more of her work!

Whirlwind Weekend

I just got back from a great weekend spent in Chicago at the Hard Rock Hotel. It was a mid-year meeting of all the C2 Paint partners from all over North America. Hanging out in a hotel that is constantly playing great music, has hip furnishings and good company makes for a fun event.

As you have probably guessed by now, I'm pretty immersed in C2 culture - I feel so fortunate to connect with other independent paint retailers from all over.

Here I am with Jeff and Harry. Jeff is from Milton, Ontario and Harry from Providence, Rhode Island. We make up the marketing committee for C2 - so we communicate on an almost daily basis. Fun, fun, fun. We have a lot of work in the pipeline that is getting so close to being launched, can't wait for the fun to begin!

Of course it's not all play and no work! What is Chicago without a little action in the blue's clubs? Blue Chicago isn't too far from the hotel... and it reminds me of the night the color committee went out to Kingston Mines - inspiration for a number of C2 color names.


Pictured here is our spot-on marketing team:
Jeff, Kim (marketing & branding), Tia (ditto), me, Harry, and Jill (PR maven). Tia is located in Atlanta, Kim and Jill are Chicago-based. I think there is something to the fact that we aren't all based in the same geographical region - gives us a broader spectrum to operate within.


When I left Chicago on Sunday afternoon, the weather was in the upper 70's. Came home to mid-50's and rain!

It's End of Season Project Time!

It's the time of year when we can almost predict the traffic count in the stores by the way the weather plays out. If the sun pops out from behind the clouds, more people pop into the store!

Will you be able to get that deck stained this weekend? Here is the weather forecast for the rest of the month...

Speaking of decks: You need at least 2 dry days before staining for optimum results. With timing and a little luck - you can still squeeze it in before Halloween!

Saturday's Column

I just have to share with you our column that was published on Saturday in the Seattle PI. Christian and I wrote a number of definitions we call Designer Speak - it was so much fun to write, and I think a bit closer to the truth than anyone cares to admit...

The Design Files: Love it (or hate it), a primer to Designerspeak
by Robin Daly and Christian Ursino

It's time to learn a new language. Here's a basic primer in Designerspeak:
"There's been a delay in your order." (There's a war in the country where they are weaving the cloth for your sofa.)
"Let's do custom." (There's going to be a lot of time and money spent reinventing the wheel.)
"Let's break the rules." (I have a chair that's been sitting in my warehouse for five years and I want to get rid of it.)
"Oh, it flows!" (Uh-oh!)
"Let me put some ideas together, and I'll get back to you." (Don't sit by the phone. I have no idea what to do with this space and I need to go away.)
"Didn't you get my message?" (Oops, I forgot to call.)
"I'm waiting to hear back from the showroom." (I haven't done it yet.)
"It's a European fabric." (Break out the big bucks!)
"Fine craftsmanship." (Don't put that wallet away yet.)
"One of a kind." (You'll never get your money back out of it.)
"This will be fun!" (You're going to hate this.)
"I love it!" (I hate it.)
"Of course we don't have to replace the sofa." (Hmmmm. Wouldn't it be a shame if something were to happen to it?)
"I'll see if I can find it." (It hasn't been made since 1964.)
"It's just a difference in the dye lot." (It's the wrong fabric.)
"It's in stock." (You're still a month away from it.)
"It's back-ordered." (Oops, I sat on your order for three weeks.)
"They said 8 to 10 weeks." (Expect 12 to 16.)
"It's timeless." (It's boring.)
"It's hip." (It's overpriced.)
"It'll never go out of style." (It never was in style.)
"I'll meet you at the coffee shop." (I don't have an office.)
"Respect the process." (Just do what I say.)
"Evolve." (Wing it.)
"Trust me." (I'll be sweating bullets until it's actually done.)
"It looks fabulous; I knew it would." (I'm as surprised as you are.)
"You are my best client." (You're the one who pays on time.)
"You are my favorite client." (You're my only client.)

Neat-O Blog mention!

Today is my first official day back from vacation (although I snuck off to Chicago for a 1 nite C2 meeting last week). The in-box isn't toooooo bad, considering.

