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7 Surprising Tips For Choosing Interior Paint Colors

Choosing the right paint color for your home’s interior can sometimes feel like an impossible battle

You have that one friend whose stunning, midnight blue dining room walls look incredible.

Then you have that other friend whose purple bedroom walls have become her biggest home décor regret.

Maybe you love bright, floral colors but you’re worried that you won’t love them anymore once your living room is bright pink; or you love neutral colors but your guests always hint that your décor is too bland.

Forget trying to please other people with your home décor and interior paint – you’re just trying to come up with something you yourself can live with, and even that feels impossible right now.

In the midst of choosing interior paint colors, homeowners often go wrong in a few different ways:

They choose their favorite paint color “in a vacuum” without considering other important factors like lighting, room size, mood, and the other colors in their home
They feel pressured to take a “go big or go home” approach and undertake huge a multi-room painting project even though they aren’t really sold on the colors they chose
They assume that their own color psychology is the same as everyone else’s – but cool and calming blue to one person might seem cold and clinical to another
They think choosing paint color should be a leap of faith (“here we goooo!”) instead of a confident, educated decision

Choosing interior paint color doesn’t have to be so risky

Yes, choosing your interior paint color can be really stressful, but it doesn’t have to be as difficult and regret-filled as it ends up becoming for many homeowners. There are a few principles you can follow when choosing paint color that will help you minimize regret and maximize your happiness at home.

Here are 7 surprising tips for choosing interior paint colors:

Start small

Think you’ve found a color you’ll like but worried it’s a little too bold or risky? Don’t start with the big dining room accent wall. Paint something small like the powder room or the guest bedroom and see if you actually like it in the real world first. You can go big once you’ve confirmed it really is the right color for your home.

Choose a color already in your home

Stumped by the thousands of paint colors to choose from? Instead of choosing at random, start by looking for colors you love in your own home. Maybe it’s the blue accents in a painting on your wall or an accent pillow or centerpiece you’ve always loved. Start with something you already know you love in your home.

Make use of monochromatic color schemes to add variety

If you want the depth and interesting feel of having multiple colors in one room, but you’re worried about going too crazy with different colors, you can achieve that look more safely by going with a monochromatic color scheme or light, complementary colors. Varying shades of light blue or a mix of blue and green would be perfect.

Choose colors based on architecture

Go beyond just picking basic colors for your walls. Instead, choose colors based on the architectural features that make your home unique. For example, paint all the molding and built-in’s one color throughout the house to create continuity. Or paint high ceilings warm colors for a cozy feel, or low ceilings cool, light colors for a more open feel. Similarly, to make a too-big room feel smaller, use warm colors on the walls; to make a too cramped room feel bigger and airier, use cool colors on the walls instead.

Use bold colors wisely

If you are burning to incorporate your favorite bold colors but worried you will end up regretting it, try a safer route: use bold colors as accents only, not as the dominant color in a room.

Start with the most important room

If you have one room that is bigger and more central than the others (such as the kitchen) or one room you already plan to paint more boldly than the others, pick paint for that room first. Then let the colors for the other rooms be complementary and subtler, while letting that one room take center stage set the tone for the house.

Pick paint color last, not first

This is probably the most important – and surprising – tip. Homeowners often choose paint colors first, when moving in, but it’s actually much easier to choose paint colors last. That’s true for a very simple reason: you can choose paint to match any accent color found in a rug, lamp, art, or piece of furniture, but the reverse isn’t true. So choose the other home décor items with colors you love, and then pick the wall paint color to match those accents.

Are you thinking about tackling an interior paint project in the greater Seattle area? I would love to help. Get in touch with me to get a bid and find out more about what I can do for you.

How to Choose a Painting Contractor

Don’t miss our updated version of this post in an infographic format! View it here.

Are you planning to paint a lovely baby girl’s nursery or redesign your dining room? Or maybe you’re responsible for a commercial painting project, or you want to freshen up your home’s exterior.

Whatever your project may be, if you want it to look great and last long, you probably already know not to take the DIY route.

But once you’ve decided to hire a painting contractor, where do you even start? There are so many options out there and it can be a little scary wondering if you might choose wrong. After all, what if the quality isn’t what you hoped by the end of the project? What if the end cost is way more than you expected? What if the crew on site is unprofessional? The potential problems from hiring the wrong contractor can range from the awkward and uncomfortable to the downright expensive and disastrous.

Luckily, it is quite feasible to avoid these issues and end up with an excellent completed project by hiring the right contractor for the job. You just need to know the right approach to take before signing the contract.

Use this as a checklist before your next painting project and you’ll make sure you have hired the best possible painting contractor for your project:

How to Choose a Painting Contractor Checklist

Reputation

We probably all know that reputation is crucial when hiring a service provider. That’s why we often ask friends for recommendations instead of just working with the first service provider we find. But on the other hand, we also know that not every customer is reasonable or fair. So research your potential contractor’s reputation, but take negative reviews with a grain of salt.

