Pick Interior Paint Colors with Confidence
Picking paint colors for your home interior seems simple enough until you are faced with infinite choices —only to realize every color swatch looks different at home than it did in the store. Even whites and beiges take on different tones in the unique lighting and surroundings of your home.
Experts know that picking the right interior paint colors takes trial and error. But the process of deciding can be efficient, and even fun, if you take the right steps.
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Save yourself time and effort. Before you think about wall paint colors, first establish the overall color scheme of your interior. It’s difficult enough to imagine how a color will look on a wall from just a small sample. But you cannot begin to envision wall paint color until you have all the room elements in place—from rugs to furniture and fabrics to pictures. The appearance of paint color changes dramatically according to surrounding décor, lighting and architecture. Having your overall design in place gives you perspective to choose interior paint colors, which match, complement or even surprise.
Personalize Your Palette Before You Pick Paint
While interior paint colors should coordinate with décor, start with colors you love. Consider the effects of windows—views and directions they face. Contemplate the style of your home, the people who will use a room and the overall effect, which you desire—whether relaxed with cool colors, warm with earthy colors or stimulating with hotter colors.
To guide your paint choices, keep in mind those colors, which don’t change, like flooring, woodwork and furniture. Pull possible color ideas from a rug, picture, lampshade or other accessory. Paint stores can often match colors, but perfect matches are not necessarily ideal for wall colors. Experiment with some unpredictable nuances and you might discover perfectly imperfect interior paint colors.
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Pick Paint Colors that Harmonize
However many colors you consider, the one thing you can do to ensure harmonious design is to choose colors with the same undertones. Red colors with blue undertones look different than those with yellow undertones. Learn to recognize differences in the characters and complexities of colors and their undertones by consulting with a paint expert and studying a color wheel. Neutral beiges, full of undertones, can be exceptionally complex, taking on many different hues under various lighting.
Use your fabric, flooring or trim samples to customize your own paint color palettes. Or look through color groupings designed by paint stores to find what will enhance your decor.
Take the time to study all the varying tones of a particular color or hue, along with undertones, to consider how each might work with the variety of elements in a room.
Consider the size and scale of a room when choosing interior paint colors. Ceiling colors stand out better when they are a shade or two lighter than wall colors.
Lighter colors help emphasize larger rooms. But for obviously smaller rooms, instead of attempting to make them look bigger with lighter colors, embrace the more intimate size with deeper, warmer colors.
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Test Before You Paint
Paint stores make it easy to test interior paint colors before you commit. You can buy an ounce or two of small paint testers to cover one or two feet on a wall. You can also paint samples on a piece of board to lean up against a wall.
Live with the painted on samples for a few days and notice how the colors change with lighting at different times of day. Observe how the colors interplay with your overall room design, from rugs to furniture and windows to ceilings.
Study your selection of interior paint colors and soon you will have an eye like a pro for just the right wall paint.
QUICK TIPS
• The color values you choose impact the perceived value of your home.
• Picking the right interior paint colors takes trial and error—but with the right steps, the process can be efficient, and even fun.
• First establish the overall color scheme of your interior before you think about wall paint colors.
• You cannot begin to envision wall paint color until you have all the room elements in place—from flooring to wall décor.
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• The appearance of paint colors changes dramatically according to surrounding décor, lighting and architecture.
• While interior paint colors should coordinate with décor, start with colors you love.
• Consider the overall effect that you desire: relaxed with cool colors, warm with earthy colors or stimulating with hotter colors.
• The one thing you can do to guarantee a harmonious design is to choose colors with the same undertones.
• Neutral beiges, full of undertones, can be exceptionally complex, taking on many different hues under various lighting.
• Use your fabric, flooring or trim samples to customize your own paint color palettes.
• Take the time to study all the varying tones of a color, along with undertones, to understand what works with all the elements in a room.
• Test paint samples before you buy with an ounce or two of paint tester, covering one or two feet on a wall.
• Test your sample selection of interior paint colors for a few days under different lighting and the best choices will come to light.
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