Found a neat design blog today that speaks about color trends using C2 Paint: http://elementstyle.blogspot.com/2007/09/grey-is-new-black.html - I love it! Plus, grey is one of my fav's right now. Hard to believe I'd feel that way again after the grey and mauve 80's... I think I spent most of the 90's "beiging" out the 80's, come to think of it!

Speaking of grey, while in Chicago I stayed at the Hard Rock Hotel. The spacious rooms are painted an interesting shade of rosy/plum gray - I liked it a lot. It's actually a pretty strong color, not pastel or washed-out. So it made a great statement and was a calming foil to all the rock and roll iconography scattered around the hotel. Plus it looked great with all the chrome (it's the 70's again, baby!!!).

My one complaint - most of the sofas in that joint were UNCOMFORTABLE! How's a girl to strike a pose if she's not sitting pretty?

Customer Feedback

It's letters like this that make our day...

Dear Robin,
I am wondering if you could pass on my sincere thanks to one of your employees, Larry Wales, who literally saved my day last weekend. I had spilled some purple paint on a van floor that I was borrowing and was in a panic trying to get it off. I pulled into Daly’s and asked if anyone could advise me, thinking this was a lost cause. Larry Wales leaped up and confidently attacked the paint splotch, removing it completely! And all he asked was that I buy Daly’s paint in the future. Which of course, I will do!

You are lucky to have such a cheerful, competent, NICE gentleman working at Daly’s.
Sincerely,
P.C., via email

A lot of businesses talk about the value of Customer Service... this kind of feedback, especially during the crazy/busy summer months truly makes my day. It's not all just lip service to the idea of it.

Interesting Color Adventure

Over the last few weeks I've been working with a client to find the "perfect" color for her kitchen remodel. Her home is on a hill with a stupendous view of Puget Sound - this means there is a LOT of blue light that floods the room off the water. I have always found water reflections to be the most challenging when choosing colors. The changing nature of the light quality just makes it difficult to find a color that looks true in all lighting conditions, from day to night.

Well, we've been on quite a journey with our color. We decided the C2's "Mortar" was the right combination of neutral/taupe/stone. We then tried the same color but increased the formulations by 150% and 200% to determine which intensity would be the best.

An interesting thing happened. The color started looking "rosy". Not only that, but the other materials being installed, like the floor tile, looked different from the samples. Yikes!!!

So we then "de-rosed" the color. Ack. Too green! We also tried making the color without black tints, using complements instead. Lots of sampler pots and test quarts were flying out the tint room.

Nothing was quite right, and we were getting frustrated. We found a color in the Pratt & Lambert deck that was super close to "Mortar" - it is called "Seahawk", on of the tried-and-true colors that I've used for years. We looked up the formulation... Yellow oxide, low black and brown. Score! Checking the "Mortar" formulation it became apparent why it started giving a rosy cast - it contained magenta as one of the colorants. Aha!!!

However, interestingly enough.... "Seahawk" wasn't right either. Not alive enough. Apparently the magenta interacts with the other colorants in the formulation to make the color read better. So in the end, we pulled back on the magenta just a touch to minimize the rosy cast without getting rid of it altogether.

After weeks of color manipulation, we ended up almost back where we started. My client is getting her home painted this week. I can't wait to see it.

Interesting Conversation

I was chatting with our Seattle Assistant Manager about my thoughts over what happened during my weekend retail encounters.

We both agreed that there is a lot to giving good customer service - but that it's also simply part of the deal. Especially in an environment like Daly's where we are there to support customers with their projects, provide additional information and education, not to mention providing quality products and tools to get the job done. Right? Right.

Well, she said that when she gets poor service, she just never goes back.

We talked about how we probably never hear of the majority of complaints that people have about our store (What? We get complaints???) And how that is too bad, really, because then we don't always know what needs to be fixed.

That being said, I don't know anyone who finds complaints easy to accept. It sucks. But hopefully, we try to turn them around... except when it's the middle of the summer and there is nobody around to take the complaint anyways, because it's too damn busy!

