How to Choose Paint Colors
Things to Keep in Mind When Choosing Paint Colors
Climate
The climate of where you live can influence the paint colors you choose for a room. In warmer climates, lighter and cooler hues like blues and greens can create a refreshing and airy atmosphere. Conversely, in colder climates, warmer tones like reds, oranges, and yellows can make a space feel cozier and more inviting.
Orientation of Your Windows
The orientation of your windows and the amount of natural light entering a room can greatly influence your choice in paint colors. Rooms with northern exposure tend to have cooler, bluer light, making warmer tones like oranges, reds, and yellows a good choice for balancing the cool tones. Rooms with southern exposure receive more warm, golden light, so cooler shades of blue, green, and gray can help create a sense of balance.
Color Psychology
Color psychology can also play a significant role in choosing paint colors for different rooms. Cooler hues like blues and greens are often recommended for spaces that require concentration and productivity, such as home offices or studies. Warmer tones like reds and oranges can stimulate energy and are better suited for active spaces like kitchens or playrooms. Additionally, the number of people using the room and its activity level should be considered, as busier areas may benefit from more energetic colors, while calmer spaces can incorporate softer, more soothing shades.
Lighting
The type of lighting in a room, whether natural or artificial, can greatly impact how paint colors appear. Exterior or natural lighting can make colors appear brighter and more vibrant, while interior artificial lighting can mute or dull certain hues. It’s important to consider the amount and source of light when selecting paint colors to ensure they achieve the desired effect and don’t appear too washed out or overpowering.
Room Size
The size of a room should be a key consideration when selecting paint colors. Smaller rooms tend to feel more spacious and airy when painted in lighter, cooler shades, while larger rooms can handle richer, darker hues without feeling overwhelming or cramped. Additionally, using the same color family but varying the shades based on room size can create a cohesive, flowing look throughout a home.
Room-to-Room Flow
Room to room flow is an important factor to consider when choosing paint colors for a cohesive and harmonious living space. Colors should transition smoothly from one room to the next, either by using different shades of the same hue or complementary colors from the same color family. This creates a sense of continuity and prevents jarring visual contrasts as you move through the space.
Basic Rules for How to Pick Paint Colors
Research Paint Colors
When researching paint colors for a space, it’s best to gather large sample swatches and observe how the colors look in that specific room throughout different times of day. The lighting conditions can significantly affect how a color appears.
Test Before You Choose Wall Colors
Additionally, it’s important to visualize how the color will look before committing to a paint, but before painting samples on walls, try our color visualization tool to see how the color looks on a larger scale!
View Transcript
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| Intro | Hi, I'm Noelle Parks, interior designer, and welcome to Dunn-Edwards Paints's "How to Paint" video series. Choosing paint colors for your home can be quite a challenge. While you may feel overwhelmed with so many color choices that you don't even know where to begin, starting with some basic color concepts will help you find the right color. |
| What This Video Covers | In this video, we'll share tips for selecting the perfect color that's right for you and your space. First, let's take a look at the psychology of color and how you can use it to make color selection easier. |
| Warm Tones | When looking at a color palette, there are warm tones and cool tones throughout the palette. Warm and cool tones evoke certain moods in a room that are good basic rules to consider when choosing color. Warm tones include reds, oranges, and yellows. These colors are energetic, playful, and full of action and life. Red, the hottest of the warm tones, is the most passionate of all colors. Orange is a conversation color. It's used a lot in kitchens and dining areas. Yellow, a bright and cheerful color, can liven up the dullest room. |
| Cool Tones | Now, cool tones are the opposite of warm tones. These colors inspire relaxation and meditation. They include greens, blues, indigos, and violets. Green, the color of nature, is a calming, cool color great for bedrooms and baths. Blue, my favorite color and the color of the ocean, brings out thoughts of spas and calming places. Purple and indigo are more spiritual and thoughtful. These hues are great for meditation rooms. |
| Whites, Blacks, and Browns | White represents purity, peace, and intellect. These in proportion to other elements in the room, it's great for office spaces and areas where you need to think. Blacks and browns are grounding colors. These colors are used in various shades throughout the home. |
