3 Tips on Choosing the Right Paint Color

3 Tips on Choosing the Right Paint Color for Your Space (Plus Bonus Tips!)

In a home, few things are scarier — and more fun — than a blank wall.

There are plenty of ways to address it, but if you’re here, you’ve probably decided on painting. Good for you! That’s the first decision down. But, uh oh, now it gets harder. You have to make an even more important choice: what color? What color? There are literally infinite options! How could you possibly be expected to choose the right paint color for your space?

Any aesthetic choice is going to be highly subjective, so we can’t guarantee the perfect solution. What we can do is hopefully help you choose the best paint color for you. So here we go with some tips to make your life a little easier.

 

Tip 1: Start with your favorite color(s).

First, a disclaimer: Picking your favorite color and putting it on your wall may not give you the desired result. Love to wear purple? Purple sweaters, purple shoes, purple jewelry… Purple all day, every day? Slap some purple up there and you’re set, right? Well, maybe. Choosing a color for your clothes is not the same as your car or your hair or your furniture — or your walls.

That said your favorite color could be a good place to start. Maybe don’t go hard with an eggplant purple for your whole living room. A pastel lavender or stormcloud gray could get you that purple fix without blasting your retinas to the back of your head. Substitute a cornflower blue for your electric blue, a jade for your Nickelodeon slime green, or a mellow yellow for your sunshine explosion.

 

Tip 2: Consider your favorite aesthetic.

 It’s possible your favorite color didn’t quite get you there. Maybe you don’t even have a favorite color. Or you have a favorite look you’re going for instead. You love the stark contrasts of an art gallery. Maybe you want the cozy, down-home look of the farmhouse you grew up in. You dream of a fairy tale cottage surrounded by all your favorite things. There are no hard rules to colors matching a particular aesthetic, but there are some guidelines you can consider. Do some research (read: a Google image search) and find what colors your favorite spaces tend to use. Here are some examples that might get you started:

• For an ultra-cozy Scandinavian hygge-type feel, consider natural tones — the sort of thing you’d find on a walk through the woods: stone gray, woody browns and beiges, and leaf greens. Even a nice sky blue could make an appearance here.
• Industrial or minimalist spaces unsurprisingly take the same approach to paint color as they do with decor in general. Sparse, strategic monochromes tend to be the favorites here: blacks, grays, whites, and cooler tones.
• The hint of nostalgia evoked by a farmhouse chic space is often characterized by rustic colors, those you might have seen back when small farm agriculture was still a viable career choice. Lean towards saturated colors (as in, they have lots of color) but not overly bright (avoid neons): pastels like lavender, periwinkle, or peach, for example. Bolder, darker options can include brick red, denim blue, or butter yellow.
• Maximalist or bohemian styles often feature brighter foundational colors, sticking with the “more is more” philosophy. You’ll often see deep, rich gem tones. Avoid anything ultra-neon, but think emerald, sapphire, ruby, and amethyst.

 

Tip 3: Match the room’s feel and function.

Not every room in the house serves the same needs. A color that works great in a fun, quirky bathroom could be too much for the I-don’t-want-to-scare-away-my-guests living room. Choosing the right paint color should reflect that purpose.

Would you prefer your bedroom to be a serene retreat in calm neutrals or a romantic boudoir steeped in passionate reds and purples? Should your office be a place for neon-colored creativity or an understated monochrome business area? Is your kitchen a freewheeling place colored in inspiring spice tones like paprika and aubergine or a utilitarian space you wish you never had to think about again in unassuming beige and cream? The answers to these questions can determine a great backdrop for a space that suits form and function.

 

Bonus Tips!

Choosing the right paint color isn’t a process that can be solved in a few simple pieces of advice. Your taste almost certainly won’t be exactly the same as a certain handsome, illustrious writer’s, for instance. But hopefully the above can set you on the right path. And because we’re very generous around here, we’ve included some bonus tips for your reading pleasure:

• If you’re looking for white, you almost always want some sort of off-white, like ivory or robin’s egg. True white isn’t neutral; it’s a noticeable, striking statement.
• If your space is somewhere unusual or serves a unique purpose like a beach house, a cabin in the woods, or a short-term rental à la VRBO, etc., you’ll have specific needs to consider, but also the freedom to go all out with a theme. Sea shells and sailboats, anyone? If that’s your sort of thing, get a little crazy!
• The amount or type of light in your space can make your paint color look and feel very different! Unless you’re feeling extremely confident, be sure to put samples on the actual walls you plan to paint before you commit. Remember that lighting changes throughout the day, and so will the way you perceive colors.
• Taking pictures on your phone won’t give you the true color of the space. Don’t be tempted to take a pic of the rug you’re using for inspiration and perfectly match the photo. Even with your billion-megapixel camera, the colors are almost guaranteed to be skewed.

 

And there you have it!

Choosing the right paint color can be enough to make you want to knock the house down and build the whole thing out of glass. That’s probably not a good idea. (What would the neighbors think?) But with a couple of ideas, a few tips, and a bit of courage, you’re ready to grab the color you love, slather it around your space, and relax.

 

Woosah.