How to Choose the Right Paint Color

Painting a room is a fast and economical way to change the look and feel of it. At times choosing the right paint color can feel impossible. There are many color choices and it may seem overwhelming, but asking yourself a couple of simple questions and following a few easy steps can make the process much easier.

1. Decide on the mood you want for the room. For example, you may want a bedroom to be relaxing and peaceful. You could also want an exciting, lively living room. Maybe you want a clean, simple space. Choose earth-tones or a cool palette for a calm and relaxing rooms. Colors like beige, light blues and greens. All will reduce stress and feel restful. Reds, oranges and bright purple are vibrant, energetic colors. They are great for rooms that are used for entertaining, or for rooms that you would like to be more dramatic. Painting a room white will make it seem clean and spacious and allow you to add versatile vibes through decor.


2. Visit your local home improvement store. Once you decide on the color palette for your room, choose swatches of colors that you like. Do not choose too many, narrow it down to less than ten.


3. Take the swatches home and hold them up next to your furniture to see how it looks. Leave them on a table in the room and look at them a few times during the day. Remove colors that you find you do not like as much as you thought you would.


4. Take the remaining swatches that are left and go back to the home improvement store to buy testers of these colors.


5. Paint small areas of the walls in the room you are painting with each of the tester colors. Paint them near each other so you will be able to compare. Once the paint dries, check it off and on throughout the day and evening. The paint will look different at different times of day due to the differing levels of sunlight, so it's important to check the paint color often.


6. Choose the paint color that was most appealing to you. This is the one that will have looked best in all levels of light and matches well with your furniture and decor.