Back in August, Fusion announced nine brand new colors to add to the lineup! The new colors are largely deep, saturated and elegant colors that trend toward a more classic look and feel.
Here is our version of a digital color block sheet:
And here they are one by one:
Chestler
A complicated blue green that is boasting with depth and intention. This shade will make you stop and dive into its abyss of color.
Pair with Park Bench for a regal look. Pair with Limestone for a classic feel.
Conservatory
Just as its namesake suggests, this fresh mid tone green is overflowing with colour. A classic and inspiring pop of colour for any space.
Pair with Peony for a fresh aesthetic. Pair with Champlain for an organic look.
Elderberry
A vibrant yet sophisticated purple, this shade brings a moody and deliciously calculated drop of colour into any space.
Pair with Lamp White for a contemporary twist. Pair with Eucalyptus for a pop of personality.
Everett
An aged and weathered olive green with subtle bronze undertones. This complicated colour is earthy, tranquil and grounding.
Pair with Bedford for tonal balance. Pair with Cobblestone for a rustic natural vibe.
Highlander
A deep, powerful scarlet red inspired by our family’s tartan worn through the low and highlands of Scotland. This shade is as timeless as Scotland herself.
Pair with Pressed Fern for a traditional feel. Pair with Midnight Blue for sophisticated elegance.
Manor Green
An opulent, deep green inspired by traditional homes and landscapes. This saturated shade leans confidently into its black undertones and has lived in historic beauty that will be loved for centuries more.
Pair with Ash for powerful flair. Pair with Hazelwood for an earthen statement.
Oakham
Rooted in grey, this dark neutral is balanced in its warm brown and bronze undertones. A complex, dark shade that is bound to make its way into the foundation of any colour palette.
Pair with Damask for a tone on tone feel. Pair with Casement for a fresh contrasted statement.
Willowbank
A classic navy with a vibrant twist. These rich tones will effortlessly tap a little energy into any space.
Pair with Rose Water for a romantic feel. Pair with Chateau for a grounding contrast.
Winchester
This baroque inspired burgundy will capture you with its enduring character. Confident and distinct, this shade creates an unwavering mood.
Pair with Coal Black for moody dramatic effect. Pair with Raw Silk for a refreshing mood.
We are back at the shop [with power but no internet] and have shipped all pending orders. We should be back to our regular shipping times of 1 business day, pending no additional outages or internet failures. I will keep this message up until we can verify that our shipping schedule is back to normal, but I do not foresee any future issues.
Thank you for your patience while we worked through the difficulties of this storm. I very much appreciate your business.
8/31/21
Hurricane Ida passed about 40 miles west of our home and warehouse. While we luckily sustained no damage, we are without power, water and internet service. We hope to be back up and running in the next week or two, but we have no concrete estimate of when we will begin shipping again. My best guess at this point is somewhere around the 13th of September. I will continue to update this page as I have more information and a clearer estimate of shipping dates.
8/27/21
Hurricane Ida is bearing down on us and is expected, as of this writing, to hit our area sometime late Sunday night and into Monday. It is almost certain that this will impact our ability to ship orders early next week, and possibly longer.
We often brace for these storms and they take a last minute turn, or weaken to the point that normal work can be resumed within a day of its passing, but we have to always plan for the worst. It looks like we will be on the eastern side of this storm, which carries the most rain and wind.
Shipping impacts for all orders:
So, having said that, all orders placed after 10am Friday will have a tentative ship date of Tuesday, August 31. If it appears that we will not be able to ship on that day, I will post updates here with any information that we have.
I DO NOT recommend placing time-sensitive orders until this storm has passed and we have a better idea of what our shipping schedule will be. All other orders will be held in a “Processing” status until they can be shipped. I will be happy to cancel any orders if necessary, but keep in mind that our internet access may be limited so please be patient until we are back up and running.
The wait is over! As I have said many times in previous posts and emails, this site has been a labor of love. I began the journey of this new web site way back in November of 2019, researching new platforms and identifying the features that I wanted the new site to have. While our last site was functional and served its purpose, it lacked several functionalities that modern web sites have to make online shopping easier. I think our new site accomplishes that goal, so lets go through a few:
Product Search
Yes, search! As simple as it may sound, it was a difficult feature to implement on our old web site. The new site has a robust search capability that assists you in the process. The search bar is in the top right corner of the site, on every page. You can type something as simple as “blue paint” and it will return every blue paint we offer. If you type “Fusion blue paint” it will return all blue paints under the Fusion brand. I put a tremendous amount of time and effort into getting this search feature (and the next feature we discuss: Filters) to work properly and return accurate results, and it was the bulk of the time spent designing the new site. I hope you find it useful!
