Color and Flat Paint

When you look at color on a wall in a magazine picture, deep colors always look great. The problem is in real life, flat paint with a deep color (to me anyway) looks like you just sucked the life out of the color. It is dull and flat by definition. For instance, these folks have a great flat wall paint and a great color combo on line tool -- but please do note, the way those colors appear in the computer simulation is pretty much how it will look on your walls. A glossy or semigloss paint on the other hand is distracting - you need to go to a very carefully applied lacquer and be really committed to that kind of slick look to pull that off.

That's why I think the best way to put color on is with venetian plaster or limewash or something like that. I am not talking the the faux finish look that has all that extra stuff going on, I am talking about subtle movement and texture on the surface that breaks up the long flat expanse of color. The Molto Bene dining room walls pictured here are a beautiful use of vibrant color, and it looks alive in pictures and in person --- the molto bene wife