Choosing Paint Colours

Every January, we all wait for the new “Colour Of The Year” to come out. I personally find this scary since I go into people’s homes who have gone and painted the new ‘trendy’ colour even though it doesn’t complement ANYTHING in their house.  We can easily fall into the same traps with fashion trends.  Some trends are simply NOT made for ALL body types.

Complement What Is Staying In The House

When helping clients with colour, I always start at the ground up.  What tones are in the flooring.  Flooring is the most expensive fixed feature in your home so you want to make sure the colours complements the tile, carpet, wood etc.  Look at your room like it’s a box.  Not only does it have the walls, it also has a floor and ceiling.  You need to consider all sides.

Then look at your backsplash and counters.  You want to enhance those features.

Will this colour make their furniture look fresh or tired?

Sample Paint

Choosing the right colour and the right tone can be very daunting when you’re looking at a tiny paint swatch

I recently went to a Staging and the client wanted to paint the entire house.  This is music to my ears since I know you will always get your money back in paint when selling your house.  However, when he showed me a tiny paint chip and had decided that was the colour he was going to paint, I was a nervous.

Since I hadn’t used that paint colour before, I asked him to hold off until I did a paint sample.  You can buy little sample size containers at your paint stores of your desired colour(s).  Once I saw the colour that he wanted, I was so relieved that we held off.

The little paint chip was a lovely soft gray, but once I saw it on a larger scale, the whole house would have looked like a baby nursery since there was so much light blue in it.  It would be lovely colour for a relaxing bedroom or a spa bathroom, but not for a living room.

When Staging your house, you want to keep the walls neutral so it appeals to the masses and then we add the colour through accessories.

Cheaper And Easier

I suggest painting a Bristol board instead of painting a sample directly on the wall, so you can carry it from to room. It’s also great to take shopping with you when you’re buying accessories/furnishings. Tape your paint chip vertically to the wall (with painters tape) to get a true colour and live with it (them) for at least a day so you can see how it (they) change with the natural light.  Paint colours always look different if you’re holding the paint chip vertically instead of horizontally.  Hold them vertically since that is how the colour will look on the wall.  It’s easier and cheaper to paint more Bristol boards than it is to repaint walls!

I hope you found some of these tips helpful.  Happy painting.