Choosing Interior Paint Colors

You’re looking for interior paint colors that get two jobs done: to make you feel great, and to make your home look its personal best.


Millions of shades to choose from – how do you find the perfect interior paint color combinations for your home?

Some of my fellow students in design school had an amazing gift for color combinations. They didn't even have to think about it - they would just grab a few colors and throw them together, and it always looked fantastic.

If you’re one of these people – Wow! Congratulations! Skip this chapter. (No … wait … don’t go! Tell us your secret!

Until you do, I'll maintain (for 'the rest of us') that ...

"... everyone can learn to create
interior paint color combinations that work!"

If you think interior decorating with paint color isn't your most obvious talent, you'll do beautifully with the following, slightly more systematic approach.

Here’s how. Four basic steps:

1. Set Your Own Color Preferences

Now – pretty much everyone has favorite colors. 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 spirit?


• focus and clear your mind?


• help you relax?

• Look through interior design magazines, or any magazines for that matter - cut out & collect any ideas for home decorating with color that appeal to you. You could start your own folder, mood board, or ‘look book’ for inspiring pictures and swatches.


• 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?


• 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 provide you with ideas for home decorating with color that you haven’t come across anywhere else.

2. Take Stock of the Colors in the Room

Even if you’re not stuck with the proverbial avocado bathroom suite (gosh, I do hope you aren’t, unless you really love that color!), there are still many things in a room that will impact its color scheme. Here’s a list of

things to look for before choosing paint color:

• what you see from the windows


• what you see before you enter the
  room, or when the door is open


• furniture (natural, stained or painted)


• 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 the room color scheme.

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. But whatever you decide to keep on view will be part of your room color scheme.

3. Decide What's Best for the Room

• How are you going to use the room? What will you be doing here, and how much time will you spend here every day? Which colors would put you in the right mood while you’re here?


• 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.


• 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.

4. Combine What You Love
with 'What Would Work Best'

• 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

Let's take this picture as an example. 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 to apply a color scheme in a room. (An article on Playing with Room Color Schemes is underway!)


Accessories are always great for inspiring 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, the right interior paint colors will leap out at you.

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