Choosing Paint Colours

How Room Colours Affect Our Mood

You may not realize the extent of how colour influences our everyday lives. This is something that should be considered when choosing interior colours for your home. Colour not only changes the illusion of a room’s size and shape, it can have a profound affect on our mood.

Colours Have A Psychological Value

Think about the colours around you and how they affect you. Certain colours create a sense of peace and calm while others generate a feeling of energy and excitement. When paint a room you want to use a colour that will create the effect you desire.

What Mood Are You Trying To Create?

Look through decorating websites, magazines and paint company brochures for examples. See what you like and try to think about why you find it attractive. What is the mood of the space?

The feeling desired in this bedroom was a sense of calm and warmth. The relaxed feel has been achieved by using soft colours and by using various shades of the same colour throughout the room.

How Room Colours Influence A Space.

Light colours tend to make a room feel more expansive, airy and brighter. Darker colours can create a feeling of warmth and can make a space feel more intimate or they can make a dramatic statement.

This owner of the townhouse wanted a light and airy feel to their living space and a wall colour that would be a blank canvas for their large collection of artwork that they will be displaying.

Red Colours

Red colours create energy in a room, it can stimulate conversation and gives a strong impression. It is a colour that needs to be used carefully, it may be too stimulating for use in some rooms. It can increase blood pressure and heart rate. It is generally best to use as an accent colour. The right tone of red such as a muted, earthy red or brown red can create a feeling of comfort and coziness.

Orange Colours

Orange is associated with action and can create excitement and energy. It can be bright and cheerful. It’s said to be the best colour to paint a fitness room. This particular room will be used by a book author. They wanted a space to write in that would evoke creativity.

Pink Colours

Certain shades of pink can be calming and said to reduce anger. Vibrant shades of pink can be stimulating or even aggravating. Pink combined with darker colours like black and grays can look very sophisticated.

This space is going to be used as a music room for the owner to practice their cello. The colour has just the right amount of pink to remain sophisticated and elegant looking. If it was too pink it could look garish.

Yellow colours

Yellow can emit a feeling of sunshine and happiness. It can be uplifting, welcoming and somewhat energizing. Yellows that are too intense like sunflowers can be hard to live with. Muted or softer shades of yellow are best to use if it’s going to be painted throughout an entire room. Yellow tends to be a love it or hate it colour for many people.

The soft yellow colour creates a cheery and bright atmosphere for this family kitchen. A colour like this can be a good option for a room that does not receive a lot of natural light.

This gold colour used as the accent wall creates a completely different feeling than the cheery yellow in the photo above. The rich depth and warmth of the gold colour give a sense of sophistication, but still looks cozy and welcoming.

Blue Colours

Depending on the shade of blue it can have a calming and relaxing effect, or it can be dramatic or chilly. Certain shades of blue are considered to improve creativity which makes it a good choice for a study space. Make sure you choose the right type of blue to create the effect you are looking for.

This customer choose a blue for their master bedroom. It has quite a bit of depth, but with a warm undertone that creates a relaxed atmosphere.

This master ensuite bathroom is far from completed, but you can see the blue chosen for the walls gives the room a light and airy feeling. It’s a colour you often see in a spa setting.

Bold blues are not for everyone, but they can look very sophisticated. The deep blue feature wall in this bedroom makes a bold statement.

Green Colours

Green is associated with nature. It can be refreshing or have a calming effect, help you to unwind and relieve stress. Lighter shades of sage and muted or earthy greens are easy to live with. Be careful when using darker greens. They can be harder to live with over a period of time, you may find them too bold. Green is a colour that seems to evoke a lot of emotion in people, they either love it or hate it.

The light sage green feature wall in this bedroom mimics the nature outside the windows and creates a sense of calm.

The rich, earthy green used in this space that will become an office grounds the room and gives it a sense of purpose.

Purple Colours

Purples can be soft and subtle. Using light shades of lilac creates a restful feeling like in this bedroom.

Purples can promote creativity or give a room a sophisticated and dramatic look. Pairing deeper purple with light neutrals helps to soften the colour. The vibrant walls of this young girls bedroom create a sense of whimsy and drama.

