How to Choose Paint Colors for Your Home’s Interior

The colors you choose to paint the inside of your home can make or break the space. Color can make a room feel bright and airy, or dark and cramped. You can use color to visually lower or raise your ceiling, make a room more conducive to peace and quiet or stimulating conversation, or tie the entire house together.

But choosing paint colors can be an intimidating prospect. Should you just stick to neutral colors? How do you choose the right colors for the right rooms? Should a paint color in one room appear elsewhere in the house? Here are the answers to all your paint-related questions.

Inspiration Is All Around You

When it comes to choosing paint colors for your home, you don’t have to stick to neutrals. Sure, a nice neutral color can look great on your walls, especially paired with accent colors that really pop. You could even create some texture by painting your walls and trim with two different neutral colors or even by painting stripes in neutral tones on your wall. 

When it comes to the interior of your home, though, you have an opportunity to get bold with colors you love. Choose colors that are reflected in your surroundings at home – in your curtains or bed coverings, cushions, furniture, or even works of art. Take pictures of the colors you love in things you have at home, and take them to the paint store, where you can match them to paint samples. A paper sample strip contains five or six shades, so look for three different color options and you’ll have 15 to 18 colors to choose from for your new color palette. 

Think About How You’ll Use the Room

According to the field of color psychology, color can drastically affect your mood and feelings. In general, warm colors are stimulating while cool colors are soothing. Consider how you want to use a room and how you want to feel (or how you want your guests to feel) while you’re using it.

For example, for a bedroom, you want a cool, relaxing color like blue, green, or violet, so you can feel calm and peaceful in the room. The same probably goes for a bathroom, a home office, or any other space that you intend to use alone.

On the other hand, for a room where you’ll be entertaining guests, choose a stimulating, warm color like yellow, red, or orange. Warmer colors energize and stimulate the brain and can make people more convivial and social. 

Choose Finishes Creatively

It isn’t just the color of your paint that’s important, but the finish, too. Traditionally, stain finish has been used on walls because it’s easy to keep clean and forgiving of blemishes. Semi- and high-gloss finishes have been thought best reserved for molding and other trim. 

But today’s flat finishes are scrubbable, too, and more stain-resistant than ever – and many decorators are using different finishes to create different visual effects in a room. For example, you could paint one wall in a semi-gloss finish and the wall next to it in a satin finish in that same color. When the light hits them, it will create an interesting textural effect.

Sample Colors Before You Commit

The most important thing you can do when choosing paint colors is to sample them carefully. A color might look fine on a sample strip, but hideous on your walls. Warm colors, or cool colors with warm undertones, can look dingy on walls that don’t get natural light, for example. Flooring, furnishings, artificial and natural light, and architectural elements can all affect the way paint looks in your room.

If you have it narrowed down to one or two choices, you can get samples and paint them onto your walls in areas four foot square, so you can put the colors through their paces. If you have too many colors to sample directly on the walls – or simply aren’t ready to commit to painting your walls – paint some foam core boards with your color choices instead. You can hang them up or prop them on furniture to get an idea of how those colors will look on the walls.

Finding paint colors that you love and can live with isn’t always easy. Take inspiration from the things already in your house, and you’ll soon be able to settle on a color palette that will make your home feel as dynamic and exciting as you are.