Hi All,

Here are some great tips for choosing paint colors for your home.

1) Choose colors that blend not only with your furniture, but also with your flooring and style of decor’

2) Choose an accent color…something that will bring out the beauty of the things you are furnishing your home with, not just your favorite color.  For instance…say you have a beautiful Persian rug under your dining room table…choose a wall color that is a color that has been incorporated into that rug, not the main color of the rug.

3) Pick swatches up and hold them up in different areas of the house with and without natural light (if available) in the dark and under incandescent and/or flourescent lighting (depending on what is in the space).  Light changes color’s appearance and every home makes colors look a little different because of the way the light casts in that particular home.  If you like the way the swatches look, now go get a half pint of the color (they are like $4.00) and paint areas in that room that you want to see how the color will look…let it dry and then decide if you want to paint the whole room that color.  Make sure to paint a large enough section so that you can get an idea of how it will look in your space, but not so big that it will be difficult to paint over.

4) Remember…colors lighten up when you spread them across a larger space…so a color that looks dark on a small space may not look as dark once you paint the entire wall.  Additionally, if that color sample has been painted on a very light wall, then it up against that light color will be perceived as much darker than it actually is, so keep that in mind.

5) Choose a paint that has great coverage so that you don’t have to put on 3 or 4 coats.  Don’t just get the stuff that is the cheapest.  If you get the cheaper stuff but have to use 2 gallons as opposed to one, you have spent the same or more money, but it has taken you more time.  Benjamin Moore is the best, but I recently used Behr Premium Plus ULTRA and it is wonderful!  It is Paint and Primer in one and it is about $30 cheaper per can than Benjamin Moore.  This stuff only needs one coat over a light color and possibly two over a darker existing color.

6) Take your time…if you are not sure about the color, DO NOT paint the whole room just yet.  Sleep on it…get some other opinions…let it sit for a few days…you do not want to paint the whole room and hate it and then have to do it all over again.

7) Get a professional painter for large rooms with high ceilings or for 2-story stair wells…don’t kill yourself…get a professional to do the work, they have the tools and experience necessary to do it right and not hurt themselves in the meantime.  Save the small (bedrooms, bathrooms, etc) for the DIY job.

Here are some links to more great tips and tricks:

http://interiordec.about.com/od/interiorpainting/a/a_paintingtips.htm

http://www.doityourself.com/scat/paintandsupplies

Happy Wednesday!