Certainly one of the best ways to make your home look classy and beautiful is by choosing the right paint color. It not just completes the entire look of a new home but can easily transform the whole look of an old house into a new glamorous one. So, choosing the right interior decorative paint color is very important and it does take a lot of effort to pick up the right one from the color palette. I have seen people picking wrong colors and ruining the glamour of the entire house and so I thought of sharing with you 17 easy and essential tips on how to choose the right paint color for your home. Therefore, if you are planning to color your home and wondering from where to start, keep reading this post for the easiest tips.
Painting your home beautifully is more than important because the overall color theme can make or break the entire effort you may have put in decorating and furnishing your home. Creative persons usually get it right and their home looks beautiful. The simple reason behind this is that they have the power of creating original ideas and can do prior visualization of the way the space will look with the paint color on it. Nevertheless, this is not everyone’s cup of tea and so many go for professional interior designers who helps them get their dream home. But, if you are a do-it-yourself person and you want to choose the best possible paint color on your own, then all you need is a bit of research. I have got you covered as I share with you the list of 17 essential tips on how to choose the right paint color from your home.
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17 Essential tips to choose the right paint color for your home
There are multiple ways to paint a home but not all may suit your home type. There are certain parameters based on which color must be chosen and that is exactly what I am going to talk about in this post. Your personal likes and dislikes are equally important to consider. I will be sharing with you a few of the most essential tricks and idea that has helped me in choosing right color to paint my home and I hope these tricks and ideas will work for you too.
So here are the most essential tips on how to choose the right paint color for your home and make your sweet home look great.
Start with basic research
Do a bit of research before deciding what color to choose. You can definitely pick up your favorite shades to paint your home but if you want to be very specific and not do any mistakes, then it is necessary to do a bit of background study in the beginning. You can easily go by the color therapy. It is not just you have to study the theories, but all you need is to take the help of a color wheel and learn the basis of the theory. By consulting it, you will get an idea how the colors relate to one another, which help you in developing your own color concepts that in turn will help you in color selection.
Besides, this is the world of internet. There are multiple sites in internet that gives you beautiful ideas of painting. In fact, I personally took some ideas from one of the paint company sites that displayed pictures of beautifully colored rooms of various shapes and sizes. Also, feel free to check the various catalogs and magazines as they can also provide you with inspiring painting concepts.
So after consulting all these, jot down the colors that you found interesting. At the end, when you finally go to the shop to buy, you can select the ones you liked or just give a nice look at the colors once again and make your final choice.
Consider a theme
Consider the look that you want to give to your rooms. Each color delivers a different look to your rooms and so your personal preference is important. While some prefers a soothing environment, others love vibrant, lively homes. Therefore, there are colors that can add vibrancy or a vintage feel to a more relaxing or pleasing-to-the-eye kind of feel to the rooms. So at first decide the look you want in your space and then check my following points to decide upon which paint color to choose to get that particular desired look.
For a simple subtle look
If you prefer your rooms to be simple and subtle, then it is important not to choose over the top colors. Just try to select within the same shades or to be more specific, have a monochromatic approach. For example you may select from the variety of blue shades that seems pleasing to your eyes. You can paint a dark color in the wall and then go for a lighter shade of the same color scheme for the trim. Also, make sure that the bedding, curtains are of different shades of the same color scheme. So, basically it is mainly about overlapping the shades.
Generally, the shades of lavender, blue, soft yellow, pink add the romantic and calm feel to the rooms and so you might choose any one of them. For bedding and accessories, using different textures makes them look more appealing. For kitchen, sage, buttery yellow or powdery blue will be good in delivering that simple, subtle and tranquil look.
For an elegant look
If you want to give your home an elegant look, then the neutral shades are the best choice. The neutral shades can simply turn the room into an elegant one yet keeping it mild and sober. However, by neutral shades I did not simply refer to white or beige only as there are numerous other shades of mahogany, rust, garnet, almond etc. that can give you that perfect earthy feel that you want. You may go for either deeper or lighter shades and add variety to your rooms. The lighter the shade, the more spacious the room will look.
