Choosing the best paint colors for your home is enough to make anyone crazy! It’s just a simple question.
What color should I paint my living room?
But then it turns into:
How do I use different colors in different rooms and still make it all look good together? How do I know I’ll like it when I’ve finished? How long will I like it?
Sheesh!!! There are so many questions and even more options to choose from!
All of this can be intimidating so most people just give up and choose a version of white. It is a neutral, but usually it feels a little less than personable, right?
Well, I have a few suggestions that should help.
We want color! We need color!! Rooms look more inviting because color somehow seems more alive. Zillow posted an article last week that mentioned how homes even sell better when they are painted certain colors. There are lots of choices so we know we can find one that we like, but let’s plan it out.
First, gather choices.
There are several sites that will ‘help’ you pick a color. They show you how many different choices they have and some of them can even show you what it will look like in your room. This really is super helpful, IF you want to figure out how their program works. You can grab a handful of possibilities at a local hardware store, or you can look through magazines or online and save the colors that you like best. These are just to have something to start with. I’ll show you how to narrow it down, don’t worry.
Second, consider the mood you want in the room. Relaxing? Energizing and uplifting? Socializing?
Then, take a second and consider what you will look like when you are in the room.
I know, this is just a little bit unconventional. But really, do you ever notice that when you take a selfie, you look better with color in your background? Like the blue sky, or flowers, or a maybe a cool red car.
How many of us run around the house, or even outside in the yard to take a quick selfie where the background color of a tree or the sky makes us look better than the boring white bathroom wall? That’s because we want to feel and look our best, even in our home. When we feel we are at our best we are happier and recharge from the world much more quickly.
Fourth, figure out which colors complement you personally.
Some people look great in shades of blue, and others look best in shades of orange. It only takes a couple of minutes to find out which color looks best on you.
Some Steps to Help Choose the Best Colors
Step 1 – Figure out which skin tone and hair color you have and then get suggestions of colors that will look best with your particular skin tone. Yes, like cosmetically. These tips will give us a nice variety of colors that we can use as a palette to choose from.
Having this first palette is a great start because it really narrows down the choices.
Step 2 – Now that we know which colors make us look our best, we need to consider the purpose of the room we are painting. This is similar, but slightly different from the mood of the room.
Which room is it, and how do we want to feel when we are in it?
It would be wise to also consider the colors that are already in the furniture upholstery and artwork. We can match those to the nearest shade in our new palette.
Coordinating colors always look ‘put together’, like we know exactly what we are doing.
Once you know the main colors that make you look best, and match with upholstery or curtains that you like, Adobe has a cool Color Wheel tool. You can take your colors to the wheel and plug them in one at a time and it will show you which colors will complement or coordinate with the one you have chosen.
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