How to Choose a Paint Color: 5 Tips for Picking an Interior Color

Warm neutral colors, secondary colors, accent colors—when decorating with color, there are a lot of factors that go into interior design color schemes. Before you break out the brushes and rollers for your bedroom walls, here are a few tips for helping you find the perfect color combo for your space:

1. 1. Look in your closet. Take a look at your closet for color inspiration: Do you have a clear favorite color? Do you have mostly warm colors or cool colors? Earth tones or vibrant colors? Neutrals with a pop of color? Light blue, teal, or soft blues? If you have a closet that has a mix of lots of different colors, take a few of the articles of clothing and put them in the room. Try draping clothes over a chair, for example, to see how the color feels in there.
2. 2. Think about how you want to change the space. House color is an incredibly powerful tool that not only affects a space’s mood but can completely change a space’s size and shape. For instance, if you use a richer color on two opposite walls, the room will feel narrower and more intimate. But if the opposite-facing walls are lighter and you use a dark color or darker shade at the far end as an accent wall, it actually makes even a small room feel wider. Off-white and white walls bring in the most light; darker walls make things seem cozy and closed. Look at your own home and photos of interior design and see what lighter and darker colors on different walls will do to a space—especially a small space.
3. 3. Keep it simple. Choosing wall paint doesn’t mean that every room in your house will be a different color—in fact, quite the opposite. Many interior designers and decorators will limit themselves to a small group of interior paint colors that evoke their desired vibe, and then they use those room colors throughout the house design. Not only does this help you avoid clashing colors, but it also gives the entire project a cohesive feel from room to room to make it feel like one unified whole. Cohesion also makes a small space feel larger.
4. 4. Don’t forget the finish. Not only does paint come in many different colors, it also comes in a number of finishes, and you’ll need to know which finish is the best paint for your project before you head to the paint store. There are five main types of paint finishes, categorized by their shininess—flat/matte, eggshell, satin, semi-gloss, and high-gloss. Each finish will affect how the paint looks in the specific colors you’re considering, so make sure to test out your paint in the appropriate finish to be sure what the final product will look like.
5. 5. Experiment. Before you commit to a specific color trend and buy several cans of paint, try out a color or two in the space to figure out what you like best. Hold paint swatches or paint chips up to the wall to see how they react with different lighting in your room (whether it’s artificial light or natural light) at specific times of the day. Better yet, get a few paint samples and paint squares on your wall to get the best feel for what the finished product will look like. Try a few bold colors, then a few light colors. Experiment with everything you can—blue walls, green paint colors, taupe, mauve—to see what really speaks to you.

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