THE `COLOR DOCTOR' MAKES A HOUSE CALL

Deciding which color to paint your house is a trauma akin to public speaking, John Crosby Freeman says.

"Picking colors for your home is a public exercise -- you don't want to appear to have made a mistake," says the erudite Philadelphian, who's in the business of preventing such mistakes.

A frequent contributor to The Old House Journal and Victorian Homes and a former professor of art history, Freeman will deliver a lecture titled "Color and Architecture" at 7 p.m. Thursday at the Crisp Hall Auditorium on the campus of Southeast Missouri State University. Admission is $1.

The lecture is sponsored by the university's Historic Preservation Association, the Historic Preservation Program and the Department of Human Environmental Studies.

Billing himself as the "Color Doctor," Freeman also will give free interior and exterior color consultations at Lowe's Home Center from noon to 8 Friday and from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday.

Homeowners are asked to bring photographs or drawings of their homes.

"I'm not the Great Karnak," Freeman says. "I can't give answers without seeing the question."

Freeman works with the Lowe's stores because they sell a line of paints he developed called "Southern Heritage."

He begins each consultation by asking people what their personal color preferences are. He recalls failing to ask that question in his first public consultation at a Lowe's store. After providing a woman with an extensive scheme based on the color green, she quietly said, "I hate green."

Personal color preferences are what the name implies -- very individual, Freeman says.

"There is no such thing as a bad color or the wrong color. Colors become bad or wrong because they're put in the wrong location or have a bad relationship with another color."

People who own smaller houses -- so-called cozy cottages and bungalows -- actually have more freedom to experiment with colors than owners of large homes do, Freeman says.

"You could put a peach color or a pink on a cottage and it would be delightful," he said. "Put the same color on a mansion and the color vigilantes would be out."

Outdoor colors tend to imitate traditional building materials, he said. "If you look through a list of traditional paint colors, they're terra cotta, tile red, brick red, copper green."

The choices of interior colors can be more adventurous, he says. "Once you get past the front door, the concept is, whatever two consenting adults think is OK."

People tend to decorate their houses in colors they look good in, Freeman says.

"Women understand the procedure better than men. They do it every day when they go to the closet and put together an outfit. Do they look good together and do they look good on me?"

In that vein, colors can be selected and placed to direct the eye away from a misproportioned part of the building, Freeman said, much the same way makeup is applied.

"You can use color to direct the eye to other features. As the song says, `Accentuate the positive.'"

The challenge Freeman usually faces is pushing people to explore more interesting color schemes. "When asked to pick a color many people say `gray.' I say, `Add an adjective.'"

The question of historical accuracy comes up for people who are renovating older houses. "As long as the architecture is honored and it's still possible to read the architecture and enjoy its beauties...there is a wide range of possibilities," Freeman says.

"Unless the owner intends to turn the house into a state or national pilgrimage site, I don't see any reason why the current owner has to live with the aesthetic limitations of their predecessors."

Freeman is familiar with the historic preservation major offered at Southeast. Most, if not all, the historic preservation programs at other universities offer only advanced degrees, he said.

Those graduates may expect to find top jobs in the field, but they won't without experience, Freeman said.

"What's wonderful about the Cape Girardeau program is that it's at the undergraduate level. The graduates are comfortable taking entry-level jobs."