| Consider the Function of the Room | Now, let's look at the function of the room when choosing color. Most homes have the basic rooms we are all used to, like living rooms or family rooms, dining rooms and kitchens, or bedrooms and bathrooms. And some larger homes have offices. A number of concepts apply to color selection for many different reasons. |
| Climate and Window Orientation | Your decision to work to a color palette dominated by warm, cool, or neutral tones can be influenced by several factors. For example, the climate where you live-- warm colors are generally more acceptable in cold climates and cooler colors in warmer regions. Also, the orientation of your windows-- a south-facing orientation will suggest a cool to neutral color preference, while a northern orientation suggests the use of a warmer color. |
| Activity Level | Activity is another factor. Warmer colors tend to favor activity and stimulation, while neutral and cooler colors favor calm and contemplation. These effects increase in proportion to the intensity of the color used. |
| Individual Preference | Individual preference is another important influence, too. Rooms used by one person will most likely show that person's particular taste, while rooms used by several people need to meet the needs of a variety of preferences. So many people may stay away from intense colors in these rooms. Remember, these are general tips, not hard and fast rules to live by. Have fun choosing color and go with your instincts. |
| Rule 1: Do Your Research | Now, consider some of these basic rules to start confidently building your color palette. Rule number one, do your research. Look at magazines, pull paint swatches, and match the colors for all the existing pieces in your home, from your artwork, rugs, sofas, fabrics, and drapery. You'll want to determine what features are already in your room that you would consider permanent. For example, look at the floors, cabinets, tile, window treatments, and any large pieces of furniture. Note the main colors that exist in these features and use them as a guide. |
| Try the Explore the Perfect Palette Tool | Dunn-Edwards also offers an online color tool called Explore the Perfect Palette, which allows you to create and save your favorite color schemes. You could even apply colors to a photo of an interior to see how the color will look in an actual setting. And once you've selected your color, you can order color chips online. |
| Rule 2: Look at the Lighting in Your Room | Rule number two, look at the lighting in your room. Many times, in choosing the correct shade of color, lighting is a deciding factor. If a room gets little natural light, you may want to lighten up the room and paint it a light, cool color. If a room gets a lot of sun and you want to make the room more serene, consider painting it a deeper, richer color. |
| Rule 3: Don't Assume Colors Will Look the Same | Rule number three, don't assume that the color on the paint chips will look the same on your walls. Also, don't assume that the color that you see in your friend's home will look the same in yours. You may have different lighting, flooring, furnishings, and also consider all the architectural details. |
| Rule 4: Test Your Paint Samples | Rule number four, be sure to test the paint samples. Live with the color on the wall before committing to a full room of the color. Visit your neighborhood Dunn-Edwards Paints store and select from hundreds of color chips that are in the color range that you want. Don't limit yourself to one or two, as they may look different once you take them home. Once you pare down your color choices, you'll want to select at least three to four colors in that same range to test the paint before you paint the entire room. |
| Use the Perfect Palette Sampler | So now, we're getting ready to paint this room. So I brought this little guy, the Dunn-Edwards eight-ounce Perfect Palette Sampler. It's the perfect amount that you need in order to see exactly how the colors you've selected will look before you begin painting. Each eight-ounce sample covers about a four-foot by four-foot area with two coats of paint. |
| Test and Live With Your Colors | Paint a two-foot by two-foot sample area of each color on your wall, be sure to use at least two coats of paint to ensure the best color, and then live with the color for a few days. See how it looks and feels at different times of day and at night. See how the lighting in your house and all the surrounding colors affect your color choices. Does one appeal to you more than another? |
| Get Inspired | Next step, get inspired. Inspiration is personal to each of us in our homes. It can come from anywhere, such as your art collections, draperies, a favorite area rug, or even magazines. Lastly, remember that color's fun. |
| Closing | To learn more about paint and painting, watch the other "How to Paint" videos on dunnedwards.com/videos. For Dunn-Edwards Paints, I'm Noelle Parks. Thanks for watching and happy painting. |