When Jack Allingham moved into his apartment near 20th and Girard, his girlfriend, Elaine Gill, helped him paint his bedroom dark red because that's what he wanted. Her bedroom in her Riverton apartment was slate blue because that's what she wanted.
Now, with the couple back from their honeymoon in Mexico and starting to look for their first house or apartment together, color is a question of what they want.
And between interior decorators and the Internet, couples like them have a good bit of help finding the color combinations that blend their styles.
Go to an online search engine, type in "color psychology," "color choice," or a similar phrase, and you will find paint manufacturers, decorators, and a stray academic or two throwing in virtual elbows to give advice. Some of it sounds like a combination horoscope and fortune cookie.
"If black is your favorite color," reads one, "you are quite likely dissatisfied with your life. If your favorite color is yellow you are likely an artistic and creative individual."
Allingham, 29, and Gill, 32, wound up taking a newly developed "Love, Our Style" online quiz by Valspar designed to help couples mix "his" and "her" tastes. The 10 questions are tilted heavily toward personality traits, with only one directly dealing with color. But when a couple take it together, they supposedly come up with combinations that are the basis of compromise. Gill and Allingham say it worked for them.
"Some of the questions were a little goofy, but the answers made sense to me," says Allingham, a chef at Monk's Belgian Cafe in Center City. It suggested blue and ivory combinations for him, which he liked but says he wouldn't have thought of. For Gill, a bartender at McCrossen's Tavern in the Art Museum area, it suggested slate blues and greens, which she already knew she liked. He wasn't sure at first, "but it's grown on me a lot."
About 3,000 people have taken the test since it was posted in August ( www.valspar-loveourstyle.com ), and the company also has a Flickr site about responses to it.
But despite its questions about pet preferences and the like, says Ann McGuire, Valspar's chief color consultant, it wasn't put together by shrinks - just according to the instincts of her design team.
She and other decorators agree that while women may still take the design maven role in most couples, color choice is now more likely to be a true joint venture rather than the woman's making the choice and the man's grunting his assent, yes dearing, or complaining after the fact.
"Men are starting to take a greater role," McGuire says. "They are much more savvy now. A woman might say that her husband doesn't care, and she might be in for a surprise."
Many postings on her studio's color blog these days are by men, she adds.
If she's working with a couple together, she said, "you have to keep your radar open to the signals people give. There are certain characteristics that people have that lead them to surround themselves with certain colors. Some people love drama, love excitement. Exotic could mean deep, saturated red colors."
Linda Wiley of Malvern, a designer for 26 years, says she sizes up a couple's coloring and clothing for clues to colors that might work for them.
"People feel comfortable in rooms where the colors are compatible with their complexion, and they're not aware of that," Wiley says. "My job is to make people conscious of it."
If the couple already have art and furniture, Wiley is looking at those things for clues about their tastes as well as simply judging the backgrounds against which such possessions would look good: A fairly neutral background that might be boring in some homes could be needed if the artwork is striking enough.
In its promotional materials, Valspar refers to "paint angst" as a condition that affects couples planning to decorate or redecorate.
And while she doesn't use that term, decorator Eileen Devine of Wayne has observed the condition and sees it as treatable in most cases.
"There are certain people who are afraid of color," she says. "They may have grown up without a sense of color."
In those cases, she closely watches their reaction when looking at color samples because "color elicits emotional reactions most of the time."
"People come to me because they want to problem-solve something," Devine says.
In some cases, she adds, the couple's colors may be different enough that it's best to have "his" or "her" rooms, if only in terms of color.
But despite the trend of couples making joint decisions on colors, this doesn't mean gender differences have been painted over.
A 2008 survey by the market research firm Leo J. Shapiro & Associates drew different responses from male and female purchasers of paint after the job was complete.
For the women, the greatest satisfaction came from a "new and improved room." For the men, it was "the accomplishment of completing the painting project."
In other words, just get it done.
Nearly 2.2 million couples marry every year and face the challenge of merging individual tastes into one cohesive look in their home. Selecting the right paint color for any room is a decision that can easily be made together through a little homework. Here are some quick tips:
Learn your style. Take the "Love, Our Style" quiz together at www.valspar-loveourstyle.com to discover your style as a couple and how you can combine styles into one look.
Keep it fun. This is most likely your first do-it-yourself project in your home, and it's important to make the project enjoyable.
Make a playlist of colorful songs to inspire you and keep you motivated.
Take a walk and find the colors of nature you are drawn to.
Together, make a scrapbook that will help define your style.
Compare the items you select and find commonalities.
Simplify. Instead of trying to agree on bold or strong colors for each room, simplify by deciding on neutrals together. Then decide which rooms you each spend most of your time in and let each partner make a bold statement in his or her space.
Consider mood. Step into each room and figure out what mood or emotion you want to convey. For example, if you're looking for a calm and soothing state of mind, search for colors that exude those emotions.
SOURCE: Valspar Paint & Coatings
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