Neutral Colours

Shades of blacks, greys, whites and browns are considered neutrals. They are the colours that offer the most flexibility in decorating. If you have a neutrally painted space you can liven it up with bolder coloured accents and furnishings or calm it down by using shades of the same colour. Black can be a very strong colour and is best used in small doses as an accent.

This living room has a light, warm off-white on the walls. There’s minimal contrast in the decor which creates a relaxed feel. Most of the interest comes from different materials and textures.

A complete sense of tranquility and calm has been created in this living room by having the walls and almost all of the decor in the the same soft, warm white colour. At the same time it looks very sophisticated.

This living room has been painted in a warm off-white along with the rest of the house. The neutral palette leaves the homeowner with the choice to go in many different decorating directions. They could do tone on tone, high contrast or something in between.

Gray Colours

Gray can enhance creativity which is probably why it’s used a lot in offices as an executive colour. Gray colours tend to be easy to live with and provide a neutral background for many decorating styles. Grays can be used to create a very modern look or a cozy and laid back feeling like that of a beach house. Darker grays can be used to create contrast between walls and trim or a dramatic feature or accent wall like in this living room.

A much softer contrast has been created with the feature wall in this dining room.

The gray used on the walls of this bathroom create the perfect space to relax and bathe.

The gray on this homes walls paired with the rich wood and fixtures create a modern elegance.

Brown Colours

Brown colours can be very comfortable and soothing. Depending on the shade of brown it can act as a background neutral. Brown can be used in interesting colour combinations like with a pale blue or pink. It can be a good colour choice for a room that people spend a lot of time in like a family room.

The colours used in this kitchen could be considered bold neutrals. A darker brown/grey was used as an accent wall with a lighter grey on the surrounding walls. There’s a nice contrast between the cabinets and the darker accent wall and it ties together nicely with the back splash and counter tops

A monochromatic look has been created in this bedroom by using different shades of brown with the walls, with the furniture and accent pillows. It makes the space feel warm and relaxing.

Choosing Exterior Paint Colour

Homeowners can find the process of choosing exterior house colours quite daunting. Painting your home is a big investment and you don’t want to get the colours wrong. Some factors make choosing exterior colours more challenging than interior ones. The surfaces being painted are on a grand scale, which can make it difficult to visualize the end result. Secondly, the immense amount of natural light impacts how colours appear outside. Although the task of choosing exterior colours may seem overwhelming, there are some basic concepts you can follow to help you through the process.

Pay Attention To The Fixed Elements On Your House

When choosing an exterior colour scheme there are features of your house that can’t be ignored. These are the fixed elements like stone and brick, roof shingles, railings around steps, decks and balconies, or a natural wood door. These materials need to be taken into consideration as part of your exterior colour palette. You want your paint colours to compliment or harmonize with them, not fight against them.

What is your roof, is it metal, asphalt shingles or terra cotta tiles? Is the material one main colour or does it have several colours throughout it. What is the undertone? For example, if you’re roof is gray are there blue or green undertones? You don’t have to match your roof, but your paint colours needs to work with it, especially your main siding colour.

If you have rock work, what flecks of colour do you see in it? Do you have a strong coloured brick on your house such as red and orange? If so, this brick is going to highly dictate what paint colours you can use. Are your gutters and downspouts being painted? If not, their colouring has to fit into the overall look as well.

Do you have windows with coloured cladding? Many homes have vinyl windows that are white, cream, almond or brown in colour and recently black windows have become popular. If you have light coloured windows and paint the surrounding trim dark it creates a picture frame look and vice versa for dark windows surrounded by light trim. The windows will become a frame within a frame of the trim work. It’s something to keep in mind and may not be a look you find desirable on your particular house.

A Well-Coordinated Colour Palette Works With The Landscaping And Hardscaping

Consider your house a backdrop to your landscaping and hardscaping. Pay attention to the trees, shrubs and gardens around your property. Use the nature around you for inspiration so that your house compliments it. If you have an abundance of trees you may want to lean towards an earthy colour palette. If there’s a show stopping flower gardens in your front yard that bloom a certain colour, consider mimicking that colour on your front door.