Retail Reflections

I had a few opportunities to be the customer this weekend, and I had three very different encounters that left me with impressions of the establishments I was frequenting...

Saturday Morning
I popped into my local bookstore to pick up our copy of Harry Potter - my ten-year old made SURE we were there when the store opened at 8am! Not too hard to do, since the store is only one house away. We practically rolled into the store in our jammies.

Yay! Harry Potter!

While there, I ran into my neighbor across the street. Just 2 days before, she mentioned that the store gave a "Good Neighbor" discount. How cool is that, right? They HAVE been good neighbors to everyone, so this just furthered that warm-fuzzy feeling of supporting the local INDEPENDENT bookstore. That's why I bought Harry Potter there for about 30 bucks instead of at Costco for about 18 bucks.

So after making sure no other customers except my neighbor was in earshot (what retailer likes to have others hear that you are offering a discount that others might not be able to take advantage of?), I asked the guy behind the counter, who happens to be the manager, if we could sign up for the good neighbor discount.

"NO!" We all jumped.

He then said in what I felt was a very terse tone that they only did that for those directly affected by traffic that their store may have caused. I started to say that we were only a door away, on this side of the street ... he was shaking his head NO, and we were basically cut off at the knee for even asking.

We quickly left, and my neighbor was apologizing, etc.

I believe there are skillful ways of saying NO, and he really dropped the ball. It left us all with a bad feeling, my neighbor felt guilty and I felt like he didn't even care to know that I am a good neighbor to his business.

How did this leave me feeling about the business? Immediately I started to think of all the times that I HAVE been affected by their traffic!

If he had simply said "Gosh, I'm sorry, we no longer offer that discount" or something to that effect, it would have been a totally different experience. Instead I felt embarrassed and pissed at being treated like that. Will I go back? Yes, of course. Will I try to engage him? No, I won't.

A great illustration for us here at Daly's.

Saturday Afternoon
Popped into the local Starbuck's to look for a new tea thermos. Found one that met my needs, and went up to the counter to buy it. It's been a few years, but I remembered that I used to get a free drink when I bought a thermos or mug... That wasn't offered, and when I ordered a tea to be put in the mug, I was rung up for the thermos and the tea.

Not a bid deal, especially considering my drinks costs something like $1.50 or thereabouts... But still, I left bemused and wondering... And after the morning experience I had, I wasn't about to ask for anything special again!

Resultant thoughts: Felt let-down that I didn't get my special treat. Next thought was "Oh well, they are so big, who cares?" Next thought after that was, "Why even worry about a single little drink, I don't mind paying for it..." So why was I feeling a little let-down? Because it was there as a policy and now it's gone. More sad for Starbuck's than for me.

Sunday Afternoon
While shopping at Costco, I overheard an employee complaining to another shopper about how AWFUL this woman and her daughter were in the clothes area. They made messes, didn't treat the folded clothes with any respect; not even when the Costco employee was right there, refolding their mess.

My reaction: I didn't want to hear about her problems! In fact, I wheeled away from her table, so make sure I wasn't going to be engaged in her drama.

I think it's because when you are being the customer, it's all about your own personal experience, not the staffs. It doesn't matter if it's the small business down the street or the large behemoth where cost is the name of the game. It is STILL about the customer's experience.

One of My Favorite Four-Letter F Words...

FREE.

What did you think I was going to say?

Last week we posted FREE Paint on Craig's List. Whaddya know? It works! Like any paint store, we occasionally have mis-tints that we can't sell and after being in business for as many years as we have, those little mistakes can add up to quite a pile of perfectly good designer paint.

We donate lots of our scrap paint to worthy organizations, but since these scraps comes in one and two gallons units, it's not always easy to give away.

Enter Craig's List. In this last week, we have seen cars pull up, comb over the free pile in the front of the store, grab a bucket or two and zoom off. We've probably gotten rid of about 140 gallons so far. Not bad, considering that we have to pay quite a bit to get rid of unusable gallonage or pay rent to store it on our shelves.

I guess FREE is a word that everyone understands!