Nan Kornfeld: Architectural Color Specialist

Update: We used Nan again for home number two, and she nailed it. Our realtor actually brought us dinner the day that we moved, and she commented immediately upon entering: «those colors are beautiful… what are they?» If you are looking for great colors that match your personality and home, you really need to look no further than Nan. Thanks again.

We own a two unit condo in Noe Valley and recently repainted the exterior. As we started working with our painter and tried to pick colors, it became clear that we needed some help. I reached out to Nan based on her Unilocal reviews. I am so glad I did. Nan is amazing and she really knows her stuff. She is great to work with and is very fairly priced. We had an initial consultation where she listened to what we wanted and then she worked with us on several options for couple of hours. She was also able to work very well with our painter. During the project, she answered his questions and provided very specific directions. She stopped by as the work was taken place and made a few adjustments on color used and patterns. The repainted building looks great and we have been getting so positive comments from all the neighbor on the block. So much so, than one of them is reaching out to Nan for one of her project. Hiring Nan was the best decision we made.

Our new condo in the Castro has many architectural focal points and I was getting concerned about my choices on colors and ideas. Nan arrived, listened to my ideas, and proceeded to collaborate with me to address my concerns. Her eye for color and flow throughout the unit’s two floors was great! We decided on which walls the stencils I envisioned would look best based on architecture and focal dominance. The entire process was detailed, not rushed at all, and ended with great follow-​ups to ensure all my questions were answered. I would highly recommend Nan in the future.

We own a 2-​unit Edwardian in the Castro. So the pressure was on to do it right. Nan was amazing from start to finish. First she asked what we were looking to achieve. Then she applied her impressive expertise to how we could reach our goal in a way that harmonized with the neighborhood but which would stand out with its own unique character. She helped us choose a half dozen color combinations. And here’s where her magic shone. She sees nuances and subtleties that we would have missed. She just has a sense of what works and what doesn’t. She explained how the colors play off one another in combination (we chose a 4-​color scheme plus gold leaf highlighting), and she worked out what the final results would look like once the whole house had been painted. We had a 90 minute initial consultation, then a 60 minute follow-​up meeting. Nan sent us color samples and a detailed written project plan. She was readily available to us (and to our painter) by phone and e-​mail through the actual painting process. We are thrilled with the outcome! The house is beautiful with rich and elegant colors. Neighbors and even passers-​by have been effusive in their praise. Last word: if you’re going spend big bucks to paint your house (and in SF you will), do it right and hire Nan as your colorist. You’ll be glad you did.

One of the wonderful things about San Francisco is the residential architecture and the care taken to preserve many of the homes. Our house turned 100 this year. We bought it a few years ago. At some point in its checkered history, the owners decided to cover it up with aluminum siding. I cannot imagine the siding ever looked good, but after a few decades, it looked very sad and dreary.
We had no idea what was under the siding, what condition the wood was in, and we had a limited budget. We decided to take the plunge anyway, and had the siding removed. The removal revealed a façade somewhat modest in detail, but nevertheless lovely.
My wife and I struggled with colors for some time. I happened to go to the paint store where Nan works to grab some chips; I had no idea the store had a color consultant. Rarely do I get that «vibe» from an initial interaction that the person with whom I am speaking is eminently competent, and that I would be in good hands working with that person. I got that vibe right away from Nan. She took into account not just the details of the house itself, but of the entire environment in which it is situated, lighting, neighborhood, and other factors. I engaged her immediately to come over, look at our house and suggest a color scheme.
My wife is an especially tough grader and was skeptical about the need for a color consultant. She totally loved Nan, and in particular Nan’s efforts to get to know us and our tastes and integrate them into the work. We followed her suggestions and the result is a stunningly beautiful home, with a color scheme my wife and I never would have developed. Comments from neighbors and from passers-​by confirm our own conclusions about the colors.
I would definitely recommend Nan — terrific tastes and sensibilities, wonderful interpersonal engagement, and amazing results.

Nan provided color consultation for the interior of our house a few months ago. We did a complete home remodel and wanted to select JUST the right colors for our walls.
Nan did a wonderful job, and was really great about hearing our needs and learning about our style/​preferences, while still bringing her professional opinion to the table. We really appreciated that she worked with us on a Sunday, as we were under a tight timeline, and was super responsive when we had follow up questions. Highly recommended!

The best investment I have ever made! Nan has a great sense of color and design. Her fees, which are very reasonable were completely offset by the discounts on paint. Her entire palette worked beautifully. We used Nan for color suggestions for furniture and hardware. Perfecto! She is punctual, thoughtful and totally gets how to work with existing furniture, drapes, lighting. The best!

Our condo building needed to be repainted, and as you can imagine there were wide differences of opinion (chasms?) on what looked great, and what didn’t…what made a statement and what didn’t…what went with the neighboring buildings and what didn’t. Nan guided us through a selection of colors that narrowed down our choices to a manageable level, and then helped us choose just the right ones.
I was particularly impressed when it came to the trim, and most of us thought we knew better on which way to go. Instead, we followed Nan’s advice. And the outcome? Fantastic.

