Choosing Interior Colors

Tips on How to Choose Your Interior Paint Colors

Would you like to create a stunning interior? It is absolutely attainable with patience and paint! A little planning can produce big results.  Decorators and designers have the advantage of drawing from palettes they have studied but how does someone with less experience in interior design achieve a “wow” effect? Mood is one criterion for choosing paint color and many paint stores arrange their display presorted to assist with identifying warm and cool colors. Decorating books and magazines, too, are abundant and inspiring and the many photographs within could help you shape your goals for your new look. Glance around your home and identify a couple of your favorite things, maybe some photographs or antiques on display. Would a taupe wall or a maroon accent make your favorite things “pop?” If nothing strikes your eye, try a different approach, such as integrating the views from your windows as art in the room.

Look for inspiration in your surroundings…

This might seem obvious if the scenes from your windows are inherently dramatic–such as cityscapes, waterfronts or mountains–but even a scene as simple as a garden path or a grove of trees can be dramatically enhanced if a contrasting or complimentary paint color on the walls guides your eye to the window. Of course, conversely, the option exists to tease the origins of your colors from your interior surroundings. Whether you are planning to keep most of your furnishings or will be replacing them, extracting your wall color from a thread in your upholstery or your carpet can enliven your entire room.

Ceilings and Floors Impact Paint Colors

Be sure to include your ceiling as a color that needs to compliment or effectively contrast your wall color. You’d be amazed at how important this is, particularly if you are planning to paint the walls white or another neutral color. All neutral colors have hues–black, gray, yellow, pink, blue–that may or may not be evident at first glance but will become readily apparent as soon as they are applied next to an adjacent color. Flooring, too, should be treated as a color. Whether you are plannig to replace it or to keep your exisiting flooring, it should factor into your choice of paint colors. Carpets have obvious color but even wood floors have hues of yellow, orange, red or purple that will clash with certain paint colors, including neutrals. And just as with ceilings and floors, cabinet color should be taken into account, whether new or existing, painted or stained.