Store

Authentic Home was developed by interior designer and color consultant Kathy Banak, and it includes design services and a retail location. Last fall, after launching a line of home paint colors, Banak moved shop from one end of California Avenue to the other and added a paint bar where patrons can belly up and converse with a paint bartender to place the perfect paint order.

Instead of a typical color-wheel approach to showcasing paint shades, Authentic Home presents 60 hues in three categories meant to evoke a particular mood or feeling: Elegant, Playful and Serene. The offerings are selectively chosen, helping would-be decorators to avoid the aforementioned South Beach coral debacle. There is also a decidedly feminine approach to the way the paint colors are showcased (think retro '50s kitchen) and the names of the colors (Champagne on Ice, Parisian Blue, Milk Chocolate), which means that women feel more at home than they might at traditional paint stores.

Gallons are $43.95, quarts are $24.95 and two-ounce 'taste' cups, which provide just enough paint to cover two picture frames, are $4.25. All shades come with a green option, a solvent-free, low-odor paint with zero Volatile Organic Compound (VOC), the not-great-for-you organic gases that are emitted from standard paints and solvents. The green version sells for $46.95 per gallon.