If you have expansive areas of hardscaping around your house it may have an influence on your colour selections. Do you have large areas with brick pavers or a cobblestone driveway? You will want to stand back and take the colour of these materials into consideration and how they fit in with your house.

The property below has a nice balance of colours and contrasts. The colours of the house, landscaping and hardscaping compliment each other. The golden tone of the siding brings out the rich colours in the stone around the garage door. The walnut stain on the decorative wood in the gables ties in with the similar colouring in the cobble walkway and inset in the driveway. The warm, creamy trim colour works well with the siding, white trim would be too stark.

Natural Light Makes Choosing Exterior Colours More Complicated

Paint colours outside look lighter and cooler than you might expect, especially when they are applied to an expansive surface. If you’re admiring a colour on a paint chip take a look at colours at least two shades darker and similar colours with a warmer hue. These might be the direction you need to go in to get the look you desire on the exterior of your house.

The direction of light can also make colours look different on each side of a house. The colour on south facing portions of the house can become washed out at certain times of the day, while north facing sides can look darker. Areas of the house that are shadowed by large trees will look darker as will sections of the house underneath overhangs or balconies.

No one colour choice is going to be perfect on all areas of your house in all light conditions. A compromise may have to be made where one side of your house becomes the priority. In many cases this is the front of the house since it tends to be the side that is the most visible and where you are looking to have that all important curb appeal.

The house below is painted in the colour White Dove OC 17. It’s a slightly warm and creamy white, yet as you can see in the photo it reads white on the exterior of this modern style farm house. If the siding was painted a true white it would appear far too stark.

What Sheen Of Paint Is Best For House Exteriors?

All things being equal a paint with higher sheen has more durability, resists dirt better and is easier to clean. However, paint technology has improved in this regard for lower sheen paints, they are much better than they used to be.

Choosing paint sheens comes down to a balance of aesthetics and ease of cleaning and durability. Generally a higher sheen paint is not a good look for textured surfaces like brick, stucco, cement and wood siding. Higher sheens will show imperfections in surfaces that are not in good condition. Brush strokes and touch-ups are also harder to conceal in higher sheen paint.

Hardie Board Siding can have quite a bit of texture. You’ll see it painted in anything from flat to satin and it will look noticeably different between lower and higher sheens. The surfaces around the perimeter of your house may determine what the best choice for sheen is. If the landscaping contributes to dirt splashing back or getting blown onto your house a higher sheen might be the best option.

Trim work and doors tend to be painted with a slightly higher sheen like low-luster or satin for the higher durability and better resistance against dirt retention.

Does sheen have an effect on how paint colour looks? The answer is yes. If you take the same colour and have it tinted into different sheens of paint it can appear lighter or darker. Colours generally look more vibrant in a higher sheen paint.

Mistakes That Are Made When Choosing Exterior House Colours

Don’t highlight or draw attention to unattractive features on your house. Make less desirable items like utility boxes and dryer vents blend in by painting them the same as the surface they are sitting on. Save the contrasting or accent colours for attractive architectural details.

Don’t be the bad neighbour that uses a colour scheme that clashes with the houses around you. You don’t have to blend in like a wall flower, but your colours should complement or harmonize with surrounding houses.

Don’t overlook the environment of your house. Painting dark or primary colours that receive harsh sunlight, especially on larger surfaces will fade at an accelerated rate. You have to be careful with using dark colours on surfaces like wood doors. If the door receives direct sunlight the dark colour will retain more heat that can cause warping.

Don’t pick colours that are too vibrant or bright unless they suit the particular style of your house.

Don’t use too many colours. It’s best to stick to an exterior colour palette of two or three colours. Keep in mind that your roof, brick, stone work and other fixed elements are all colours on your house and contribute to the overall scheme. Too many colours on your house will make it look overly busy.

