Recently several of you have asked me about how I go about picking complementary wall colors. First let me say that I'm no expert... but there are a few tricks that I've learned that have served me well in the past. Maybe they'll help you too.
First, take a step back and evaluate the space you're wanting to paint. Ask yourself a few questions...
- What is the period of my home/decor?
- How much light is coming into the room?
- What color are the adjacent rooms painted?
- What color is the woodwork in the room? (e.g. floors, furniture, etc.)
- What color are the fabrics & upholstery in the room?
- What mood do I want this room to evoke?
These are all very important questions in steering you in the direction of a general palette. If you have an older home (as we do) you want to avoid trendy, modern colors. There are multiple resources out there for helping you to find historical colors. Farrow and Ball make a great line of historical paints and there are several companies out there that still make milk paint with very authentic color palettes. If you live in an open, modern loft-like space on the other hand, you can use bold colors to anchor a room and create living spaces where there are none.
If the room is especially dark or small, you want to steer clear of overpowering colors and remember that whatever color you pick will likely look twice as intense/overpowering in your space. If you're set on having one bright or bold color in the space you might want to consider painting a feature wall in that color, coupled by a more neutral color palette throughout.
Don't forget to think about how colors transition from room to room. If you have a very muted, pastel color in your kitchen, for example, you don't want to put a bold primary color in the adjoining dining room because the spaces would compete with one another rather than complement each other. That doesn't mean that you have to paint adjoining rooms different shades of the same color. One trick I've learned here is to look for paint swatches from suppliers that give suggested color combinations. The Valspar Martha Stewart paint collection at Lowe's does a great job of doing this. Another trick is to choose colors that are the same saturation level on the color spectrum. You can do this by picking two colors in the same box position on the sample color swatches you pick up at any paint store.
And lastly, give careful thought to how you want the room to make you feel. Will you be working, cooking, relaxing, or socializing in the room? Before you make any assumptions about what colors are best for which activities, check out the following article on Color Psychology. You might be surprised. Did you know, for example, that green is said to promote reading ability? Or that inmates in prisons where the walls are painted pink tend to become more agitated? Take it for what it's worth but it's interesting stuff.
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