The Right Way To Choose A Paint Color

Paint is an incredible thing.

It can literally transform a room and take it from outdated to fresh in one day!

When it is right, paint tells a beautiful color story. Look at the plaster white colored walls above.

The dark charcoal french doors and the hallway door yet another beautiful shade of gray. Love!

Before and After:

I love this photo above from Instagram photographer, Kassandra Zobrist.

It shows a how a room can be truly updated with a change in wall paint color.

Notice, they also refinished the wood floors. The new soft brown color works well with the light gray walls.

The previous honey colored floors would have not worked very well with the new wall color, in my opinion.

One of my favorite past times is looking at paint swatches and studying them.

I am a paint color geek!

As you might know, undertones are a big part in determining which color will work best in a room.

Also the source of natural light or even artificial light can have an affect on how the color appears once it is up.

I have heard of some brave people who are “risky – paint – color – pickers”.

They pick up a few swatches at the paint store, maybe a color they saw in a show house or heard of from someone.

They look at a teeny tiny swatch at home and decide it seems ok.

Then they paint the entire room. I would bet about an 90% failure rate with this method. Maybe higher?

Okay, this is a very nice warm gray. The search for the perfect gray paint color. That’s a whole blog post in itself.

Here is the thing, when I am looking for a paint color, I want it to transform the room.

I want it to be AMAZE BALLS!

There is only one way to do this.

Research, research, research!

Then make test boards!

This is a shot of my garage one night last week, making test boards for a client!

SO exciting to see the colors in action on large pieces of poster board.

Then we met at the house and decided which ones to use. I did quite a bit of research before we purchased the test cans of paint.

Maybe the idea of researching color undertones, considering adjoining room colors, LRV value and lighting is not your thing?

Maybe the idea of making up paint test boards seems like a waste of your precious time?

No worries! I can help you with this. Contact me to get started on picking your new paint colors!