Make a list – what matters most to you in a painting contractor? For example, trustworthiness, quality, customer service, speed, etc.
What are their reviews on Yelp or another similar site? Do past customers mention the qualities most important to you?
Do they have references you can call?
Call their references – what do they have to say? Again, what do they have to say about the qualities you care about?

Quality

Quality is another crucial aspect of choosing any service provider. Obviously, if you are going to pay for a professional to do the job instead of doing it yourself, you expect the quality to be excellent and the work to last a long time. Checking on a contractor’s reputation will address this question to a certain extent, but there are other things you should check:

Do they have a portfolio of past projects on their website? Review the photos in depth and make sure you are comfortable with what you see.
Do they have some sort of quality or satisfaction guarantee?

Project Details

This seems like common sense but somehow often gets overlooked: you MUST be very clear (in your own mind) about you want, and certain that the contractor understands too.

Make a list of everything you’re hoping to achieve with the project. If you have expectations about time, materials, how long it will last, etc., write these down too.
Review your list with your potential contractor. Do they seem confident that everything can be achieved within your target budget? Do they have recommendations or advice to change your list?
Make sure that the details which go in the final contract are clearly accepted and understood by both sides.

Experience

Experience can be a proxy for quality and customer service. However, it’s important to strike a balance between experience and the other aspects of a good contractor. Not everyone who has been in business for 20 years is going to deliver excellent quality, and not everyone who recently started a business is going to have big flaws. Sometimes, the newcomers work harder and the oldtimers get a little lazy. Sometimes, but not all the time! So as with reputation, take experience with a grain of salt.

What certifications / licenses does this contractor have?
Do they belong to any professional organizations?
How long has this company been in business?
Who will be your primary point of contact, and how long have they worked in the industry?
Who will be working on site and what is their experience like? Do they have experience doing projects like what you want?
Can you see photos and call references for these projects?

Approach / Methods

It’s important that you understand some of the unique aspects of your contractor’s approach and methodology, especially if you have certain expectations about these.

What kind of prep work will they do before painting?
Who will be working on site? Will it be the owner, employees, or subcontractors? Working directly with the owner will ensure you have high quality work and good customer service, but that’s not always an option. Find out who will be working at your project site and what you can expect from them.
Do you want any special details with your paint job, such as glazing, stenciling, or color washes? Ask if the team working on your project has experience & skill in these details.

Pricing

Price is one of the biggest issues when choosing any service provider, and it’s important to find the right balance for you between price and quality. If you push your contractor to provide rock bottom pricing, you can probably expect them to either lose interest in your project, cut corners to meet your target budget, or end up with a higher end project cost than you wanted. But on the other hand, of course you can’t and shouldn’t take on a painting project that you can’t afford.

Are you both clear on the project budget and target end cost?
Are you hoping it will be lower? Be clear about your expectations.
Is your contractor hinting that your target budget is unrealistic? Listen and adjust the project budget or scope to be more reasonable instead of just hoping for the best.

Customer Service

Customer service isn’t just for big companies; small one-person shops offer different kinds of customer service too. The quality of customer service you receive on this project will make a big difference in how you feel about it – a stressful project with poor communication will not be satisfying for anyone.

How involved will the person you’re talking to be on the day to day basis of the project?
What about the painters on site – will they be knowledgeable about the project and able to answer your questions etc?
What kind of service do they offer after the project if issues come up?

Hope you have found this checklist helpful, and best of luck with choosing your next painting contractor! If you are working on a project in the Seattle/Tacoma area (Pierce, King and South King County), please consider us. You can request a quote by clicking here.

More Resources

Other helpful articles on picking the best painting contractor:

3 Great Sources for Contractors in Seattle/Renton

If you need a home project done, you need a GREAT contractor

Taking on a home remodeling project is risky. The work is hard and the stakes are high, especially if you plan to resell your home in the next few years. A shoddy DIY job can be an eyesore to potential buyers and makes your home a tougher sell, because the new owner will have to do more work.

But it’s not all bleak – some home renovation projects can add some serious value to your home. Check out the latest cost vs value data from Remodeling Magazine in 2015.

If you’re going to jump in on a big project (or a small project), don’t go it alone.

These websites are excellent resources for finding contractors in Seattle/Renton

Do you have a great contractor you would recommend? Let us know here in the comments.

The Best Tools For Choosing Paint Color

Tags: online tools, paint color, visualizers|

Wondering How To Choose a Paint Color?

Choosing a paint color for your home’s exterior or for a room can be so challenging. Color makes a huge impact on a home’s visual appeal and sometimes it’s hard to just imagine what a room or home will look like in a completely different color.

You might want to pick a risky, edgy color that works with the feel of your room, but are afraid you’ll regret it. Or maybe you want to pick a simple, neutral color but are overwhelmed by all of the different shades and color palettes out there.

Online Tools Are Out There – And Can Help

That’s where online tools for choosing paint color are incredibly useful! Here are some really good paint color tools – check them out, and if you have any others you like, mention them in the comments. I’d love to hear about them.