Services

What the Diva Does

Exterior Color Consults

Choosing colors for the exterior can be scary. It's a lot of money and all the world will see if you make a mistake! The Diva will help guide you in finding colors that fit the style of your home and that go well with your roof, stone etc. Even if you're not painting, but choosing materials like Hardy Plank or vinyl siding, stone and roofing, the Diva can help you make the right choices that will pull everything together. Typical exterior color consults are about a half hour. If you're choosing multiple materials it will take about an hour.

Construction and Renovation Consults

For anyone building a new home or renovating, paint selection comes last. By that point, homeowners are exhausted and stressed out about making so many decisions about tile, grout, flooring, cabinets, lighting etc. that they don't want to make another decision! The Diva can come in, look at the materials you've selected, and help you choose colors for every room quickly and efficiently. Afterward she will create a worksheet for you with all the colors and finishes for the walls, ceilings and trim for you to keep for your records. Then you can share it with your contractor.

The Diva can also help you make decisions on your materials too if you're too stressed out over it. There's no need to stress!

New Home Consultations

Most new buyers want to paint the whole home and have the floors redone before they move in. For many this is their first home and they've never chosen paint for even one room, let alone every room in the house! So the task can seem overwhelming. The Diva can help you choose paint and floor stain colors in about an hour. Plus she can help you with some advice on where to put things in your new home and you can shop on line for ideas for rugs and windows too. She is not an Interior Designer. She just gets you started so you can move in. Then she can give recommendations for painters, floor guys, designers, window people and even someone to help you shop for accessories.

Interior Color Consults

The Diva is a Color Consultant with over 16 years of experience. She specializes in Benjamin Moore but can work with any paint brand. Step one is having your show her your home while she gets a sense of your style, who you are and what you like. Then she'll give you a brief color lesson. After that she'll guide you through color selection helping you choose colors that YOU will love throughout your home. She knows the colors so well that she doesn't waste time on all the colors that will NOT work, so she can usually help you choose colors for the entire house within an hour! Consultations are charged by the hour.

Staging and
Pre-Staging Consults

Since the Diva works with so many new home buyers, she knows what buyers are looking for. She works with sellers to help them create a home that will look good in photos on Zillow, and create a home that buyers want to buy. She will come in and walk through your home making suggestions on which furniture to keep, what to pack up, and possibly choose paint colors. She doesn't do new construction staging, she works with current home owners to get their homes photo ready. She does not believe in spending money that's not necessary! Paint can give the whole house a new, fresh look. Sometimes all a house needs is some decluttering and moving some furniture around. The Diva can recommend people to help with decluttering and packing.

When it's time for photos she can supply art, area rugs, lamps and accessories to make the home look more updated and appealing to buyers. But typically she likes to just work with things the homeowner already owns.The Diva works with realtors and/or directly with homeowners. Typical pre-staging appointments are only an hour. For staging she charges to rent the items for 1-2 months.

Vacant Home Consults

For homeowners who live out of state the Diva can go into the home and FaceTime the client from the home walking them through a color consult.

Virtual Consults

The Diva gets phone calls and emails from people all over the country (and beyond!) She can do virtual consults through Facetime, as long as the other person can obtain fandecks of paint colors. They can be bought online, obtained from the local paint store or borrowed from a contractor. The Diva will consult on Benjamin Moore or Sherwin Williams colors.

Interior Design Consults

The Diva is not an Interior Designer. However she does help homeowners "stage" their home even if they're not moving. She will offer decorating advice and tips to help her clients get and idea of which direction to go in to decorate their home on a budget. She sometimes shops online with her clients giving them ideas. She does have people who do window treatments, carpeting, carpentry, painting and Interior Stylists who will shop for accessories that she can recommend to you to help get it all finished. But the Diva typically only works for clients for 1-2 hours.

Couples Mediation
& Color Therapist ;)

Sometimes couples can't agree on color choices.

Sometimes Moms and their kids don't agree on color choices.

Sometimes people choose a color they like and then a friend says they don't like the color.

Sometimes a relative recommends colors they saw in someone else's house they liked.

Sometimes people read too many blogs online about "perfect paint colors".

Sometimes painters make suggestions of colors they painted in another house.

Sometimes contractors rush clients to hurry up and choose a color.

Most of the time people find choosing colors to be very stressful.

Let the Diva do her magic, eliminate all the confusion, help you find the right color that works for YOUR space, and take away all the stress.

The Color Consultation Process

Everyone always asks me the same two questions.

"How does this work?" and "What are your fees?"

Here's how it works. The first thing I do when I enter a clients home is ask them to give me a tour of the home. I listen to them describe their existing colors and take mental notes. I look at their style of furnishings and the style of the house. Do they like neutrals, or do they like color? Do they prefer cool colors or a warmer palette? Is their home very traditional or does it have more of a modern twist? Do they have young children or are they about to be empty nesters? Did they just move in or are they planning to sell the house? I can pretty quickly figure out which direction to go with color choices. Then I help my clients choose colors that THEY love and will make THEM happy.

The next step is to give a brief color lesson and I teach my clients about undertones, showing them which colors will work, which ones will NOT work, and why. Then we go room by room choosing colors by matching their existing stuff. It's pretty quick and painless!

When clients are planning to sell their house it's even easier because we'll be choosing colors that your buyer will like, not you, so there's no real emotional attachment to the paint colors. Since I work with so many new home buyers I know what they like and what they want. Almost every color consult I do I can usually get the whole house done in about an hour. By the time I leave my clients always have a huge smile on their face and say "That was the best money I've ever spent. Well worth it. You just took away all the stress."

Fees

As for my fees, I charge by time, not by the room. The reason is because usually people ask other questions about design choices besides just paint and many times it becomes a design consult, not just a paint color consult. A typical exterior consult is about a half hour. A typical full interior color consult is about an hour. Larger homes will take longer. I work in the Summit, NJ area. If I have to travel over a half hour to get to the appointment I have a one hour minimum plus an extra $50 for travel. Virtual consults are charged by time. My fee is $50 every 15 minutes, so 1/2 hour (about 4 rooms) is $100 and a full hour (about 8 rooms) is $200. Extra large houses take approximately an hour and a half to two hours. The Diva does not use credit cards. You can pay with either cash, check or Venmo.

Cindy Gelormini

aka The Paint Diva