2bikemike
11-09-2008, 03:04 AM
For four years, Americans have watched Constance Ramos come into people's homes to make over their interiors and color scheme on the TV shows "Color Correction" and "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition." But the Carlsbad resident admits she doesn't have the final word when it comes to decorating her own house.
Ramos' husband J.J. Carrell, a supervisor with the U.S. Border Patrol, has carte blanche when it comes to choosing the interior colors of the beach-view home they've shared since their wedding two years ago.
"When we bought this house, I convinced him to try color on one wall and he liked it so much he's gone kinda nuts," Ramos said in an interview on Monday. "Now he's painting the ceilings. I like to bring the colors of the ocean into the house but he's a big fan of red, so we're making it work."
Ramos is the featured speaker at this weekend's Head to Toe Expo, which opens Friday and continues through Sunday at the Del Mar Fairgrounds. At noon Saturday, she'll offer tips to Expo visitors on how to use color in decorating and will answer questions from the audience. There will also be a drawing where an audience member will win a private color consultation with Ramos.
Ramos said many homeowners are afraid to paint the walls in their homes, but paint is the easiest, quickest and cheapest way to redecorate.
The biggest painting mistake people make, though, is not allowing enough light in the room when they're choosing a color.
"People bring in a tiny paint chip and they don't really get the feel for how light will interact with that color inside the room," she said. "I recommend that people buy paint from companies that provide 1- to 2-ounce sample bottles, which they can use to paint a 4-by-4 foot square on a piece of posterboard. Then they should put it up against a wall and live with it for a while, and move it around the room to see how light hits it at different times of the day. Paint is a small investment, but it's an emotional investment."
Ramos said color is also a great way to accessorize your home. "I tell people you should dress your home the way you would dress yourself."
Understanding "color psychology" is something Ramos has been taught since childhood. Her father is a prominent architect in Kansas City, Mo., whose company has built projects in 12 states as well as Venezuela. Ramos Design Corp. has built housing complexes, theaters, schools and hotels but its specialty is enclosed regional malls. Constance ---- one of six daughters in the Ramos family ---- began working at her father's side when she was 14 years old.
"I never got to work at the Dairy Queen. I got to design them," Ramos said. "Back when I was in high school, all the kids wanted to work and hang out in the food court, but instead I was helping design the food court."
Ramos went on to earn a degree in architecture from Kansas State University and joined her father's company. But all through high school and college, Ramos had another interest ---- performing. She starred in several high school plays and musicals, starred as Bess Truman in a musical about Harry Truman at Kansas State, performed as a Kansas City Chiefs cheerleader and worked as a production and wardrobe designer, set painter and more at a movie studio in Kansas City.
"My father was always very supportive of my interest in the arts," she said. "It was very nice being the boss's daughter. He allowed me to take the time off to work on all these films where I got to work with people like Robert Altman, Gary Sinise, Paul Newman and (Ismael) Merchant and (James) Ivory."
One of her sisters was working as a music supervisor for the film industry in Hollywood, so eventually Ramos decided to move west to join her. While working for an interior design firm in L.A. about six years ago, Ramos said her sister encouraged her to try out for the HGTV reality series "Designers Challenge." She won that competition and ABC asked her to take part in the pilot episode of a new show they were developing called "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition."
They filmed the pilot in October 2003 and when it aired two months later it became an instant sensation, beating out "Law and Order" and "The Simpsons" in the ratings. While "reality" is always suspect in shows like this, Ramos said the homes really were built from the ground up in a week and all sorts of disasters do happen ("one time none of the bathtubs showed up").
"What's beautiful is that so many people come together as an act of goodwill to make things happen and they do it on a wing and a prayer," she said. "People always say that our show changed people's lives, but I know it does because it changed my life in a lot of ways."
In one episode, the "Extreme Makeover" team made over the home of an Encinitas chiropractor and Ramos was so charmed by the area and the kindness of the Coastal North County residents, she decided to move to North County four years ago. She also met her husband, J.J., through the show when he recommended a needy family in Yorba Linda for a home makeover. "The first moment I met him, I was smitten."
Two years ago, HGTV offered Ramos her own show, "Color Correction," in which she solves a homeowner's color dilemma each week. It airs locally at 8:30 p.m. Fridays. In this evening's episode, she remakes a "garishly green" guest room. And in a repeat airing at 3:30 p.m. Saturday, she transforms a dark room into a retreat with theatrical touches.
Ramos said she doesn't ascribe to the theory that certain colors evoke specific emotions in the broad population because ethnic, cultural and personal memories can influence an individual's feelings about certain colors. "For example, if you live in China, then the color red means something very different to you than it does here in the United States."
When she does a consultation, Ramos said she asks the homeowner what they want to "feel" with a room remake.
"If they say they want to feel cozy, then I ask them what's the color of cozy to you? The answers are so different for everyone," she said. "I've found that certain color combinations heighten or reduce the visual stimulus and that's what creates a sense of excitement or calm, but how people respond to color is up to them."
Ramos said she and her team film 32 "Color Correction" episodes around L.A. each year (each one takes about a week to produce). When she's not working on her television show, Ramos has a thriving private consultation business with corporate and residential clients all over the country. Recent jobs including designing Barbie items for Mattell and designing the offices for Step Up Women's Network in New York and Project Angel Food in Los Angeles.
Ramos said she gets great feedback from viewers, but her biggest fan has always been her dad, who's happy she was able to marry both her architectural and performing skills in a successful career.
