Choosing a Paint Color

There are no hard and fast rules about finding the right paint color palette for your home.

Whether it is light and airy, dark and rich, subdued or mesmerizing, painting can be immediately gratifying, creating in a rich result.

If you are only going to be decorating one room at a time, it is still helpful to think about the rest of the home. By creating a smooth flow of color from room to room, it establishes a unified look and simplifies the process of choosing hues for each space.

Begin by identifying a range of hues you respond to. Start with color chips from several different paint manufacturers in the colors you have chosen. Spread them out in the room propped up along the walls.

Eliminate them one by one, walk away and come back, follow your instinct. Be sure to consider the tones of the fixed features in the room, hard wood floors, cabinets, carpeting and architectural elements like a fireplace that may have stone or brick.

When you get down to a few, remember paint color changes, sometimes dramatically at different times of the day. The only reliable way to view paint is to sample where it is going to be before making a commitment.

Sample pots are invaluable for this. Paint a sample patch on the wall or a poster board as large as possible of the color you are considering. Live with it for several days, viewing it at different times during the day, and at night with electric lighting.

When your selection is made, consider highlighting a single wall, an entry way or an architectural feature with a bold color. That is a popular choice suited to those of us with more conservative tastes and brings instant energy to a room.

If the effect you seek is drama, consider the impact of combining complimentary colors. When placed together they intensify each other and are often used to provide contrast and definition. Used together over large areas though, these are not color combinations for the fainthearted.

Another design element to try would be to repeat the shade you have chosen in the different finishes of paint, matte, eggshell, gloss and glaze all in the same room of the same color.

Remember the ceiling is one-sixth of the surface of the room so don’t forget to finish ceilings in colors and glazes that are beautiful in their own right.

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