Choosing The Right Paint Colors

Choosing the right paint colors for your room can be tricky. Paint swatches should come with a warning label. ”Warning: You can become light headed and quickly overwhelmed if you don’t know what you are doing.” Thank goodness there are color experts, like me out there who can talk you down from that color crazy ledge that you are hanging from. Okay, I get it, there are some of you out there that are DIY-ers so even though your head is spinning, you want to take on the brave challenge of choosing a paint color yourself. Well, I at the very least, have the responsibility as a professional designer, to share my knowledge with you regarding paint color and how lighting effects it.

There are many steps that need to be taken into consideration before you even start to look at a paint swatch. Even trickier is choosing the right paint color for a dark room. Here are a few helpful hints that will make the process easier for you.

Lighting

1. Both natural and artificial light need to be taken into consideration in determining the max amount of light in a room.

HGTV

Observe how much natural light your room receives over the course of an entire day. The lack of natural light can cast shadows and drastically affect the appearance of painted walls, thus using dark tones in these rooms can mean trouble.

Next, turn on all the lights in your room and determine the maximum amount of both artificial and natural light combined in the room. If it receives natural light, do this step both during the day and at night because it can change dramatically. If your room receives no natural light doing this once will sufficient. Once you’ve determine both types of light, rate the amount of shadow present.

Wall Coverage

Houzz

2. The more wall space obstructed by decor, furniture, cabinetry, or wall features the more flexibility you have in picking a wall color for dark spaces. Is your bathroom wall mostly covered in tile or your living room wall mostly built-ins? It is important to take into consideration how much wall will be covered with obstructions because that can give you a bit more flexibility in choosing colors.

Pinterest

It is also important to take into consideration the amount of furniture or decor that will be in front or covering the wall. If the amount of coverage is high, then your color options will be more varied. If you have a dark space with a lot of visible wall then the range of colors to choose from will be more limiting.

Houzz

3. The more saturated a room is with light the further down the palette row you can venture!

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Saturation

Take a peek at this example of color chips. If you notice, the colors in the top row look a lot brighter than those towards the bottom. That’s because the colors in the top row are the truest hues. This means that they lack the presence of black. You might also have noticed more and more black is present as you work your way to the bottom row where the neutrals reside. If your lighting in the space is poor your bottom rows will cast even more shadows and be even darker. However, if your lighting is good… knock your socks off!

4. A darker room will limit you to the top rows of palette (see below palette) as well as the bottom, brighter hues in each individual chip!

California Paints

According to California Paint, “if you found your room at maximum light is still cast in shadow in the 25-50% black range and your walls have little visible disruptions, you should keep to the top row with the truest hues. Let’s break it down to the 7 different tints of each hue. It’s a common misconception that light tints towards the top of the chip are appropriate for dark spaces. Unless it is a bright and clear white, you should avoid these tints and opt for the bold, lively colors towards the bottom.”

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The Perfect Shade

5. Using light tints, especially those with a presence of black such as Lemon Chiffon Pie or Sour Lemon will increase the intensity of shadows and make the room feel dimmer.

The hues towards the right are a perfect match for dark rooms. It will add warmth and stand out among the shadows.

I hope this blog was helpful in some way but just in case you are still dangling from that ledge with your head spinning 180 degrees… Contact me for a “Rent A Designer’s Eye” color consultation in CT.

Until next time~ Happy decorating! Melanie Langford, All About Interiors