Nan is great! I highly recommend her. She has such a good eye for color and listens to what you are looking for then steers you in the right direction. I have worked with her twice: once to choose colors for the exterior of our Edwardian home and the most recent time to choose interior wall and trim colors for my office. Perfect both times!
My neighbor and I needed to choose exterior colors for our two-​unit building and were at different ends of the color spectrum. Nan consulted with us and helped us choose a 6 color palette for the façade that we all love. We get so many compliments on the color scheme Nan suggested. After being painted, it looked like a new building, so much so that neighbors asked what else we had changed, but it was only the paint.
Nan helped me again with colors for my office, which has indirect light and posed some challenges. Again, other people with offices in the same building wanted the name of the wall paint. As others reviewers have said, Nan is worth every penny and so easy to work with!

Nan was incredibly helpful picking colors for our new home (both inside and outside). We struggled on our own for several weeks before contacting Nan. She quickly helped us pick beautiful colors we would not have selected on our own. Worth every penny.

She is absolutely amazing. First she gets a sense of what you are envisioning and then she just creates it. She also has a wonderful ability to see what works and what will not. She gives plenty of ideas taking into account, all along, what your preferences are. Really she is quite amazing!

Working with Nan was a wonderful experience. I have no intelligence when it comes to color, and Nan stepped in and helped me to pick out great colors for my home’s exterior. The final product– the paint job– looks great, and the process– working with Nan to find colors that I love– was equally great.
I will consult with Nan on all of my future painting endeavors.

Nan is outstanding as a color specialist and as a person. I recently bought a rather detailed Victorian house in the Haight /​Ashbury area. She guided me by first listening to what my style is and taking the time to understand what is important to me. She has an amazing ability to pair up colors, knowledge of the best paints, techniques and also makes me feel comfortable and feel that these are my colors. Nan took the time to come back and was so patient and helpful to answer my millions of questions. In the end I realized how beautiful my house looks and I can only attribute this to Nan. She is worth every cent in my opinion and honestly her fees are very reasonable.
Only after I hired her did I realize what a tremendous value this is for my house. She is highly respected within the painting community in SF. I’m very happy to have Nan in my life and would recommend her without question. Thank you Nan!

Nan did a fantastic job helping me select the colors for my home and for my office in San Francisco, interior and exterior. She not only has an amazing gift for color, but a lot of technical know-​how as well, not to mention access to the best paints through G & R. She spent a lot of time with me to try to understand me and to help me a articulate a vision for each environment. I am very pelased and would recommend Nan without reservation.
Thellen

Nan is terrific. She helped us choose colors for the exterior of our house. An exterior painting project is expensive and so choosing the right colors can be stressful. Nan did a great job of guiding us through the process. She is knowledgable about color and hue and architectural styles and how to blend them to great effect. She is enthusiastic and takes time to listen and then makes suggestions that are consistent with the effect and feel you are looking to achieve. Highly recommended!

The ability to select colors in a single bound… I am a painting contractor that has had the pleasure of working with Nan first hand. There are many aspects to successfully painting a home or space, and one potential sticking point is color. Selecting the right color can sometimes be evasive to my clients and I. Should this be the case, I without hesitation refer nan. She is my go to colorist.
Her approach to color is always enthusiastic. Nan will presents desirable color ensembles based on your input, and has the ability to change on site, if the client cant decide, or the selection isn’t just right. This woman see’s the world in color, if you need help in this department, seek her out.

One piece of advice is to test all your recommended colors before you paint! While we liked almost all the recommendations, a few ended up looking quite a bit different on the walls once the entire wall was painted. This was our own fault though as we were not home while the painting happened.

Nan is excellent. I just happened into G&R a couple of weeks back as I was planning a project and met her there. Apparently they retain her to give in store advice for undecided (or clueless) customers like myself. So far, I’d had a real difficult time as there were some colors in paintings that i really wanted to match and I’d had no luck getting the right shades by myself. After asking some great questions, Nan went to work and started to choose not only some excellent primary colors but also a lot of great complementary tones for matching walls. Once I called on my old faithful painters, Redhill, we got the samples up, decided on the best matches and ended up with an awesome finished product.
Yaay!

If you are knee deep into a renovation, you don’t want to spend any more money. But you want your house to look AWESOME. So you have to make decisions about where you spend your money. Spend it on Nan. With beautiful colors on your wall, you won’t have to spend money on decorations and nick-​nacks you will soon get tired of. Your guests will be truly impressed by your home, even if other parts of it feel in disarray.
Nan will help you pick the right colors that you will love forever. The process will be so smooth — even fun — you won’t even feel like killing your husband. I will never, ever, move into a house again without using Nan. This experience demonstrated to me that the right colors — and the right consultant — are that important.
Below is my husband’s review. I guess he is too busy renovating to post at this point:
If you’re a typical guy, taking time to select colors may not be your highest priority or highest value activity when undertaking a major renovation project. Working with Nan was an eye opening experience: I started by questioning the value of spending time and resources on colors when I had gas, water and drainage lines to worry about, and ended up believing that the choice of colors ranked highest among what made the renovation a successful undertaking with «ooh’s» and «aaah’s» from all our visitors.
Nan has many strengths, highest among them is her ability to start you with a palette that she thinks is appropriate but remains flexible to move in any direction you give her. Equally important is her ability to take what you give her and refine it in a way that achieves more harmony and ends up feeling like it is what you were aiming for all along. Last but not least is her inquisitiveness of what you are trying to invoke by way of feelings and ambiance before she starts thinking about what colors to suggest.
Thank you, Nan. It has been a real pleasure working with you.