What is the Best Way to Pick a Paint Colour?
Deciding on what colours to paint your home (or your place of work) can be tricky – especially if you’d rather not choose a neutral for every room! However, choosing a paint colour can be tricky, because once it’s on the walls, it’s likely to stay there for a long while.
You want to get it right – and maybe you want to be a little daring, but you’re worried that you might make a mistake? Well, don’t worry because help is at hand with professional painting services, Paint Club.
In this useful article we’ll help you to choose the best colour for your interior – and remember, if you’re looking for a painting service in Toronto, we can also help advise on paint colours.
Think About Your Space and What You Need to Achieve
Look At the Room Sizes
Firstly though, if you do think you know the colours you want to use, have you thought about what you want to get out of your space? For example, small spaces usually work better with lighter colours, so they don’t feel “closed in”.
Dark walls in a small room can make it appear smaller. Likewise, rooms without any natural light benefit from pale colours to lighten them, but big, spacious rooms can lend themselves well to stronger colours as they are already generously sized.
Purpose And Use
Of course, it’s not just about the size of your space. You also need to think about what the room is going to be used for. As an example, a bedroom should feel restful and peaceful – so strong colours like reds or burn oranges won’t give you those feelings of serenity you’ll be looking for at the end of the day when you want to go to sleep.
Using Colours
Cosy living areas can work really well with warm, rich tones. We love jewel tones, such as sapphire blues, ruby reds and emerald greens for an inviting, comfortable space. Equally though, creams and golds can be just as alluring.
What about if you have a small home or an apartment? To open it up it may be better for you to choose one overall colour for your entire space, but just add accent colours to make each room different.
Silver greys are very popular at the moment, and they lend themselves well to accent colours such as purple, lilac, blue and even gold which you can introduce through accessories, cushions and soft furnishings.
Colour Creates Focal Points
If you love the idea of colour but you’re worried you might not get it right, how about choosing one focal wall to inject a pop of colour? This is a great idea for living areas, especially family rooms or children’s play areas.
You’re also less likely to make an error with one, colourful wall and it’s a great way of adding personality to a room – feature walls have been popular for a while and continue to be fashionable.
Choosing a Paint Colour
You might well have your heart set on a certain paint colour but before you make a firm decision, always get a selection of colour samples. While you may want a taupe for example, there are hundreds of different tones of taupe (and the same applies to every other colour!).
Go to your local paint store and select some different shades of the colours you think you want to use. At this point, it’s worth considering the type of paint too.
For example, if you have a young family or you’re painting a kitchen or bathroom, then durable paint is better as you can wipe it without removing any paint. It’s good for light stains and marks (and little handprints!).
Here are some handy hints when choosing paint colours:
Paint Store Visit
At the store, look at the colour family you like, for example, blues.Look at the darkest blue and decide if you could use it.
Move through the colour chart and decide on whether you could use it and then choose two or three of the shades from the family.
Always start with the darkest as if you start with the lightest shades, you’ll find they blend together when looking at them.
Walk Around Your Home
If you don’t know where to start, at home choose colours by looking at accessories in your home. Or from a favourite cushion, – any colour that you particularly love. Take the accessory with you to the paint store and find similar sample pots to that colour.
Consider Accent Colours
Ideally, when you choose your main paint colour you should consider accent colours to blend and work with it. If you want to keep the colour theme in multiple rooms, slight variations of your first colour will work nicely.
Use a couple of accent colours to connect rooms too – so you get good “flow” between different spaces in your home. Accents could be soft furnishings, artwork, accessories and even furniture.
Think Of Paint Finishes
Be careful to choose the right finish. Semi-gloss and high gloss aren’t good for walls, they’re fine for door panels or trims. Walls are best in flat finishes or satin finishes.
Pick Paint Colours
Do match your colours to the atmosphere you want to create because colours create an emotional response.
So, cool colours like blues, greens and whites are nice and restful whereas bold colours like red and yellow are energetic. Social rooms are good for warm and bold colours whereas bathrooms, bedrooms and home offices benefit from cool, calming colours.
What About White?
Pure white is quite clinical and luckily there are lots of different whites to choose from with tints. White is good for ceilings, but you can still use white throughout your home, although we would suggest finding a warm white with a pink or brown undertone.
Warm whites are good for rooms without much natural light, and they make large spaces feel cosy. Cool whites are good for small spaces to make them appear bigger.
Final Words
We hope the above information helps you when picking colours to paint your interior space. For further information on our painting service in GTA, contact the Toronto residential painting experts.
As Toronto interior painters, we can even advise you on the best colours to use for your residential painting project or commercial painting project in Toronto.