Pay Attention To The Architectural Details

Identify the architectural details of your house and decide whether they are attractive enough to highlight or do they need to be painted to blend in. Attractive features can be painted with a complimentary colour to the background, a contrasting colour or in a slightly darker or lighter shade of the same colour to give a subtle difference.

Below is a excellent example of the importance to recognize all the elements on your house and how they contribute to the overall colour palette. This house has a lot going on. The numerous, colours, shapes, lines and textures have your eyes bouncing all over the place.

The new colour scheme works well with the dark stained wood. To tone down some of the architectural features the vertical corner trim and the window trim above the balcony doors has been painted the same as the siding colour. The look is calmer and more harmonious.

Colours That Are Slightly Muted Look Best On House Exteriors

That vibrant coloured paint chip that you like in the paint store may not look so great on your house. Think of the grand scale it’s being applied to. The intense sunlight can drastically change how a colour appears outside. Bright or saturated colours can end up looking tacky and unnatural on your house. Colours tend to look best when they are somewhat muted. For instance if you like blue or green, choose ones that have a slightly grayed off tone to them as compared to a bright version of the same colours.

Be Careful With Undertones When Picking Exterior Paint Colours

To be able to pick colours that work well together and with the other elements on your home you need to get familiar with undertones. Once you understand how to identify the undertones in paint colours you’ll have more confidence in picking colours that coordinate with your home and its setting. The best way to see the undertones in a colour is by comparing it with other colours.

When viewing the Benjamin Moore Blue Heron colour on its own it may not be as apparent that is has a violet undertone. When it’s put next to Van Deusen Blue it becomes more obvious. The violet undertone in Blue Heron could become more pronounced on a house exterior and enhanced further under certain lighting conditions.

Are There Exterior Paint Colours That Are Fade Resistant?

Paint technology is continuously improving with protectants from UV that help paint retain its colour. However, there are still colours that are more prone to fading. Colours can change altogether over time, for example a dark blue could start to take on a violet hue as it ages. Even in the most expensive brands you’ll find that vivid colours will become more subdued after a few years. In general deeper and/or brighter colours are going to fade at an accelerated rate compared to lighter neutrals and whites. For the longest lasting results choose earthy colours as opposed to reds, blues, greens and yellows. If you chose colours in the latter categories pick ones that are toned down or slightly muted instead of brighter versions.

If All Else Fails Choose Several Shades Of The Same Colour

Contrasting colours are a great way to draw attention to architecture, but too much contrast can start to detract from details. As long as you pick the right colour, it can be a safe choice to go with a monochromatic look on your house. This can be done by choosing lighter and darker shades from the same colour family. Paint manufacturer’s often have sample strips with a colour that graduates from dark to light. You could pick a mid-tone shade for the body and the lighter shade for the trim and the darkest end of the strip for your front door.

What Colour Should The Overhead Garage Doors On My House Be Painted?

What colour to paint the overhead garage doors becomes a dilemma for many homeowners. Should they be the same as the body colour, the trim colour or something altogether different?

There’s no correct answer. It depends on the colours being used, the size and style of the house the size and number of overhead garage doors and where they are situated on the house. They are generally not a feature that you want to draw attention to by painting them with an accent colour. Blending them in with the body colour works for some houses but it can take on the look of a monolithic structure for others. The best choice may be to paint the garage doors the trim colour. This keeps them somewhat neutral, neither highlighting them nor making the house too much of one colour. Another option is to paint the doors a shade or two lighter or darker than the house to give a bit of difference without having too much contrast

Where To Get Exterior Colour Inspiration

Drive around neighborhoods in your city to see what colours you find attractive. However, keep in mind colours you like on other houses may not work on yours.

Paint stores have pre-arranged exterior colour combinations. You can find their brochures in store and often they can be viewed on their website. Many paint manufacturers have website software programs where you can look at colour schemes.

The Benjamin Moore Personal Colour Viewer allows you to upload photos of your house exterior and play around with the colours. Or you can use one of the provided photos. Their website has online brochures and colour collections, you can browse articles that provide colour inspiration and advice.