Filters
If you are not certain what exactly you are searching for, then Filters will allow you to drill down into the product catalog to find products by attributes like color, size or paint type. They work on the “or” principle, which means you can select more than one attribute to widen your search. For example, if you are not sure if you want a blue or a green paint you can select blue, green and turquoise and see all options at the same time. You can also filter by Brand, size, sheen and paint type.
Wish List
Wish List is a new feature that allows you to keep a list of products that you’d like to order in the future, or just to remind yourself to look at them again. Your wishlist is kept in your “My Account” section and there is a link at the top of the page.
My Account and Wishlist links at the top of the page
You can add products to your Wishlist by clicking the Heart link on any product page.
Waiting List
The single MOST requested feature BY FAR is a waiting list, and I am ECSTATIC to introduce it to you today! Our waiting list will automatically notify you when an item that you would like to purchase is back in stock. You will have to verify your “subscription” by email, but it will only be used to notify you about that particular product. Once you have been notified, the item will be removed from your list so you will only be notified once. You can always add it again if it goes out of stock again.
Note: This should not be confused with the Wish List. The wish list WILL NOT notify you of anything. It is simply a list you keep for your own reference. The waiting list is a notification service, and can be accessed from any product page.
Use the purple button to join the waiting list for a product. Don’t forget to check the box and check your email.
You can view the contents of your Waiting List on your My Account page.
Product Reviews
Also on the product page you will find the Product Reviews tab. There are three tabs below each product’s image on the product page: Description, Additional Information and Reviews. I invite and encourage all customers to review any items in our catalog. I try very hard to make sure that all products on our site meet my own standards of quality as if I was one of our customers, and reviews are valuable in evaluating a product before purchasing it. It can also act to alert us to a product that may need a higher level of scrutiny in terms of quality, or how we represent it in images or text descriptions and filterable attributes.
You can title your review, choose a star rating, write a text review, and even upload images in jpg or png formats!
Shipment ETA’s
One carryover from our previous site will be a more prominent display of our expected shipment ETA’s. While I hope that these will become a thing of the past very soon, as Fusion gets completely caught up on shipping paint in adequate quantities and in a timely manner, I will keep these at the top of our page until that day comes and we no longer need them. The Waiting List feature is also designed to reduce the need for specific shipment notifications and I plan to discontinue our regular shipment email once this feature is put to good use by our customers.
Order History
Another item that turned out to be more complicated than I expected was existing customer Order History. Your order history can be found in your “My Account” page. Our previous web site platform did not have a favorable format for exporting order history data, so I enlisted the help of a company that specializes in exactly this. While the transfer did seem to do what it was supposed to do, there are. a few inconsistencies here and there. Order numbers will not be the same as the old site, and order dates may or may not match. Also, although products are displayed in your history you will not be able to use them as links to re-order them, unfortunately. This was a technical issue between he old site and the new one that I could not get fixed. All orders starting now on the new site will have reorder links in your order history.
Summary
I think that pretty much wraps it up. Again, I hope that everyone finds these improvements helpful and worthy of the wait. The transfer from one server to another was a little more complicated than I had hoped, and took longer than planned, but I am really excited about the results. Also, a big welcome to all of our customers from vintiquefinishes.co where we sold Debi’s DIY Paint exclusively! The main goal when I started this project was to combine the two sites into one. There were reasons that they had to be separated, which I will go into in another post, but I was able get it done on this new platform and still keep all shipping guidelines in tact and not breach any of our retailer agreements.
Enjoy the new site and please don’t hesitate to reach out in any available contact format. We have comments below, email, phone, contact page, reviews, Facebook and soon a couple of new options! A chat feature is something that I was unable to implement in the new site upon its launch, but I am hoping to be able to have a more-or-less instant contact capability in place in the very near future.
Thanks so much for your patronage and your patience while I worked on this mountain of web site work!