Neutral shades allow you to experiment a lot. You can decorate the room with various colored accessories of various textures or paint the trim with a different color. Like for example, almond colored wall with red toned brown trim make an elegant combination. So go now, select your favorite neutral shade, and fill up your home with elegance.
For a bright, vibrant look
If you are a happy-go-like, fun loving person, then most probably you will prefer a vibrant look and for that you can go for vibrant colors like gold and orange, dark purples and red etc. In fact, to complement the whole look of the room, you may go for the gold and orange and select one from the opposite color wheel, say purple.
Also, the color combination of red and black works great and gives an oriental feel. You may also select two paint colors next to each other from the color wheel to bring out a visual contrast and let one color stand out from the other. However, bright colors do make your rooms colorful and lively but be sure not to choose color combination that will make your home look dark and gloomy.
For landscape inspired painting
Many of you love being natural and for them the natural beauty is important. So why not bring the natural outside inside your home? Well, yes, you can certainly take the inspiration from the outside nature. Starting from the foliage greenery to blues of the oceans, the colors taken from the outside are always relaxing and restful. These colors will also make your room look very much in sync with nature as well as make it stand out from the rest of the rooms.
Inspiration from the artwork
The paintings and the artworks that we have all around are a great way to take inspiration before choosing colors. This is because the artworks are done by people who have great sense of color effect and so it is best to get inspired from the best. In fact, this is where most designers get their inspiration from, so instead of directly hiring the designers, simple take out a good piece of art and watch carefully the light, dark combination and then choose your color scheme. You can also go for colors that complement each other.
Artworks are very beautiful and creative, so give that artistic feel to your home by choosing colors from great artworks.
Flow paint color throughout your home
Flowing paint colors throughout your home is the perfect secret to make the rooms looks big. Besides, it can create a very calm and relaxing environment. So, in order to use the flowing color, you have to choose one neutral color which is the signature hue. In the other rooms, you may go for the same accent color but in different amounts or choose other accent colors. However, here you have to make sure that you are keeping the same flooring and then try to mold everything together.
Colors for the ceilings
Simply painting the walls beautifully would make your rooms look incomplete, so special attention must be given to the ceilings as well. In fact, I have got some cool ideals how you can choose the color of your ceiling. Firstly, you can visually lower a high ceiling by coloring it in a shade that is darker than that in the walls. On the other hand, you can expand the whole look of the room by going for a shade that is lighter than the shade in the walls.
For a tied in and settle look, you can add little color to the ceiling paint. However, if you are still not much sure of the ceiling and is worried of using too many colors on your ceiling, it is better to color the ceiling with the same shade as that in door trim, floor moldings etc. For this, creamy ivory shall be a great choice. This whole idea will give elegant look to your home.
Color to create focal points
Before painting a room the focal points must be taken into consideration. In case, you want a very large room to look comparatively small, you can easily paint one particular wall of the room in a shade darker than the shade used to paint in the other walls. In fact, by doing this, it not just makes your room small, but also adds a separate appeal and uniqueness to the rooms. On the other hand, in order to make a small room look big, you can easily make the shade of the trim lighter than the walls but from same color scheme.
Highlighting something interesting using a dark complementary shade can add to a lot of glamour to the rooms. If you have a visible staircase in the middle of the room, you can easily paint it with a darker shade to make it look incredible and also get a good focal point.
Consider the proportions
The proportions of the colors are important and you have to take that into consideration. The proportions of the colors used generally depend on the proportions and the architecture of the rooms. Sometimes, using both colors in equal amounts can turn out to be effective but in most cases, mixing one color more than the other gives good sense of balance. For example, an accent of yellow with a considerate grey hue works great to make a room look aesthetic.
Experiment with eco-friendly paints
It is not just the color that matters but also the type of paint is important. In other words, go for the ones with low VOCs as having a greater amount of that can cause adverse health issues. So be careful and choose the co-friendly ones that are safe as well as are efficient in giving good color saturation and finish.
Now that you have learnt how to pick the paint color, let me just draw your attention and give you few more tips on how to avoid the most common mistakes that people do while selecting colors.
