How to Choose Paint Colors for Your New House

Choosing paint colors can be both frustrating and challenging. Painting your house can transform the entire look of your house and really brighten things up. Follow these steps to learn how to choose paint colors for your new house.

Difficulty: Moderate

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Paint chips or swatches
• Paint samples
• Paint brush

Choosing Paint Colors For Your New House

1. Consider which room you will be painting and what the furniture in that room is like. Dark woods or large furniture may make a darkly painted room look much smaller. The key here is to work with what you have and pull colors from that.

2. Learn about the color choices. A background shade is very different from an accent shade. Painting the entire room with an accent color could leave you with colors that are too dark or too bright.

3. Visit your local home improvement and paint stores and browse the paint department. You will find paint chips, idea cards, brochures and even samples with which you can paint a small portion of your wall. On your first trip to the store, you should simply be window shopping. Grab paint chips in the colors that you like. Starting with the lightest color at the top and all the way down can give you trim colors, accent colors, ceiling colors and wall colors. Bring home some ideas and then you will buy on the next trip.

4. Live with your choices for a while. Tape a few different paint chips up on the wall in the room where you want to paint or purchase a sample to paint a small square on the wall. Once you have looked at it for a few days, one or two of the colors will really start to pop out at you. Likewise, take any colors down that you are just not liking from day one.

5. Finally, it is time to buy. Go to the store and buy the color that you have the strongest attraction and that you feel with work best with your new home. Buy trim colors in lighter shades and accent colors in darker shades.

Tips & Warnings

• If you are painting several rooms the same color you can save money by purchasing a 5 gallon bucket of paint rather than the 1 gallon buckets.
• If you are going to be doing a lot of painting, consider purchasing a reusable, washable tarp and better quality paint brushes. That way you will always have supplies on hand.
• Try not to just go into the store and purchase the paint on the first day. The key to successfully picking paint is try out the color for a few days. See if it matches everything else or will coordinate. Not all colors are the same. Some have blue tones and some have yellow tones.