"He's so proud he can't contain himself," she said. "Of the six girls in my family I'm the only one who did the architecture thing, so it's been wonderful to be able to thank the guy who gave me the start in the business."
Ramos' husband J.J. Carrell, a supervisor with the U.S. Border Patrol, has carte blanche when it comes to choosing the interior colors of the beach-view home they've shared since their wedding two years ago.
"When we bought this house, I convinced him to try color on one wall and he liked it so much he's gone kinda nuts," Ramos said in an interview on Monday. "Now he's painting the ceilings. I like to bring the colors of the ocean into the house but he's a big fan of red, so we're making it work."
Ramos is the featured speaker at this weekend's Head to Toe Expo, which opens Friday and continues through Sunday at the Del Mar Fairgrounds. At noon Saturday, she'll offer tips to Expo visitors on how to use color in decorating and will answer questions from the audience. There will also be a drawing where an audience member will win a private color consultation with Ramos.
Ramos said many homeowners are afraid to paint the walls in their homes, but paint is the easiest, quickest and cheapest way to redecorate.
The biggest painting mistake people make, though, is not allowing enough light in the room when they're choosing a color.
"People bring in a tiny paint chip and they don't really get the feel for how light will interact with that color inside the room," she said. "I recommend that people buy paint from companies that provide 1- to 2-ounce sample bottles, which they can use to paint a 4-by-4 foot square on a piece of posterboard. Then they should put it up against a wall and live with it for a while, and move it around the room to see how light hits it at different times of the day. Paint is a small investment, but it's an emotional investment."
Ramos said color is also a great way to accessorize your home. "I tell people you should dress your home the way you would dress yourself."
Understanding "color psychology" is something Ramos has been taught since childhood. Her father is a prominent architect in Kansas City, Mo., whose company has built projects in 12 states as well as Venezuela. Ramos Design Corp. has built housing complexes, theaters, schools and hotels but its specialty is enclosed regional malls. Constance ---- one of six daughters in the Ramos family ---- began working at her father's side when she was 14 years old.
"I never got to work at the Dairy Queen. I got to design them," Ramos said. "Back when I was in high school, all the kids wanted to work and hang out in the food court, but instead I was helping design the food court."
Ramos went on to earn a degree in architecture from Kansas State University and joined her father's company. But all through high school and college, Ramos had another interest ---- performing. She starred in several high school plays and musicals, starred as Bess Truman in a musical about Harry Truman at Kansas State, performed as a Kansas City Chiefs cheerleader and worked as a production and wardrobe designer, set painter and more at a movie studio in Kansas City.
"My father was always very supportive of my interest in the arts," she said. "It was very nice being the boss's daughter. He allowed me to take the time off to work on all these films where I got to work with people like Robert Altman, Gary Sinise, Paul Newman and (Ismael) Merchant and (James) Ivory."
One of her sisters was working as a music supervisor for the film industry in Hollywood, so eventually Ramos decided to move west to join her. While working for an interior design firm in L.A. about six years ago, Ramos said her sister encouraged her to try out for the HGTV reality series "Designers Challenge." She won that competition and ABC asked her to take part in the pilot episode of a new show they were developing called "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition."
They filmed the pilot in October 2003 and when it aired two months later it became an instant sensation, beating out "Law and Order" and "The Simpsons" in the ratings. While "reality" is always suspect in shows like this, Ramos said the homes really were built from the ground up in a week and all sorts of disasters do happen ("one time none of the bathtubs showed up").
"What's beautiful is that so many people come together as an act of goodwill to make things happen and they do it on a wing and a prayer," she said. "People always say that our show changed people's lives, but I know it does because it changed my life in a lot of ways."
In one episode, the "Extreme Makeover" team made over the home of an Encinitas chiropractor and Ramos was so charmed by the area and the kindness of the Coastal North County residents, she decided to move to North County four years ago. She also met her husband, J.J., through the show when he recommended a needy family in Yorba Linda for a home makeover. "The first moment I met him, I was smitten."
Two years ago, HGTV offered Ramos her own show, "Color Correction," in which she solves a homeowner's color dilemma each week. It airs locally at 8:30 p.m. Fridays. In this evening's episode, she remakes a "garishly green" guest room. And in a repeat airing at 3:30 p.m. Saturday, she transforms a dark room into a retreat with theatrical touches.
Ramos said she doesn't ascribe to the theory that certain colors evoke specific emotions in the broad population because ethnic, cultural and personal memories can influence an individual's feelings about certain colors. "For example, if you live in China, then the color red means something very different to you than it does here in the United States."
When she does a consultation, Ramos said she asks the homeowner what they want to "feel" with a room remake.
"If they say they want to feel cozy, then I ask them what's the color of cozy to you? The answers are so different for everyone," she said. "I've found that certain color combinations heighten or reduce the visual stimulus and that's what creates a sense of excitement or calm, but how people respond to color is up to them."
Ramos said she and her team film 32 "Color Correction" episodes around L.A. each year (each one takes about a week to produce). When she's not working on her television show, Ramos has a thriving private consultation business with corporate and residential clients all over the country. Recent jobs including designing Barbie items for Mattell and designing the offices for Step Up Women's Network in New York and Project Angel Food in Los Angeles.
Ramos said she gets great feedback from viewers, but her biggest fan has always been her dad, who's happy she was able to marry both her architectural and performing skills in a successful career.
"He's so proud he can't contain himself," she said. "Of the six girls in my family I'm the only one who did the architecture thing, so it's been wonderful to be able to thank the guy who gave me the start in the business."