Through the years of writing this blog, I’ve shared some names that are artistically significant to me. These are the names which have impressed me, or surprised me, but who have always inspired me. Names like Rauschenberg, Twombly, Frankenthaler, and Basquiat.

Today I add another name to that list: Benjamin Moore. Yeah, the paint manufacturer. Before you ask the question, no I’m not a paid spokesperson for the company (although if you ask my husband right now he would probably say a little money going the other direction between me and BenMo (as I’ve started to call it) wouldn’t be all bad.)

My husband is a music lover. Hearing certain artists’ voices changes something inside him. There is a visceral reaction to the tone and timbre of the music. It’s blissful. I have the same experience with color, and there is something about the richness of these paints that just makes my soul hum. So it’s a wonder it took 9 years of living in this house to “hit the wall” — with paint. Everything here is beige. Oh there are variations — light beige, medium beige and dark beige. And I know realtors will tell you that beige is not offensive, accepted by everyone, and more likely to showcase your home in a more appealing way. But I don’t care.

The inspiration came to make a change when I saw how Mexican painter Frida Kahlo lived. Every room, every hall, every nook, inside and out, was covered in bright yellows, blues, lavenders, greens and reds. It’s as if she gardened clomid with her paint. Then the other night I was watching a TV guy pitching a Matisse print, and its astounding colors shouted out to me. I knew I had to make them the theme for our house. (Pic #4) They are considered a Fauvist palette. Super bright, pure color. Much like Frida’s home.

With that image stuck in my head, I ran out to OSH and bought 15 samples of wildly different BenMo paints. (I still get all giddy choosing between the billions of color sample cards in their racks.) I experimented with them all over our walls. And frankly, that might have been the ultimate  blast — getting to make a painterly mess — with permission…knowing something really cool was about to happen. The pathetic “beige-ness”of our home was about to be knocked on its boring bland ass.

While Josh was asleep, I managed to finish the one huge textured living room wall in Tangerine Dream, except for the 12-foot high top. He had no idea what I was up to. When he awoke, I got the thumbs up, and he encouraged me to keep going. I was so invigorated by the process, I could barely sleep. Covered in paint, my back aching, images of fresh paint in every color danced happily in my head. It was a perfect day.

Today is Day 3, but this pop of color still has me smiling all day long. Makes me wish I could share the news with the millions of beige addicts out there… and perhaps, share the joy with my new BFF, Brooklyn’s own (late) Ben Moore, who I sense might be looking down fondly and saying, ‘What, are you nuts? It’s just paint.”

Check out “20 Ways to Use Color Psychology in your home” here.