Color Me Mine — Attraction in Sunnyvale

Compliments first: when other painters left their tables, the staff promptly cleaned/disinfected the tables. There was plenty of paint in all colors and the brushes we saw were in good repair. Parking was easy and we even found some shade.

Disorganized staff, overbooked painting sessions; store is small, cluttered, and dusty, while the ceramics are largely tacky and quite expensive.

Disorganized staff: my companion called the day before our visit to make a reservation but there was no record of it when we arrived. This is the fault of the person who answered the phone not the person who was trying to help us but it still took too long to figure out.

Which led to overbooked painting sessions: at one point, there were twelve people standing around the tiny paint station, trying to get their paint. The store hosts two-hour reservation slots. They would be wise to stagger the start times so that there aren’t loads of people finishing up their 2-hour block while others arrive and try to get started.

Which brings up the small square footage of the store: there are too many tables for one to feel safe perusing the pottery options if the tables are occupied. Lots of kids and teenagers. If someone bumps you, you might hit the displays and cause a very expensive accident, for which you would then be charged. “You break it, you buy it.”

Our table was wobbly.

On our visit, there were dust bunnies, crumbs, etc. in the corners and on the floor. It looked like it hadn’t been swept or vacuumed in weeks.

There are boxes and packaging and pieces of random wood throughout the store. Perhaps the storage space that should be dedicated to inventory is full of finished ceramics waiting to be picked up.

Many pottery items for sale have a moderate to thick layer of dust. One does expect that unfinished pottery will have fine granules but things were dusty beyond that. There are a few larger pieces that look like they went through the industrial revolution due to the amount of dark dust on them.

75% of the pieces for purchase are kids’ items, such as piggy banks, animal figurines, holiday decorations, tacky mugs, and other kitschy things. Perhaps this varies by location and franchisee but it seems like they must be making a lot of their money from children’s birthday parties.

The pottery pieces are very high priced.

When our two-hour slot was nearly over, we were reminded that we’d have to leave soon. I’ve painted at two other CMM locations where I never...

I’ve loved color me mine for years and have been going to the location that was in Menlo Park for years and have over a decade of positive memories, but my latest trip left me disappointed. I paid ~$76 for a plate to write names of loved ones both present and passed on and was told when my piece would be fired that my water spots would dry down entirely and not show up in the final product.

I’m not sure if it’s a different outcome if the piece is painted before fired, but when you leave the pieces unpainted it will fire all white, and unfortunately mine kept the splotches from when I had erased mistakes made while I painted. On top of that, I have several air bubbles in my piece that really disrupt the smooth texture of my piece, and for almost $80 I’m frustrated that my piece didn’t come out as intended due to air bubbles in the glaze and the glaze eraser (water) leaving marks on the paint from where I had used it.

This experience won’t stop me from going in the future, but I do hope others keep this in mind (as will I) when going there to paint...

I am a very creative person and I was very excited to paint here with my friends. Being a creative artsy person, I was expecting clean brushes and sponges in a variety of sizes. The sponges were old, tattered, and flimsy. The brushes were not rinsed well and almost hairless... I could not find a nicer brush to write on my creation. I expected a variety of paint choices but instead was told to go over the color several times and it will be darker in the end. Overall, the items were expensive ($25 and up) and we were not told that we would be charged an extra $15 to fire up our creations... that was overwhelming to us. They opened up late too. Shop was too small and not very clean for being early in the AM. More sweeping under chairs and shelves needed to be done. Also told us that no changes of info can be done on any online reservation...which we needed to have done. They told us to call them as to when to pick up our items... Sadly, we were disappointed and most likely will not return or...