Sherwin William Colour Tools has the same concept with their software. Online exterior house photos can be viewed with different colours or you can upload your own house photo. They also have a wealth of colour theory information and online brochures.

Other excellent online resources for colour inspiration are:

Houzz – there’s a photo section where you can do searches related to house exteriors and colour. You can get very specific with your searches, for example type in “exterior colours for west coast style houses” or “best gray and white exterior house colours”. A personal idea book can be created to save the images you like for future reference.

Pinterest – You can do endless searches on Pinterest for colour inspiration. As with Houzz you can get very specific in your searches. Try things like “exterior paint colours for Hardie Board siding” or “modern exterior house colour combinations.” Photos you like can be pinned to a personal board and organized into categories as you see fit.

Online search options are endless from decorating experts who have blogs, to colour reviews on Youtube.

Applying Exterior Paint Samples

When you get your colour choices narrowed down, don’t hesitate to go to the paint store and purchase sample size testers. It’s next to impossible to envision the overall colour on your house from a tiny paint chip. Narrow down your colours to a few options and purchase them in a sample size from the paint store.
You can apply the colours to several spots on your house, put a sample of the body and trim colour on to see how the colours work together. Or you can start by painting the colours onto some poster boards so that you can move them around to different areas of the house.
View the colours at various times of the day. Changing light will cause the colour to look different by either casting a warm or cool light onto your house. Expect it to look quite different when comparing early morning, afternoon and early evening light in full sun and in shade. Make sure you are viewing the colours next to other elements on the house like brick or stone.

Choosing Interior Paint Colours

Choose Colours That You Are Comfortable With

There are people who choose colours with ease for their vehicles, accessories and clothing, but for some reason they have a great deal of anxiety when it comes to picking paint colours for their home.

Choose colours that you feel comfortable living with. This can be colours in nature, your clothing or decorative items already have in your home. If you are not daring enough to use a bold colour on your walls add a pop of colour with decorative accessories. It’s less of a commitment to purchase a few throw pillows or colourful wall hangings than repainting a wall if you don’t like it.

Feeling Lost And Don’t Know Where To Start With Colour Choices?

If you are really stuck start by eliminating what you don’t like. Can you scratch certain colour groups completely off your list? Perhaps you don’t like yellows and greens, or purples and red tones are not your thing. You’re down to blue, gray and brown. Now you can start to see what versions of these colours will work in your home.

Current Paint Colour Trends

If you are interested in the current or upcoming colour trends there’s plenty of information offered by the major paint companies through their websites and in store brochures. You can find many sources of inspiration through decorating and home improvement websites. Use caution when looking at colour trends. The fixation on gray walls went on for several years, but other colour fads can be short lived. You don’t want to be questioning your colour choice within a year or two.

Utilize The Colour Tools On Paint Manufacturer’s Websites

Benjamin Moore’s colour portfolio mobile app is full of innovative features. If you see a colour on a surface or object you can take a photo and it will show you the closest equivalent in their colour system.

After downloading the app you can upload photos of your rooms and see what colours in the Benjamin Moore virtual fan deck look like on your walls, trim work and ceilings. If you don’t want to download the app you can play with the look of different colours on their example photos. Your local Benjamin Moore store will have further colour inspiration in brochures and pamphlets.

Sherwin Williams has an online colour snap visualizer or you can download the mobile app. It allows you to see their colours on your uploaded photos or you can use the photos provided on the website. Add their snap button to your web browser you can click on an online image and it will bring up a corresponding Sherwin Williams colour palette. The website also features an array of articles with information on colour theory and choosing colours.

Online Resources For Colour Inspiration

Houzz is a great site for decorating and colour inspiration. You can create your own personal Houzz idea book. Search through the photo section on Houzz and when you see images of projects, colours and interior design that you like the images can be saved to your idea book for future reference.

If you haven’t ventured into the world of Pinterest consider yourself officially warned, you can lose yourself in it for hours. There’s endless decorating and colour inspiration and you can search for other things like recipes, craft ideas and pretty much anything else you can think of. You can type very specific things into the search function like “popular blue colours for bedrooms” or “calm interior wall colours.” When you find things you like you pin them to your own personal board. The pins can be organized into whatever categories you like.