Choosing the right sheen is important
It is not just the color, but selecting a proper sheen is equally necessary. This mainly depends on the place you are painting and the look of that room that particularly suits that sheen. Here are the certain things to consider while choosing the sheen:
Highly glossy– The more glossy your paint, the easier for you to clean. So this kind of sheen is good for rooms with high traffic. For example, the playroom, kitchen etc. High gloss sheen will enable you to simply wipe the walls using damp sponge and make it look new. However, high gloss can make the imperfections and blemishes more apparent, so it is better to avoid it in living rooms, common rooms etc. On the other hand, you can easily use the high glossy sheen to color the trim as it will complement greatly with the flat sheen in the walls.
Semi-glossy– This kind of sheen is great for bathrooms, kitchen as well as the trim as they provide you with great wash-ability but comparatively give you a less shiny look than the highly glossy one. Moreover, it cost less than the high gloss one and thus acts a great alternative to that. Satin sheens have smooth satiny finish and can be a good choice for your home.
Flat or mat– This kind of sheen perfectly suits the rooms with lot of blemishes and imperfections on them. This is because; just one coat of it is enough to cover up the flaws. However, the disadvantage of it is that, it creates huge difficulty while cleaning it. So, it is best to go for flat or mat sheens in rooms that will not get much dirt or fingerprints on them.
Eggshell– The most popular and the most widely used sheen is the eggshell all thanks to its perfect blend of providing you with good wash-ability as well as hiding all the imperfections just like the flat or mat ones. So I will personally recommend you to go for eggshell to paint most of your rooms as it is smoother to touch as well as highly durable.
Avoiding the common mistakes while choosing paint colors
As I said earlier, choosing right shade, right paint and pattern is seriously important. If you chose wrong shade or texture, you may not get the desired results. Some more tips to avoid the most common mistakes while choosing paint colors
Listed below are some of the most common people make while choosing the pain color for home, which you should avoid.
Never pick your paint color first
It is an absolutely wrong idea to pick your paint color first as then you will find great difficulty in finding out the other decorative things to match it. The reverse one works great, i.e. try to choose the paint color that suits the entire environment of that particular space. This will save your time and energy as well make your room look great.
Consider the home as a whole
While choosing the colors try to keep in mind that your whole home must be in sync. In other words, you must be careful while transitioning paint colors from one room to another as sometimes it looks odd with bright pink in one and bright orange in the next one. Do not hesitate in using multiple shades for various parts of the house like master bedroom, kitchen, washrooms, balcony etc.
Choose colors depending on the purpose of the room
You might have already got a hint of this when I tell you that choose colors depending on the purpose of the rooms. Well, yes, there is no need to get emotional and insist that since your favorite color is black or red, you have to paint that in your bedroom. But, in such a case, you have to take into account that bedrooms are meant for taking rest and relaxing, so a subtle soothing color will suits its purpose.
You may ignore trends and create a different look
Well, although, you are free to choose colors according to your preference, my personal suggestion will be to not follow trends and create something different to make it stand out from the rest. For example, if you see a lot of bright colors all around, may be you can go for fresher and softer colors while coloring your home. You can choose may be metal and brass, lavender and black etc. In other words, try choosing colors that make your home look classy, sophisticated yet imparting a glamorous and unique style and not blindly follow the trends.
Conclusion
Choosing the right color for your home is never easy but when you have the determination and the zeal, nothing is impossible. There are numerous ways with which you can make your home look vibrant and classy at very reasonable price. The most important thing is research and getting yourself updated with a good concept of color mixing and matching. If you get that correct, nothing can restrict you from choosing the perfect colors for your home.
Look at the internet sites, the various magazines and try to visualize your home with those colors painted on it. You just have to let your imagination fly in order to find out the best. I have in details given you essential tips on how to choose the right paint color for your home. Consult these points and I am sure you will be benefitted.
Are you planning to paint your home? Have you checked out my 17 essential tips on that? Well share the feedback and suggestions in the comments section and spread the information among all.
