A woman who knows her paint

 
I’m not gonna lie, sometimes interviews with corporate types can be as exciting as, well, watching paint dry. So much like sitting through an infomercial! Sometimes, though, you get to meet somebody who’s intelligent, energetic and full of ideas and information that are worthy of you, dear reader. Eileen McComb, director of corporate communications for Benjamin Moore definitely falls into the latter group.

After chatting with Eileen while she was in town recently, I walked away feeling inspired, rather than overwhelmed, about my current paint-related tasks, which include doing several rooms at my cottage and coming up with some fun and creative ideas for my appearance at the Toronto Fall Home Show (more on that later).

When I asked her about the long-predicted, but so-far little seen, consumer rush toward colour in decor and design, she said that it’s really only been in the last year or so that homeowners have really begun to embrace colour. We talked, too, about how colour is being used now – in feature walls, to delineate open spaces and to highlight or showcase architectural features, as seen in the pic above.

Of course, I also had to ask why Benjamin Moore has such a good rep with designers and paint pros. Because, let’s face it, it does. Without a beat, McComb answered that the coverage and colour are unparalleled, in part because of the formulation, and in part because they manufacture their own pigments, unlike some other paint purveyors, who purchase pigment from a third-party.

Since our meeting, a great, big fat BM colour deck has landed on my desk. I find myself hovering a lot in the sunny yellows (sparkling sun is a fave) and cool greens (celery ice). And no, it’s not procrastinating folks, it’s research! More on great new colours from BM (and others) in an upcoming column.