Online searching can bring up all kinds of decorating websites and blogs by interior designers that provide paint colour information. Designers have done reviews on YouTube for many of the popular Benjamin Moore and Sherwin Williams colours. For instance go to YouTube and type in “Benjamin Moore Simply White review” it will come up with several video choices to watch.

Creating A Mood With Paint Colour

Colour can have a big influence on human emotion and behavior. Think about the mood you would like to create in a space. What kind of effect are you looking for? Is it to create a sense of relaxation in a bedroom or playfulness in a child’s room? Are you looking for a calming spa like feeling in your bathroom or trying to induce creativity in an office space or energy in a fitness room? Does the space need to have a light and airy atmosphere or do you want to create a warm and intimate feeling? For more detailed information see our post on How Room Colours Affect Our Mood.

There’s Nothing Wrong With Choosing Neutrals Or Safe Colour Choices

Don’t feel you’re boring or unadventurous if you like to use neutral colours throughout your home. Neutrals are the perfect backdrop to creating any type of look you want. Make your spaces interesting with textures and patterns in your furniture, accent pieces, textiles, wall art and area rugs.

Modern greige and beige colours can give your interior warm and comfortable feeling.

Creamy whites can act as a great neutral back drop to decorate against.

If you don’t want to paint the same colour throughout all of your house then a fail proof choice is to go with a monochromatic colour scheme that uses several shades of the same colour. Or use pre-selected complimentary colours. Most paint companies have examples of two or three colours that have been chosen to be work well together throughout a home.

Picking Paint Colours For A Renovation, Redecorating Or When New Furniture Is Being Purchased

When there are many choices to be made for renovations or redecorating the paint colour should be one of the last things you choose. Pick the colours and design of your major fixed elements such as the flooring, countertops and cabinets. Then pick your longer term furnishings such as the couch, chairs, blinds and curtains. Bring all these items together in a colour scheme along with the paint colours. The paint is going to be the one thing that has an infinite amount of choices. You’ll always be able to find a paint colour that will compliment the other items you have chosen.

Picking A New Colour For An Existing Room

You may have fallen in love with a new colour, but don’t re-paint your walls with it before considering if it works in your space. Look at the colouring of the flooring, cabinets, counter tops and other fixed items that are not changing. Pay attention to furniture, draperies, window coverings, area rugs and artwork. These can all provide inspiration for your colour choices.

Keep in mind how an individual room correlates to the rest of your house. Can you see the room from other spaces? If so, you don’t want the colours to fight against each other.

How Lighting Affects Paint Colour

One of the main factors that affects paint color or any colour for that matter is light, whether it’s natural or artificial. Take into consideration the lighting in the room during various times of the day. Pay special attention to the artificial lighting in the room, it can drastically change the look of a paint colour. Light bulbs can give off hues of yellow, blue, red or green.

Natural and artificial light can make the same colour used throughout a house appear different in every room and on each wall within the same room. This is why we recommend looking at a colour in many areas of the space you intend to use it in.

The same wall colour can appear lighter, darker, warmer or cooler depending on what type of artificial light is being cast on it. How much or little natural light is entering the space and the direction the light is coming from, north, south, etc. all have influences on how the colour appears.

Your colour choice may come down to a compromise of having a colour that looks good during a certain time of the day and you accept that it takes on a certain hue at other times or when your artificial lights are on. You can try changing out your light bulbs to a different colour temperature to see if that helps.

The next two photos are a perfect example of how the same colour can look completely different in a room or throughout a house. All of the walls in the two photos below are painted with Sherwin Williams Repose Gray.

