Paint is one of the cheapest and easiest ways to transform your home. Even so, painting a room takes a lot of work and isn’t something you’ll want to redo immediately, making it important to get it right the first time.
While most people see a shade they love and choose it without much thought, this can be a big mistake. Picking the best wall color has much more than finding a paint swatch you like. Instead, consider how the color will impact the rest of the room.
Your Flooring and Trim Colors Have a Huge Impact on the Way a Wall Color Will Look
Have you ever fallen in love with a paint color that didn’t look right when you added it to your home? The problem lies with the surrounding elements, such as your flooring, trim, and furniture.
Colors work together or against each other. For example, if your hardwood floors have an orangish hue, painting your walls blue will make them look even more orange, while a tan shade can neutralize them.
You can still paint your home in your favorite colors, but you’ll need to understand color theory and undertones to achieve the look you want.
Color Theory Can Help You Pick the Right Wall Color
Color theory explains how colors work together. This idea utilizes a color wheel and basic principles, which can help you understand how different colors in a room will affect each other.
You can use color theory to create a color scheme for the room you’re decorating or for your home. There are several color schemes to choose from:
Complementary color scheme: Complementary colors are on the opposite sides of the color wheel. Using complementary colors will make each shade pop, as in the example of orange floors and blue walls.
Analogous color schemes: Analogous colors are next to each other on the color wheel. Using an analogous color scheme creates a calming effect and can help neutralize colors you don’t like. (Like orange floors, for example.)
Monochromatic color schemes: These schemes involve using varying shades of one color. An example common in interior design is rooms with gray floors, walls, and furniture.
Triadic color scheme: If you like bold contrast and fun design, the triadic color scheme is a good choice. It involves choosing three colors that are evenly spaced on the color wheel.
Now, Consider the Paint’s Undertones
By keeping other elements in your room in mind, like your flooring, which greatly impacts your space, you can choose a color scheme to get the look you’re after. This doesn’t mean you can’t use whatever color you have your heart set on, but you need to consider undertones.
Paint undertones are the underlying colors that make them either cool or warm. For example, a shade of white might have a blue or yellow undertone, making it look either bright or warm.
If you’re after a complementary color scheme with orange floors, you can choose blue paint or any shade with a blue undertone. For a neutral look, you can choose white or gray with blue undertones, or for a contrasted look, you could opt for navy blue.
If you’re after an analogous color scheme, your paint shade should have undertones similar to your floor color. So, if you have warm-toned hardwood floors, choose a warm-tone white or greige with orange, yellow, or red undertones.
Other Helpful Tips for Choosing the Right Shade of Paint
Color theory and undertones are just two principles that will help you make the right color choice the first time around.
Find Lots of Inspo Pics
Rather than visiting a paint store and looking through swatches, browse Instagram and Pinterest and make a list of all of your inspiration rooms. Once you have at least 20 rooms picked out, evaluate each room’s color schemes and see if there are repeating patterns and colors.
Get Paint Samples
Paint on a swatch looks much different than paint on the wall. Narrow down 3-4 or paint color options and get samples of each before committing to one.
Test the Paint Color in Different Light
With paint samples in hand, paint areas in different lighting conditions around the room. Then, you can evaluate how each looks in your home and make a final decision.
