Choosing a Paint Palette for your Home

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Embrace Your Inner Colour: Hints for Choosing the Perfect Paint Palette for Your Home

Using wall colour is one of the most exciting and impactful aspects of home decorating. With paint, you can create a mood and atmosphere that expresses your personality and makes your home uniquely yours. With a little planning, painting is an easy and economical way to periodically update your palettes and reflect current tastes.

“Colour plays an important role in how your home looks and how you feel in it,” says Charlie Chase, president and CEO of CertaPro Painters, North America’s largest residential painting company. “Whether you undertake the job yourself or you hire professionals, careful selection and use of colour can create a great sense of satisfaction without requiring a large investment.”

To get started, keep in mind that inspiration for colour can come from anywhere. An entire colour scheme can originate from a single item, such as a rug, and can be carried out in just one room or throughout a house.

White Isn’t Just White

Far from being bland, white can be warm and sensual, if used correctly. All-white interiors evoke a modern and sophisticated look, whereby shadows and textures take on a bigger role. You can choose from a variety of warm shades to effectively create the illusion of space and to avoid a cold, clinical atmosphere. White walls are the perfect scene-setter for colourful furnishings without making the room seem cluttered.

Don’t Forget the Ceiling

The clever use of colour can transform the most difficult of spaces. Dark shades “lower” the ceiling and lighter shades give a lofty feel. Painting a vibrant ceiling to match a favourite piece can pull a whole look together.

Pastels Create Serenity

Light colours, such as pastel yellow or lavender, allow a great deal of flexibility and help create an atmosphere that is bright and spacious. Pastels impart a feeling of tranquillity, which may be ideal for a bedroom or quiet area of the house. Colours on the blue end of the spectrum imbue a cool effect, while those tinged with red, orange, or yellow add warmth to a room.

Be Bold with Darker Colours

Painting with dark tones is a powerful design statement. Dark colours are ideal for creating a cosy atmosphere in a large, well-proportioned room. Painting one wall of a room or an alcove within a room in darker tones can be a useful technique for accentuating certain features or adding a sense of depth.

Mixing It Up

Combining colours is an easy way to add drama and dimension throughout your home. Warm colours work well together and tend to be lively and exotic. Cooler shades suggest a relaxed, calm atmosphere. The degree to which you achieve these effects depends on the intensity of the colour and whether you use them pure or mixed.

"Choosing a unifying colour palette helped make the large addition to our house feel as if it's always been a part of the original structure," says Michael Kluber, president of Kluber, Skahan and Associates, an architectural, engineering, and construction management firm, who selected CertaPro Painters to paint the interior and exterior of his house located 40 miles west of Chicago in Batavia, Ill. "Throughout much of the house, we used one light neutral that's very calming and in harmony with nature. The rest of the rooms use colours that complement it and one another so there's a sense of coherence, intimacy, and harmony at work as you go from room to room."

Room to Change

As you consider colour and its effect, take into account the room size, its functionality, and how often it’s used. For example, do you have a hectic living room with lots of activity in a small space? If so, too much strong colour may add to the confusion. Or perhaps, there’s a room that needs to serve more than one function throughout the day. If so, what colour serves both purposes?

In general, small rooms do best with light colours, which make surfaces blend into the background and become less conspicuous. If bright-toned colours are important to you, try incorporating rugs, pillows, and curtains as a way to introduce splashes of colour. If you do try strong colours, remember to limit your colour scheme to different shades of a single colour. You can use dark colours but avoid too many colour contrasts that can make objects feel as if they are coming at you. Alternatively, deep, rich colours that create the impression of advancing toward the viewer are a good choice for large spaces. A large room can withstand and even benefit from strong, pure colours.

In the end, whatever colour choice you go with, always buy a small amount of paint first and test the colour on the wall. Don’t be shy about taking a few risks with colour. If you end up with something you don’t love, keep in mind it’s relatively easy to fix.

Room-by-Room Colour Primer

Kitchen - Since most kitchens are often cluttered, choose a colour that is easy on the eye, bright, and fresh.

Living Room - The ideal colour scheme should reflect all the moods and atmosphere required of this multipurpose space. Neutrals work well, as does utilizing bright colour on one wall as an accent.

Bedroom - Painting a rich deep colour like deep green or scarlet can be flattering to most skin tones and can achieve a romantic feeling. If luxuriating under the covers in the morning is what you enjoy most, try shades of greys and blues to achieve serenity.

Bathroom - A place for pampering and rejuvenation. Work with existing colour (bathtub tiles, sink basin) as a starting point. To balance white walls, introduce nature and texture such as soft towels or a laundry basket.

Child’s Room - Take into account the changing needs and tastes that will most likely occur over the years.

Home Office - Select clean, simple tones that offer the least excuse for distraction.

Halls - Colour depends on size and shape. If the space is narrow, stick to pale colours. Contrasting colour can add interest if the hall is long.

Visit certapro.com or call (800) GoCerta for a free brochure from CertaPro Painters.  Courtesy of ARA Content

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