In the first photo the current light has the window wall appearing to be darker and it has taken on a slight violet undertone. The fireplace wall is lighter and has a slight cast of green. Some of that green cast could be coming from the tint of the window glass.

photo showing the green and violet undertones of sherwin williams repose gray paint on interior walls

In this second photo the dining hutch wall looks like it has a slight green undertone. The wall below the loft is showing a bit of violet and the loft wall where the railing is looks blue.

photo showing how sherwin williams repose gray paint colour can show different undertones

Accenting Specific Features or Trim Work With Paint Colour

Be careful if you’re deciding to use different colours within the same space. Don’t just stick in an accent wall for the sake of doing so. It needs to look intentional or be put on something worth accenting. A recessed wall or a wall at the end of a long hallway can be a good spot to paint an accent colour. This can be an attractive way to showcase artwork.

The photos below show a nice example of colour blocking with a deep gray, It helps to add some interest to the white rooms throughout this town house.

photos showing dark gray being used on accent walls in a living room

Choosing A Paint Colour For Ceilings

If you are having your walls painted make sure you check the condition of your ceilings. If they need painting this is the time to do it. In almost every scenario the order of painting is ceilings first, then the walls. You don’t want to paint the walls and then regret that you should have got the ceilings done.

Quite often homeowners don’t realize how discoloured their ceilings have become or how much colour they have in them to begin with. Original textured ceilings can have a yellow, gray or even pink tone to them. It may not be noticeable until you change your wall colour and then you realize they look off. Painting ceilings with white or a slight off-white colour can give a room a fresh look. You’ll be surprised how much brighter a space looks when the ceilings have been re-painted whiter.

Many rooms will benefit from having a white ceiling to create a bright and light space. Other areas can have a desirable look by painting the ceiling the same colour as the walls or a lighter tint of the wall colour. If you have a room with very high ceilings and want to make it feel lower or cozier it can be done by painting the ceiling with a deeper colour.

In this open concept living space the home owner had us paint the walls and the tray ceiling above the dining table in the same rich rich green/gray colour. The ceiling could have been left white, but the darker colour on the ceiling helps to further define the dining space. The depth and richness of the colour shows of the architecture well.

Consider The Overall Feel When Choosing Paint Colours Throughout Your Home

If you have a home with an open floor plan it may be best to use the same colour or shades of the same colour throughout the spaces. If you want a pop of colour do it on an accent wall or add a contrasting colour in one or two spaces like a powder room or a den.

Pick the colour or colours for the main spaces first and then create the palette through the rest of the house from there. Houses tend to be more appealing when there is a flow and harmony through the rooms. This creates continuity and an illusion of more space.

Choosing Paint Chips And Applying Colour Samples

Colour chips are a good starting point, but it can be difficult to choose a paint colour for an entire space from such a small sample. Grab a bunch of chips that you like and pick chips in a slightly lighter and darker version of each colour. Take these home and use them as your initial reference to eliminate and narrow down your choices.

When looking at paint chips on your wall remember that the background colour you are holding it up against is going to greatly affect how your eye sees the colour. It’s going to be trying to compare the two colours. Try to block out the background colour and envision the new colour all over the wall and throughout the space.

Holding the colour chip up to your trim work if it is white or off-white is also a good way to see how the colour looks. If you are not painting your trim work and doors you want to make sure the new colour is going to work well with the existing trim colour and doors.

Once you have your choice narrowed down to a colour or two then the best approach is to get a sample of the colours. All paint companies offer smaller sample sizes. Painting a poster board is a great way to make a sample. You can move the boards around the rooms or spaces in your home at different times of the day to see how the colour looks. A decorator’s tip is to leave a border of white around the edge of the poster board. As mentioned above when you try to compare two colours each one is influencing how the other looks. The white border helps to give a neutral break between your existing wall colour and the colour on the board so that you can get a truer sense of what it looks like.

Paint Sheen Can Change The Way A Colour Appears

The type of paint finish or sheen can have an effect on a colour. Flat or matte paints generally give the truest representation of a colour because they have little or no reflection. Eggshell has some reflection and satin, semi-gloss, and high gloss have progressively more reflection. Paint colours in higher sheens tend to look darker. Paint companies generally have only one sheen available for their samples, usually it’s eggshell or satin. Keep in mind that when the actual paint job is done the colour can look somewhat different if it is not in the same sheen as the paint sample.