About Debra Cooper Stepp:
Designing exterior building colors allows me to use my background in construction & rehab (12 yrs), Paint (7 yrs) & Color Design (24 yrs) to assist you in your exterior color design. Whether new construction or repaint/rehab, color plays an important role in whether customers, clients or prospects drive in to your location. With over 600,000 units designed nationwide, color is a key factor for your ROI.
My hands on paint industry (working for nationwide Paint Mfgs. Writing Exterior Programs and overseeing the on-site jobs with my Reps.) gave me the knowledge of drying effects on substrates - i.e. - Stucco, Hardie, Wood, and Metal. These "effects" are very important in the selection process. Each building substrate reflects light differently. You have to be very careful when selecting colors, you have to watch the base of paint, and amount Colorants and the type of Colorants used. Paint sheen can play tricks on your paint schemes, causing striping and box like appearance. Mil thickness is very important in any paint job.
This is why when you try and reproduce a color scheme from a building at another location, it doesn't look the same.
Depth of color is crucial in choosing your design.
Choosing Exterior Colors is challenging even for those who can envision the full picture. Assisting & educating Clients about paint application & color in a manner for them to comprehend is a gift. Everything has to be taken into consideration when designing Exterior Schemes: Permanent Colors - Stone, Mortar, Brick, Wood Finish, Door Design & Hardware, Pool Furniture, Window Frame, Lighting Finish, Shingles, Signage, amount of landscape & concrete.
Designing Exterior Colors to complement the interior and allow the Property to flow together requires teamwork between the Designers. The photos, at the left, display remarkable results from a successful collaboration.
Clients do not realize that the Paint Color Chips or Color Imaging Photographs that look so wonderful in their office will change once the paint is applied to the substrate. This is known as metamerism. Metamerism is a phenomenon that occurs when colors change when viewed in different light sources. When Clients look at the chips & pictures in a room lit by warm incandescent lighting or cool fluorescent lighting, the colors may appear to be exactly what they want. Once applied outside, the paint colors take on a whole new look as you have introduced them to UV rays, along with permanent bouncing colors in concrete, brick, landscaping and shingles.
Paint Manufacturers have a process to "lay over color" on existing photos. This is very deceiving as it does not take all the above into play. You can be in your office, look at one of those photos and go to your site and it can look entirely different. Trust me, I worked with this system in the paint industry, this is how I started designing on my own. My Developers/Owners complained the photos looked nothing like the actual site. You are asking toner to do something that paint does. It can't replicate the texture of the substrates, the lighting, the landscape, the amount of sun to bounce from concrete, etc.
Owners, Architects, Builders, Paint Companies, Contractors & Designers call on Cooper Stepp & Associates for full project exterior design for one location or an entire portfolio package.
