Color can change any room, and there is a world of colors at our fingertips. Choosing a paint color can seem like a difficult process – but it doesn’t have to be!
These are the main things to keep in mind when choosing paint colors for any home.
1. Amount of light
First things first: consider the fire. Here are a few questions to get you started:
- How does natural light enter the space?
- Which way does the window face? Windows facing north and east will provide the best light, while windows facing south and west will provide the best light.
- How much light is coming from the light or lamp above?
Your answers to these questions will help inform your color choices, especially when you also consider the mood you want in the room, which brings me to my next point.
2. The Experience You Want to Create
When choosing a color, another thing I keep in mind is how I want the room to look influence. Do I want it to feel intimate and comfortable? Or do I want it to ventilate and expand? To create an intimate and elegant space, consider colors like muted pink, chocolate brown, or creamy beige. To create an airy and spacious space, consider colors like cerulean blue, crisp white, or buttermilk yellow.
These ideas are just the beginning and can be played up or down in many ways. For example, buttermilk yellow is just a step stronger than white, and inky blue will add a little more depth than chocolate brown.
There are colors to suit every experience. . . . You don’t have to play it with your color choices, or you have to stretch beyond neutral if you don’t want to do it – it’s completely up to you.
There are colors to suit every experience. Think about whether you want to stick to comfortable colors or expand a little beyond them. You don’t have to play it with your color choices, or you have to stretch beyond neutral if you don’t want to do it – it’s completely up to you.
3. Real things
Don’t forget to look at the color of everything in your yard – the floor, ceiling, trim, and every detail of the building. For example, if the trim in the room is a white color and you are not going to paint it, you may not want to choose a warm color for the walls.
This is where it can also help to create a simple mood board, to give you a better understanding of how the current elements will play with different colors. This process can be done manually or digitally using tools such as Canvas.
4. Arrangement of adjacent buildings
Although the main floor of our house is a closed floor plan, many of the main rooms open directly to one, two, or even three adjacent spaces. That’s why it’s especially important for me to consider adjacent rooms during my design process.
Each color in a home’s palette should feel like it comes from a unified and overarching theme. If you have big swings in saturation and tonality from one room to another, you may want to change your color palette a bit. For this reason, I think it is important to keep color swatches of every color you have used in your home, to give yourself a clear idea of the whole palette.
5. How the color evolves during the day
Once you’ve considered the above and narrowed down your paint color choices, try them out in the room. I think the most difficult part of choosing a color is to understand how it will look in the space throughout the day. That’s why I think it’s worth testing the colors in the room—and going through a small swatch.
Instead, paint a large poster board and hang it on the wall. Leave it there for a few days and pay attention to how the color changes over time. Depending on the shape and size of the room, you may want to test color swatches (or poster boards) in more than one area, since different walls will receive different light. throughout the day.
I hope this information will help you the next time you are choosing paint colors for the interior of your home! If you’re thinking of a difficult space and need one-on-one advice, consider signing up for a consultation call. You can find all the details here.
Kate is now learning to play the Ukulele, much to the dismay of her husband, children, and dog. Follow him on Instagram at @witanddelight_.