How To Pick The Perfect Paint Color
Picking the perfect paint color for any room can be like trying to find a needle in a haystack. Especially if you get easily overwhelmed! That's what can often happen when you go to the paint store and you see about 100,000 different color swatches that all look the same! It all just begins to blur together. So how do you pick that PERFECT paint color? Well lucky for you I'm going to give you 6 very simple, very helpful tips on things to consider/analyze when picking the perfect color for you and that special room in your house.
1. Take into consideration the size of the room.
If you are painting say a bedroom and it's rather small the LAST thing you want to do is make it feel even smaller! That's what will happen if you choose darker colors (red, brown, navy, etc). And I would even be leery of those brighter colors too (pink, baby blue, green, etc). It's important to know that in smaller rooms, whites and neutral tones are a MUST! Subtle is better!
2. Factor in the amount of natural light you have in that room.
Natural light is HUGE when it comes to picking the right paint color. The more natural light, the better. If you have a lot of natural light streaming through a given area, you can play around with different color options and accent walls work nicely in this type of light too . However, I tend to like to keep my flooded areas of light nice and bright. I will usually lean towards white with gray tones, or blue tones. This makes the area feel airy and soft. You can ALWAYS add pops of color with your home decor and wall texture so don't worry about making it feel bland.
3. Consider the furniture and accent pieces of that given room.
It's important in any space to make sure you are coordinating with what you already have. The last thing you want to do is pick out a paint color based solely on how much you love it on the color swatch and then come to find out after painting that it matches not a single piece of your furniture. Bring those accent pieces into play when deciding on a color. Place each piece next to your paint swatch and see which one flows the best. Buy sample paints of each color if you have to and paint a small space on the wall for larger comparison.
4. Analyze the the base color (darkest color on your paint strip) to see that color's true undertone.
A lot of times we can misjudge the undertones of a single paint swatch when looking at it at the store. It's important to take the whole paint strip back to your house to better see the "origin" of that color. Looking at the darkest color on that color strip will be your biggest indicator of the key undertone at play in your color shade. If you want more of a black undertone, gray undertone, brown undertone, just check out the darkest color on your strip and go from there.
5. Decide if you want more of a warm feel or a cool feel.
Believe it or not paint color can TOTALLY control the feel of your room. Warmer colors include: yellow, red, brown, tan, beige, etc. While cooler colors include: blue, green, gray, black, etc. Neutral colors can possess both of these different "feels" based on their true undertone. (like discussed in #4) that's why it's so important to know the exact origin of your color's undertone.
6. Analyze the contrast between your walls and your floors.
Like #3 it's important to analyze the contrast between your floor color and your wall color. If you have neutral colored carpets it's a bit easier to pick a wall color that will easily correlate those tones. However, if you have wood floors or even cabinets to consider when picking out your wall color then you need to understand contrast. Contrasting dark floors with light walls will increase the dramatic intensity of that room, likewise if you have light floors and light walls it will significantly decrease the intensity of that room; creating a softer feel verses a more stark feel. Neither is wrong...it all just depends on the "look" you want for that specific space.
It's important to note that there is no such thing as the "perfect paint color." Each room possess different qualities and characteristics giving it unique attributes to consider. You can learn more about my favorite wall colors by checking out my "about me" page. If not ask my opinion below! I'd be more than happy and willing to help you pick out your perfect paint color!
