Q: Dear Christopher:

I just bought a new home with a lot of white walls and every room looks into the next. I wish you here so I could watch you do your magic. But since that's not gonna happen maybe you could explain your process? I've heard that you are a sought after guru of color. Liza in Cambridge

A: Dear Liza:

Color is indeed tricky and I'd be more than happy to share my professional process. However, for the amateur, I recommend you take a gander at my Seven Layers of Design book (To order, click here) that devotes quite a few chapters to the subject.

For me, breaking color throughout a space has to do with how one color lays against the other. For instance, the color you see through an arch, becomes as critical to the visual flow of the space as the color chosen in the room you're standing.

The whole idea of color sculpting is to pull the eye through the entire space thus giving the illusion of great depth. This means creating visual definition between each colored wall without visually chopping up the spaces. That's where hue compatibility between colors becomes key. In a four room space, I will typically use up to ten colors in subtle shades to push some walls back, bring others forward along with giving the illusion that ceilings are either higher or more intimate than they appear to be.

I've literally been able to twist and contort the very physical dimensions of homes to visually appear amazing different—all due to looking at each floor of a house in its entirety and not just the individual rooms. Of course, that means that you have to be able to not only visualize the entire group of rooms as a whole shared space, but also then be able to mentally assign each wall a color. Then you have to be able to change out color from wall to wall in the mind's eye until you get it right. It takes an intense amount of concentration and not necessarily a job for an amateur—which, thank God I am not.

Once I have my colors where I want them, I then, with a number two pencil, actually write the name of the color, the finish I want it in (flat, satin, eggshell) and the number of the color specified by the manufacturer. That way the painters can in essence, paint by number. I even draw lines with arrows showing the painters where one color stops and the other one begins. Breaking color through an entire home takes me, on the average about four very tiring hours. I also make it a rule to never second-guess myself. If I've taken the time to really assemble a great color palette prior to going on site (about four days) I have to trust that I've done my homework. Once it's written on the wall-no changes. Otherwise I could be tweaking shades and hues forever. I also expect the client to freak out during the painting process-and they always do. I warn them that after living with white walls, there will be an adjustment and to not make a judgment call until the entire painting job is done. In fact, I don't even visit a site during the paining process unless the painter is confused about something. To date, I've never had an unhappy client.

I suppose it's why I'm called upon to do more color consulting than any other part of the design process. It's also a critical element where I see a lot of designers fail. They're so dependent (and prematurely focused) on the stuff going into the room that they don't realize that the shell of the room, properly treated, can do a lot of the designs heavy lifting before a stick of furniture arrives. It's why I made paint as my first layer of design. I don't want you thinking about end tables when you're really supposed to be thinking about the architecture of the room. Dig? A good job should result in an empty room looking almost furnished.