What colors should I
paint my walls?
... a conversation with Kate
If you look for suggestions on what color to paint your shop, chances
are, you'll find something like this:
"If your space is small, use light colors on all surfaces to make it seem larger. If the store is narrow and deep, use a darker color to bring the back wall forward. If the ceiling is high and crisscrossed by pipes, paint it out in a dark color. If, however, there is architectural interest in the ceiling like beams, play them up by painting the ceiling a light color for contrast. Today, stores are using strong colors on walls. Some are painting every wall a different color."
Well, all of this is fine, and you probably knew all that already. But the question still has not been answered. What color is best for your shop?
Color psychologists will give you what color "means" to people. Such as:
• Red evokes aggressiveness, passion,
strength, vitality.
• Pink evokes femininity, innocence, softness, health.
• Orange evokes fun, cheeriness, warm exuberance.
• Yellow evokes positivity, sunshine and cowardice.
• Green evokes tranquility, health, freshness.
• Blue evokes authority, dignity, security, faithfulness.
• Purple evokes sophistication, spirituality, costliness, royalty and
mystery.
• Brown evokes utility, earthiness, woodsiness and subtle richness.
• White evokes purity, truthfulness, being contemporary and refined.
• Gray evokes somberness, authority, practicality and a corporate
mentality.
• Black evokes seriousness, distinctiveness, boldness and being classic.
Interesting. Trouble is, now you have to figure out how all this stuff translates into "What colors should I paint my walls?"
Well, here's some tips I've gathered from the real world and the retail world:
 | Orange makes your shoppers nervous. Red makes people (and bulls) belligerent. |
| Yellow sounds good, according to the list above: positivity and sunshine... except, oops, it's also evocative of cowardliness, as in "a yellow streak down his back." |
| Dark colors "eat" light: Nightclubs are black. Great if you're trying to hide less-than-pristine architecture, but not so great if your customers want to see what they are buying. Black could be acceptable in a funky head shop, but skip it for any other type of customer. |
| Certain color
combinations
are burned into our brains from repetition:
red-and-yellow means SALE*CHEAP*SALE; red and green
means Christmas; turquoise and coral means Howard Johnson's. So it's
best to avoid them. |
The best
suggestion I ever heard
was from a resale shopkeeper who asked her local paint store which were
the current best-sellers.
Then she painted her shop those colors on the theory that if people liked
those colors, they would be comfortable and happy in her shop. A
comfortable, happy shopper stays longer, and a shopper who stays longer,
buys more. For example, this year, watery, serene shades of oceanic blues and greens,
reminiscent of these sea-glass-like bottles, are among Benjamin
Moore's most popular paint colors this year.
The most important things to remember, as far as our industry, resale, is concerned:
| Pick something neutral, that almost fades into the woodwork, so to speak. As used-merchandise vendors, we do not have complete control over what comes into our shops. We might love purple walls, but how good are those green print couches going to look surrounded by such a strong color? |
| If you're keeping the floor color (tile, carpet, terrazzo), key wall color(s) to it. |
| Unless there's an overwhelming reason to highlight your crown molding in another color, don't. Ditto with the wallpaper borders. You want your shoppers' eyes drawn to what they can buy, the merchandise. Soffits can often take another color, but match the intensity: pale grey with pale peach, for example, not pale grey with shocking blue. |
| Use good paint. Cheap paint will "chalk" the inside shoulders of wall-hung clothing, wear away too fast on dressing-room walls as you scrub fingerprints away, and chip at any outside corners. |
| Tip: They say putting a touch of vanilla in your bucket of latex paint will cut the lingering paint odor. |
| Plan on redecorating at least every 4-5 years. Mushroom might look great this year, but it will look dated in a few years. |
| Don't believe everything you read.
The color combo  in the photo to the right, soft yellow walls with a
deep blue starry sky, would be terrific in a children's shop and
suitable for clientele from newborn through teen (a difficult age
spread to find a single theme for!) The chair rail placement would be
at the top of wall-hung standards. |
Who is
& why should I care?
Roy's
just, actually, a way to remember the colors in the rainbow (a.k.a. the
visible spectrum for those of you who weren't sleeping in science class.)
Red...Orange...Yellow...Green...Blue...Indigo...Violet.
Using Roy G. Biv to organize 
your racks will help your shop look better and more appealing. Just
remember to factor white, beige, brown, grey and
black in as well.
For more info on color order, as well as the variation that's a lot easier to do with clothing, and why you must keep white as far away from beige as possible, see TGtbT The Complete Manual.
More info available on TGtbT about making your shop more customer-friendly:
| |
| |
| Shop Sizzle gives hundreds of ways to make your shop look as good...if not better...than new-merchandise stores |
|
Used News (and The Best of TGtbT) has many articles to help your shop be all it can be |
|
How do chickens with male hormones eat their colored food? When chickens were fed male hormones, they pecked at their colored food in different ways. They ate all the red until it was gone, then all the yellow. The other chickens (no male hormones) ate all the different colored food in no order.
|
|
 What color should you paint
your house for the best sale? |
It used to be the other way
around
The Ladies Home Journal of June 1918:"Pink [is] a more decided and stronger color [and] more suitable for the boy," while "blue, which is more delicate and dainty, is pertier for the girl." Four years earlier the Sunday Sentinel [Newspaper] recommended pink for boys and blue for girls, "if you are a follower of convention." |
Redheads
need 20% more painkillers
Go ahead, get
crazy. These examples are exteriors, but think of what you could do even
inside your shop...
Chloe's, in San Francisco. Great eyecatching paint job, if you can do it in your locale. Not every landlord or town council would be in love with this, but imagine how easy it would be to give directions to your shop!
Another example, in Canada if I'm remembering
correctly...
Okay, so you're not ready to declare your love of color out there on Main Street, for all to see. Well, how about a rainbow on just one corner of your display window? Just think of the word-of-mouth! Or try painting your dressing rooms in a vivid peacock blue (said to be the most flattering color for all complexions).
| New
About
Us
Professional Resaler SHOP
The
Picker Who Perished Mystery
Sharing
Board Links Site Map HowToConsign.com, our Consumer-Friendly site AuntieKate The Blog Home © 1999-2008 Too Good to be Threw 4736 Meadowview Blvd. Sarasota FL 34233 Voice: 941-924-4142 Email Kate |