10 Simple Steps to Selecting the Perfect Paint Color
Step-by-Step Process
If you are looking for help in selecting the next paint color for your room, take a look at your wardrobe. I know that sounds odd, but typically the colors we like to wear are the colors we are comfortable with. It’s no different in your home. If you like to dress in splashy, vivid colors, it makes sense that you might like passionate, vibrant colors in your home. If you like to dress in subtle colors like tans and beiges… I certainly wouldn’t suggest you paint the inside of your home a bright red or dark purple. Outlined below are the 10 steps to take when we are performing your own paint consultation.
If you’re not sure WHERE to begin your search, you can begin with an inspiration. A painting, a sexy shoe, your favorite summer dress…anything that evokes the feeling you’re going for and pull colors from there. Next week we’ll talk about restating colors for the rest of the space. For now, let’s focus on selecting a wall color. If you’re working from an inspiration item, there are lots of tools available to come up with a color scheme…you can pull your wall color from that palette. I like the Sherwin-Williams Chip-It tool. It’s available for free download on your iPhone, iPad and (I think!), Android. You simply take a picture with your camera phone (or do it online with your favorite digital picture) and the app extracts the colors and let’s you move them around in your favorite order. Here’s what the finished storyboard looks like:
1. Pick up the strips – Go to the paint store and select paint strips in colors you think you might like in your home. There are so many of those skinny
little strips, in so many colors, it can feel overwhelming! But don’t worry, be liberal. Pick one up in every color and every shade of color that you THINK you MIGHT like. That’s what they’re there for. Grab a bunch and head back home.
2. Don’t buy a thing on your first trip to the paint store. Really. Nothing. Oh…okay. If it makes you feel better, buy a good quality paint brush. But no paint. Not yet. Selecting the perfect paint color usually requires a minimum of two trips sometimes three, to the paint store. When you know that you don’t have to come up with a decision on your first trip there, you can relax.
3. Sort the paint strips in the room you’re painting. You’ll probably find quite a few that won’t look nearly as good in your home as they did under the artificial lights of the paint store. Toss those out.
4. Get your scissors and cut out the color you’re considering. There’s no need to add to the confusion by having too many to choose from.
5. Tape the paint chips to the wall and carefully review them at different times of day, morning, afternoon, dusk and evening. Believe it or not, the light is different and will make the paint look different all throughout the day. Although it might be hard to tell with those tiny little chips, do your best. You’re performing another elimination. Ultimately, you want to get down to about 2 – 3 colors or shades.
6. Go back to the paint store and purchase a quart of paint in each of the colors you’ve selected. If you like 1 color but can’t decide on the lighter or darker version of a color, that’s ok. You want to have at least one lighter version and one darker version of the same color.
7. Paint!
Paint 24” x 36” sections on at least TWO walls, using the SAME color. This will give you a good idea of what the color will look like on each wall.
Paint a ‘sunny’ wall – one that gets lots of light
Paint a ‘shade’ wall – one that doesn’t get much natural light
Paint the 24” x 36” sections with lots of room between them, NOT right next to each other. If you do, the natural tendency is to compare how the paint looks next to each other, instead of looking at how each paint color looks in the room, overall.
8. Live with it for at least a week. Do you like one color more than the other? Sometimes one color will quickly eliminate itself right off the bat. Other times, the color has to ‘grow on you’. And that’s normal. Oftentimes, when selecting colors clients don’t always ‘instantly love’ the color the minute it comes out of the can. So if you feel reluctant or unsure, it’s ok. It’s normal.
9. If none of the colors work for you but they’re close. . . try mixing the paint a bit yourself. In a small can, add some of the lighter color and the darker color to change it a bit. Brush that on the wall. If you find a color you love from your own mixing, remember to save some for the paint store. They can match anything!
10. Head back to the paint store and have them doctor it up a bit for you – either by adding more white, or darkening it by adding a drop of black… or they can also add more color if it’s too pale.
As you can see . . . selecting the perfect paint color is simple. Okay…not SIMPLE exactly, but it’s not rocket science. It just requires a little patience!! When you follow the step-by-step process, you too will have the same success we’ve had in selecting the perfect color!
“Understand that wall color is designed to show off the accessories in a room…” Christopher Lowell
It can be tedious if you don’t know how to do it. If you’d like the services of a professional in this process, give me a call. I can help you with your paint selection process, for a nominal fee.
One final tip: When customers change their paint colors, sometimes they get what’ you’ve heard as ‘buyer’s remorse’. That’s the let down they feel, when the color is done and they think they don’t like it. It’s a funny thing… we want the change, but after it’s done, we don’t like it. You must remember that you might have a resistance to change and the color is perfect. I recommend ‘living with it’ for a few weeks to see if you just need to get used to the change or if the color will ‘grow’ on them. Oftentimes, you’ll love it later…after you’ve had a chance to live with it for a few weeks.
