Picking Paint

On TV they make it sound like paint is a very inexpensive update. But you can easily run up a big tab or end up frustrated with the results if you haphazardly go to the store without a plan. With some thought and patience, you can get a color you really love.

And only have to paint once!

Instead of randomly choosing a paint color, consider what is already in the room that isn't going to change. This gives you some context to help guide your color decision. Consider wood tones, carpet colors, furniture, curtains, etc.  Instead of trying to match everything else to your paint, choose paint that will go with what you already have.  Look for colors in existing patterns in rugs, bedding, or fabric you have and pull one out for the paint. Go online or on Pinterest and see if you can find some rooms similar to yours with similar fixtures or furniture.

Determine the feeling you want in the room. Warm and cozy or cool and calming? Light and spacious or dark and rich? What colors do you love? Hate? Then try to narrow it down to one or two color families. Warm and cozy will be earthy-browns, golds, oranges, reds, brownish or golden beiges. Cool will be blues, pale greens, stone, gray beiges.

Consider the lighting. Is the room naturally bright? Also consider what time of day you will be in the room. If there is little natural light, colors will look darker. If there is lots of light, colors will look lighter in the room.

Determine the shade of the color you want. This isn’t just about light or dark-more often it is about green blue or grey blue, olive green or mint green. If you go with a neutral  beige, those have varying tones.  Some are more yellow, some gray, some taupe (which can look purple).  All the different colors we have are mixes of the primary colors in varying ratios. It’s usually the shade of the color people mess up on, not the color itself.

By now you should have a color in mind, and you can go to the store and start gathering swatches that look like that color. 

Tip: Hold every color swatch you select up to a bright white swatch to help clarify the color. If your store has special lights for florescent, incandescent and natural, use those!!! If you use compact fluorescents at home, your paint will be affected and you should know how it will look at night with your lights on it. Some colors look horrible under those lights. Or more greenish.

Take the swatches home and start looking at them in the light of that room. Narrow them down to one or two. Head back the store and buy that in a sample color. If you are between two get two samples to help break the tie.

Paint a very large square of the sample paint (2 coats!)  in various spots in the room and live with them a few days.  Make sure you see it at different times of day. This will give you the clearest indication of what it will look like. At this point you should feel pretty confident that you have the color you want.



If you want to get it right you can't rush it.