Choosing Interior Paint Colors

This page is about choosing interior paint colors that get two jobs done: to make you feel great, and to make your home look its personal best.

It's a systematic way to create interior paint color combinations that work.   Four steps are all it takes!

I've always been a bit envious of people who find choosing interior paint colors a doddle.   Like my classmate in Design School, who put the most sensational color combinations together and then said, "I don't think ... I just do it."

But you & I can be successful with interior paint colors, too.  Here's how:

Interior Paint Color Combinations, Step 1:
Discover Your Own Color Preferences

Pretty much everyone has favorite colors. Colors we choose over others, colors we gravitate towards, sometimes without really knowing why. Which are yours?  And what do you like most about them?
Do they ...

• energize you?
• put you in a happy mood?
• make you feel secure?
• make you feel calm and serene?
• remind you of good things?
• make you hungry?
• make you smile?
• lift your spirits?
• focus and clear your mind?
• help you relax?

When you're choosing interior paint colors, the feelgood factor should be your top priority.

Color psychology has found out a lot about the effects of color on people, but your personal responses to a color may be quite different from someone else's. And it's your home and well-being after all!

Here are some ways to test your own responses to different interior paint colors and color combinations:

1. Look through interior design magazines, or any magazines for that matter - cut out & collect any ideas for interior paint color combinations that appeal to you.  You could start your own folder, mood board, or 'look book' for inspiring pictures and swatches.

2. Whenever you are in a room, notice how you feel there, and also notice the dominant interior paint colors in that room.  Ask yourself: do these colors have anything to do with the way I feel when I'm here?

3. Take a week, or a month, and allow colors to 'choose you'. Notice it when a color attracts you or 'speaks' to you (anywhere - on a dress, a car, a flower, a shopping bag, a book cover...)

If possible, take a photo or swatch of that color, and add it to your collection of ideas for interior paint colors.

You will find that once you turn your attention to it, your 'color sense' sharpens considerably. You could also talk to friends whose color savvy you admire, and ask them how they 'do' color. They might show you ways of choosing interior paint colors that you haven't come across anywhere else.

Choosing Interior Paint Colors, Step 2:
Take Stock of the Colors in the Room

List all the colors in the room that you think you'll keep.

Even if you're not stuck with the proverbial avocado bathroom suite, there are still many things in a room that will impact its color scheme.

Here's a list of things to look for before settling on interior paint color combinations:

• what you see from the windows
• what you see before you enter the room, or when the door is open
• furniture (natural, stained, painted, upholstered)
• flooring/carpet(s)
• hardware (appliances, door/drawer knobs, curtain rods)
• door(s)
• tiles
• interior stone/brick surfaces
• grouting
• curtains, cushions, throws - anything made of fabric
• anything on display, e.g. books and pictures.

In the room pictured here, you could decide to keep the beautiful wooden floor on view, and not to hang any curtains.

You could maybe even plant gorgeous flowers outside the window to inspire interior paint color ideas.

Some of the items on your list can be exchanged easily if they don't fit in with your final interior paint color scheme.

Furniture could be painted or (slip)covered. A large carpet can cover the flooring.

At the end of the day, whatever you decide to keep on view will be part of your room color scheme.

Choosing Interior Paint Colors, Step 3:
Decide What's Best For The Room

Before you go choosing interior paint colors, ask yourself the following questions:

1. How are you going to use the room? What will you be doing here, and how much time will you spend here every day?  Can you think of interior paint colors for this room that would put you in the right mood while you're here?

2. How bright is the room? If it's north facing, or doesn't get much natural light, you can warm and brighten it up with wall color (refer to the color wheel chart for ideas). If it's a sunny, 'warm' room, you could tone it down with cool or neutral colors.

3. How large is the room? This will influence whether you use lighter or darker shades of a color. Darker shades, and some warm shades, have a tendency to make a room look smaller. However, you could experiment with deep jewel colors to create a really special, 'bijou' kind of room.

Choosing Interior Paint Colors, Step 4:
Combine What You Love With What The Room Needs

You now have ...

• a clear idea of the colors you like best,
• a list of colors that are already part of the color scheme,
• a mental shortlist of the most appropriate interior paint colors for the room.

It's time to experiment a little. Does any color suggest itself as a starting point for a color scheme?

Maybe ...

• the lake you can see from the window (lucky you!)
• a picture
• a beautiful quilt
• a carpet or rug
• a bowl on the table
• a fireplace surround
• a sofa or cushion

If your room is empty at this point, you could snoop around in interesting places and get some ideas for choosing interior paint colors from there. (Check out this page about finding unusual color ideas).

As an example of a starting point for a decorating color scheme, let's look at this picture for a moment. It's a close-up of an antique garment from Rajasthan (India). We've mounted and framed it, and it hangs on a buttery-yellow wall in the hallway.

If you took it as a starting point for a color scheme, you might come up with something like this:

Of course, there are many ways of choosing interior paint color combinations. Accessories are great because they are often colorful enough to inspire interior paint colors and color schemes.

If you're not quite sure yet which colors will work best for your purposes, consider creating a mood board first.

It will help you whittle down and focus your ideas.

Once you know what you really love and want, good ideas for interior paint color combinations will leap out at you.

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