Ken Fulk’s Top 5 Paint Color Tips

“Color is a powerful thing,” says Ken Fulk. “I understand why people are afraid of color sometimes.”

But as someone whose motto is “Fear is the enemy of good design,” Fulk isn’t one to stray away from taking a risk. As part of his new, exclusive collection for Pottery Barn, Fulk also developed a custom color palette of his favorite Sherwin Williams paint colors for homeowners on the hunt for great color.

“There’s not a bad color in the bunch,” says Fulk. “You can pick anything and feel confident that it’s going to be a great color.” Each color also pays tribute to Fulk’s design ethos and personality: bold, beautiful, and complex.

“Colors have a story to them,” he says. “When you have colors that create the collection like we have with Pottery Barn and Sherwin Williams, it’s like a harmony that belongs together.”

Take a look at Ken Fulk’s top 5 color tips, below:

It’s okay to make mistakes. Color is the least expensive, most impactful thing that someone can do to alter a space with little to no risk. “That’s one thing I always tell people about paint in general,” says Fulk. “It’s only paint! It’s okay to make a mistake.”

Take baby steps. Color can have an impact even if it’s on a single wall. “It’s less time, less money and a little bit less of a commitment,” says Fulk.

Or, embrace it completely. “I love to be enveloped with color. I tend to want to paint out the trim, sometimes even the ceiling, because I think when color feels overwhelming or too busy it’s often because it’s contrasted too much,” says Fulk. “When you have big white trim around a color, there’s a lot of tension there. But when you take that trim and it becomes part of the color, the entire room becomes a part of the experience.”

Don’t be afraid of the dark. Dark deep colors can actually make a space feel bigger. “It’s almost as if the wall doesn’t exist,” says Fulk. “The wall sort of recedes, and you lose perspective on the space in a very interesting way.”

Get stylish with stripes. Bold, horizontal stripes are an easy way to instantly transforms a space. “They’re modern, they’re sort of charming, and there’s a quaint quality that I think can fit many different spaces,” says Fulk, who often uses blue painter’s tape to create stripes on walls. “I like how they’re meant to look like they’ve been hand done. The imperfections are encouraged. And of course, if you make a big mistake, it’s only paint.”

Learn more about our collection with Ken Fulk here.