How to Choose the Perfect Paint Colours for Every Room in Your Home

Selecting the ideal paint colours for your home can seem like an overwhelming task. However, with some basic colour theory, tips on coordination, lighting considerations, and testing, you can choose a colour scheme that enhances the beauty of every room.

Understand the Basics of Colour Schemes

Understanding colour schemes starts with the colour wheel. The colour wheel displays the primary, secondary, and tertiary colours and shows how they relate to one another.

The Colour Wheel

The primary colours are red, blue, and yellow. They are the building blocks for all other colours. Secondary colours are created by mixing two primary colours, giving us orange, green, and purple. Tertiary colours are made by blending primary and secondary shades.

Using the colour wheel helps select paint colours that work together in harmony. Complementary colours that sit opposite each other provide striking contrast. Analogous schemes use adjacent colours for cohesive, blended palettes.

Warm vs. Cool Colours

Beyond specific hues, colours also differ in temperature. Warm colours like red, orange, and yellow remind us of things like fire and sunlight. Cool colours make us think of water, skies, and forests with blues, greens, and purples.

Warm paint colours tend to energise a space, making it lively and cosy. Cool shades relax rooms with a serene, laid-back vibe. Using warming colours in south-facing rooms can intensify stuffy heat, however, so northern exposures often suit cooler palettes best.

Create a Colour Scheme Matching Your Furniture

When selecting a colour scheme, an excellent place to start is with existing furniture or decorative elements.

Choosing Your Foundation Colours

Carefully examine any furnishings, art, rugs, and other prominent items you want the paint colours to complement. Identify three dominating hues. These will become your foundation for the room's palette.

For example, your living room may feature a navy blue sofa, terracotta lamps, and dark wood shelves. From these, you extract blue, earth red/orange, and brown as your jumping-off point.

Coordinating With Existing Décor

With your three core colours chosen, use the colour wheel to select coordinating shades. Locate the three hues, then moving clockwise around the wheel, identify adjacent colours within the same colour family.

Expanding our previous example, the blue sofa suggests coordinating with other blues like airy sky blue. The terracotta shade points to testing darker reds and burnt orange. The brown shelves work with creams, greys, and charcoal. Testing paint swatches matching your key furniture pieces ensures visual harmony.

Consider The Room's Function and Lighting

While coordinating with furnishings is crucial, also consider the room's purpose and lighting conditions when selecting palette possibilities.

Colour and Room Function

Think about the atmosphere you want for the space when painting. Bold reds and oranges promote lively interactions in dining rooms. Cool green and blues aid relaxation in bedrooms. Soft peach or buttercream suit a cheerful, welcoming kitchen. Select colours aligning with each room's functional and emotional goals.

Impact of Natural and Artificial Lighting

The room's lighting is another critical factor affecting colour perception. Northern light often appears bluish, intensifying cool paint tones. Southern exposures warm up hues. Artificial lighting also impacts colour—incandescent bulbs warm tones, while LEDs drain and cool them.

Paint several swatches and view them at all times of day. Artificial lighting tests are also wise to see how electrical sources impact the shades.

The Importance of Primer

Primer creates a uniform surface allowing truer colour representation. It also improves paint adhesion across varied wall textures and seals the surface to prevent absorption and bleeding. Applying quality primer is time well invested before testing colour swatches. Use separate primer and paint test patches to judge most accurately.

Test The Colours

With primer applied, you're ready to experiment with test patches.

Paint each swatch generously, at least 2 feet square, labelled discreetly on the back with the colour name/code. Evaluate in daylight and at night under lighting you typically use. View colours on all walls and next to any coordinating soft furnishings.

Live with the tested colours for 48 hours at a minimum. You might be surprised how much perception shifts across times of day and lighting situations. Revisit your initial reactions after a couple of days before making final selections.

Achieving Balance and Harmony

With your favourite test swatches chosen, think about balance and harmony across the whole room palette.

Balancing Bold and Neutral Colours

The boldest shades often work best for accents, balancing with neutral walls serving as a backdrop. If you fall for a vibrant paint colour, apply it sparingly to a single focal wall or on accent furniture to provide a punch of saturated colour.

Complementary Colours and Accents

Refer back to the colour wheel when making final paint choices. Complementary accent pieces provide pleasing contrast against neutrals. For example, in a tan and cream bedroom, blue decorative cushions or lamp bases pop alluringly.

Harmony ties a well-balanced palette together. Remember, colours can appear substantially different on a 1” swatch compared to entire walls. Don’t overwhelm the space with overly strong, competing colours.

Conclusion

Choosing paint colours for your home presents abundant exciting possibilities but also poses potential pitfalls. With some basic colour theory grounding and tips on lighting, room functions, existing elements tying schemes together, primer importance, and thoughtful selection techniques, you can confidently pick palettes taking each space from mundane to magnificent.

Start by coordinating with your existing furnishings. Use the colour wheel to expand harmonious options leaning warm or cool as needed. Think about the mood you want to achieve in bedrooms, living spaces, kitchens, and more when testing shades. Carefully observe swatches at varied times and under different light sources. Allow adequate drying and viewing times for informed colour perceptions when finalising accent and background colour combinations.

Balancing bold focal shades with sufficient neutral backdrops prevents overwhelming rooms with competing intensity. Remember to use primer first for an even, consistent surface.

For those feeling overwhelmed by endless colour possibilities, professional painting services provide skilled guidance combining colours creatively and applying them perfectly. Contact us to transform any room with colour done right. Our expertise takes the guesswork and hard work out of achieving colour confidence.

Additional Tips

Consider Colour Intensity and Saturation

The depth of colour also affects mood and harmony. Deeper tones feel cosy and enveloping, while paler shades remain airy. High intensity paint can be overwhelming. Modify intensity across rooms and balance richly saturated accents with lighter backdrops.

Use Colour Psychology

Master colorists skillfully apply psychological colour impacts. Blue bedrooms remain serene, yellow kitchens cheery. Green office spaces enhance productivity; red dining rooms energy and interaction. Do some research to wield colour power beneficially.

Draw Inspiration

With limitless paint possibilities, inspiration helps narrow suitable shades. Comb visually appealing online images and colour trend resources. Consult professional painters on combinations for your space and lifestyle. Reference favourite colour schemes discovered in your travels for personally meaningful palettes.

Professional Painting and Decorating Services

Benefits of Hiring Professionals

From preparing surfaces correctly to creatively combining colours, professional painters apply specialised skills and knowledge for superior outcomes. They use high-quality tools and products for a polished finish not achievable by amateurs. Workers take safety precautions and efficiently handle the heavy lifting of furniture and extensive material transport.

Services Tailored to Your Vision

Reputable painting companies work consultatively to understand your personal tastes, lifestyle needs, and colour goals. Painters help you navigate considerations around lighting, room functions, colour psychology, and suitable shades for architectural style and existing elements. Teams expertly execute a well-orchestrated colour vision.

Contact Us Today

Give your home a stunning colour makeover by contacting our professional painting service today. Our colour experts help identify gorgeous, harmonious colour combinations for a custom look. We handle all prep work and efficiently apply primer and paint for flawless, lasting results you'll enjoy for years. Call for a free quote!