Most orders are shipped out via USPS Priority Mail within 1-2 business days. Average arrival time is 3 business days once shipped. Due to COVID and the 2020 holiday season (as well as other factors), many shipments have been experiencing delays of up to 14 days or more. Please understand that this is beyond our control and be patient. Check your tracking info and if it gets stuck somewhere, let us know and we will submit a missing package inquiry with the Post Office.
With the rising cost of shipping services, especially the USPS, it has come time to increase our minimum order amount for free shipping. Effective immediately, 1/27/21, free shipping is available on all orders $99 and up excluding all Debi’s DIY products. Our retailer agreement does not allow free shipping on the DIY Paint line, so we are not able to offer it. What does that mean, exactly? Let me clarify:
Any order containing a DIY branded product will incur a shipping charge, even if the order contains $99 of eligible products. I have created a shipping table that gives the lowest possible shipping prices that we can allow determined by weight.
But what about your Fusion order? Fusion shipping prices are the absolute lowest we can manage and still offer the level of service that we are accustomed to giving, with 1-2 day turnarounds and 2-3 day Priority Mail shipments for most orders.
Fusion (and most other products) shipping tiers:
$2.99 – Color cards and most brushes under 8oz
$3.99 – Total weight under 16oz
$4.99 – Total weight under 2.5# (one jar of Fusion paint, for example)
$6.99 – Most orders above one jar of paint but under 10#
$9.99 – Orders over 10# (you should reach the $99 minimum at this level if you are ordering paint)
So, if you are used to getting free shipping at the previous $49 minimum order, most orders will pay a low shipping cost of $6.99 for up to 4 jars of paint, or similarly-weighted items.
DIY Paint shipping tiers:
$4.99 – under 16oz (most 8 oz jars fit this category)
$6.99 – under 4# (one quart or two pints of DIY Paint)
$9.99 – under 8# (two quarts)
$14.99 – under 15# (four quarts)
$19.99 – under 30#
$29.99 – under 45# (about 12 quarts)
$39.99 to $59.99 – 45# and up
*Note: This is a complicated calculation, and I am working very hard to make sure that the cart calculates shipping accurately. If for any reason you suspect it is not, please let me know.
Looks like we are out of harm’s way. Our post office closed on Monday so no shipments went out (even though I packed as many as I could) but everything was back on track Tuesday. I don’t foresee them closing again, but we didn’t expect it on Monday either so who knows! Average shipping lead time is still running about 2 days, occasionally three. I hope everyone in western LA and eastern TX finds their way to safety. This storm is a monster!
**
Two tropical storms (possibly hurricanes) are headed our way over the next few days. While I do not know for certain, I would guess that we may see some shipping delays as access to the shop and power outages may become a problem.
The first storm (Marco) is scheduled to land Monday morning, which may interrupt Monday’s outgoing shipments. If you have already placed an order but have not yet received a shipment notification you fall into this category.
The second storm (Laura) is larger and stronger and appears to be heading for landfall on Wednesday or so. This storm could have impacts on all orders placed from Sunday through the end of the week and beyond.
We are no strangers to storms and are preparing as best as we can. We will be riding out Marco, but if Laura comes our way we may have to evacuate. The website will remain up and accepting orders, but delays in shipping may occur.
I will keep this post updated as we move forward, as long as I have power and internet services.
I hope everyone is safe and healthy in this, what is it, 5th? month of COVID quarantine! A lot has happened since my last update, and a lot has stayed the same. Let’s go through it real quick :
First of all, Fusion has been getting caught up on producing the more popular colors in larger numbers. Some colors are still available in limited numbers and some are shipping regularly. Some colors are out-of-stock and will continue to be out intermittently for a little while longer, but we are getting much closer to “normal”.
Second, our shipment arrived today (8/11/20) and will be available online at 6pm, or shortly after this post goes live. Raw Silk is in good numbers this time!
Third, testers will continue to be in short supply for the next few weeks. Fusion has been focusing on making the pints, so testers have taken a back seat for now.
Fourth, Stain & Finishing Oil should be back in stock towards the end of the month, as well as the Staalmeester brushes that we have been sold out of.
Fifth, Milk Paint by Fusion will be here in October! Be on the lookout for info on the site about that product launch. I absolutely love milk paint, and while it doesn’t act quite like Mineral Paint once you use it and understand how it works I think most people will love it too.
