After 20 years as a professional painter, Joe Ford isn’t easily wowed by a can of paint. He’s content paying $35 for a gallon of Benjamin Moore’s AquaVelvet. “It’s a great product,” he says.
But paint manufacturers like kt.Color want Ford to stretch. Based in Switzerland, kt.Color recently launched an interior paint line in the United States called Le Corbusier. This pricey paint goes for $90 to $262 a gallon.
And kt.Color isn’t unique. With the public hungry to upscale their homes, a number of paint manufacturers are launching “super premium” products. Paint makers – often in partnership with household-name designers – are scrambling to meet demand for high-quality paints that can easily top $50 a gallon. Big-box retailers also are buffing up their offerings with trendier color palettes for style-savvy buyers.
Martha Stewart just launched a line at Lowe’s featuring 350 colors with such cozy-chic names as Rolling Pin and Sweet Potato Pie. Home Depot has rolled out its Signature Palettes, which identify the season’s hot colors and recommend hues from each of its three paint lines: Ralph Lauren, Behr and Glidden.
And Benjamin Moore recently launched the Aura line, which is odorless, dries quickly and doesn’t require primer.
“Color is a low-cost investment,” says Elizabeth Lowrey Clapp with Elkus Manfredi Architects in Boston. “Ten years ago, everybody wanted gray, white or beige. Now people understand the power of color.”
Clapp’s own Federal-style townhouse has 31 colors upstairs. “Every piece of molding is a different shade,” she says, and “the ceilings are different colors. They range from yellow to red to green to lavender.”
There’s no question that consumers are buzzing about color, thanks in large part to an explosion of home design television shows and magazines. In March, HGTV launched “Color Splash,” a program that teaches viewers how to use color. And just last month, the network premiered a predictable companion: “Color Correction,” a reality show where an interior designer helps homeowners repair disastrous color choices.
With this type of media exposure, cocktail conversations weighing the merits of, say, Farrow & Ball vs. Fine Paints of Europe aren’t unusual in some circles. “Even men now know the difference between mint, moss and grass green,” says Christine Chow, director of membership for the Color Association of the United States. “Consumers have really embraced color in all aspects of their lives” from cellphones to clothing.
So paint makers are getting more creative. The Donald Kaufman Color Collection, for example, can appear to change color in different lighting. The secret? Kaufman uses 12 or more pigments to make a single color as opposed to the industry standard of mixing six or fewer. But luxury doesn’t come cheap – the paint costs $76.95 to $85.95 a gallon.
Ralph Lauren, meanwhile, has a new candlelight-finish top coat that reflects light with an iridescent shimmer, available exclusively at Home Depot. Anna Sova Luxury Organics has sweet-smelling paint additives in scents such as lemon, vanilla, and orange and cloves. The line will be available in early 2008 at
.
Le Corbusier’s palettes, named after the late Swiss architect and artist, are made with pure mineral pigments so the colors are rich and textured, the company says.
Some consumers are falling in line. Boston’s Institute of Contemporary Art recently painted the walls of one of its galleries with Aura.
“In a museum, you are painting constantly,” says the institute’s Paul Bessire. “Every time you change an exhibit, you change the paint. And in the public spaces, there’s a good deal of wear and tear with fingerprints.”
The institute selected the $100-a-can Aura paint after consulting with the museum’s architect.
“We inspected the product and loved it because it applied in one coat, is quick drying and durable, and is water based,” Bessire says.
