How to Choose Colors for Walls

Paint sample cards are available from decorating stores.

It can be difficult to choose colors for the walls of your room, primarily because there is so much choice. Your local home improvement store will stock hundreds of tonal variations of different paint colors, which can be confusing. Before you make your decision, take the time to consider a few different options, and bear in mind some practical points.

Things You'll Need

• Sample-sized tins of paint
• 1-foot-square canvas boards (optional)
• Color wheel

Instructions

1. Take into account the size of the room and how much natural light it gets when choosing the wall color. A light color in a small room will make it seem larger, while a dark color in a large room will stop it feeling too vast. Use a light color in a room that does not get much natural light, to make it feel brighter.

2. Focus on the effect you want to create in the room. Create drama or elegance with a rich, dark color. Make a room feel fresh and airy with a neutral color, such as white, cream or beige, or a pastel shade.

3. Test a few different colors before painting or wallpapering the entire walls. Purchase a small tin of each color and paint a swatch on a section of the wall near a window; this means you can look at it throughout the day and judge it in daylight as well as in the evening. Purchase 1-foot-square canvas boards if you do not want to paint several swatches on your walls; paint the canvas and move it around your room to view it in different degrees of light.

4. Use a color wheel to help you choose more than one color for your walls, or to match your wall color to another dominant color in the room (such as a carpet, curtains or sofa). Familiarize yourself with the color wheel; on one side are cool, blue-based colors and on the other are warm, yellow-based colors.

5. Remember that the opposite color of any color on the wheel is a complementary color, but these give a high contrast and are best suited to a child's bedroom or powder room. Colors next to each other on the wheel are related colors, which provide a monochromatic effect, but a very subtle contrast. Repeat the process of painting swatches on your wall or on canvas boards to judge how well colors from the wheel work in your room.

6. Ask a friend or family member for her opinion; it can help to get feedback from someone else.

Tips & Warnings

• White is the safe choice for a ceiling, as it makes it look higher and will match any wall color. If you don't want the brightness of white, however, simply add a few drops of your wall color to the white ceiling paint to give it a subtle tint.

References

• "Choosing Colours"; Kevin McCloud; 2007
• Color Matters: Color Theory