Lastly, I have some personal news. Two weeks ago I had an accident at the shop and broke my left wrist. It required surgery, which I had last Friday, and I am now recovering in a cast and sling. Doing this kind of work one-handed is no easy feat, but I was lucky to have my son with me to help these last two weeks. But, unfortunately, he goes back to LSU on Friday and I will be on my own again until I can find some new help. My original helper, Frankie, has been home with her children since the lockdown started so I’m not sure when I will get her back. I am telling you this simply to ask for your patience in fulfilling orders. I will be working slowly for a couple of weeks (at least) and orders tend to be heaviest when a shipment arrives, so the timing on this one is pretty bad. I will only have him for one day and, because I have a follow-up appointment tomorrow (Wednesday) morning, shipping will not begin until Thursday.
We have been asking for your patience a lot over the last few months, and this little incident makes it worse, I know, but I hope that you can understand the situation that we are in. Trust me, the last thing you want to do in a pandemic is go to the emergency room and/or have surgery, but here we are.
Thank you for your support and understanding during these trying times. We will get through it!
**Update 6/9/20** – Paint is starting to flow again, slowly. Many colors arrived and were made available today, and another shipment will be here in early July with MUCH larger numbers of the constrained colors. Some colors still remain unavailable, but we will be ordering as often as they let us and as many as they let us. Stay tuned!
The outbreak of COVID-19 has affected each and every one of us in one way or another. Fortunately, my family and I have stayed healthy I have been able to continue working and shipping daily. I isolate both at home and at the shop, and my only contact is with the Postal, UPS and FedEx drivers. And I am tired of washing my hands!
Quarantine, isolation, and social distancing has been a good reason for many people to get projects done around the house, many of which include painting furniture. We have seen a sharp increase in orders because of this trend, and it has affected our shipping times and our inventory. Our processing times have slowed from our normal 1 business day to 2 or even 3 business days in some cases. While this is the norm for many businesses it is slow for us. I do my very best to get your paint to you as quickly as possible, sometimes as soon as 2-3 days from the moment you order it. Quicker turnaround times will return, once things get somewhat back to normal.
Our inventory, on the other hand, has been hit very hard. About a month ago, Fusion stopped producing paint. They even stopped shipping for a short time, until they decided to re-open their warehouse with a skeleton crew to keep paint moving. But they are only able to ship the paint that was already produced, and once they sold out there would be no more until production started again. That is where we stand now. Many of our most popular colors are already, or will be very soon, sold out. Those same colors will be in very short supply when production starts again, as Fusion will be limiting the number of jars that each retailer can order per week until they can ramp production back up to full capacity. This is expected to last for 4-6 weeks, but we do not really know. For now, the affected colors are:
Algonquin
Ash
Casement
Coal Black
French Eggshell
Limestone
Midnight Blue
Raw Silk
Picket Fence
Pebble
Little Lamb
As of this post we still have stock in some of these colors. As they begin to sell out their quantities will be restrained by whatever number we are able to get in our future shipments. As you probably know, we do our best to estimate when a shipment will arrive and post that date near the top of our site to make it easy for customers to keep track. This is the best we can do with the resources that we currently have.
Unfortunately, our current website does not have the capability to notify users of items that are back in stock, nor can we hold or “pre-order” out-of-stock items. We have tried this in the past with mixed results, so for now it will stay that way. I am hard at work on a new, more capable and user-friendly web site that will help with some of these problems, including a favorites or wish list, stock notifications, and product reviews. I plan to launch the new site by the end of the summer.
To summarize, product will be tight for the next couple of months. Many items will show up on our site as “sold out”, even though our shipment may have come in the same day. It will be frustrating for all of us, and I appreciate your patience while we work through this pandemic aftermath.
We have a small shipment due in around the 22nd of April, but none of the above-mentioned colors will be in it. The earliest ETA I can give on any of those colors is the middle of May, and quantities will be extremely limited. We are planning to place an order once a week to get our allotment, and orders take about 3 weeks to arrive. So assuming I can order any of these colors as early as the last week of April, their ETA will be the middle of May and then again weekly after that, pending availability.
I will do my best to keep my arrival estimates accurate, and we will post a specific time when the site’s inventory will be updated to make it as fair as possible for our customers to place their orders.
I apologize for the long, wordy rant, but I had a lot of information to share, and I invite any questions via our contact form, email address, phone, or comments below.
