Three Important Things to Consider when Choosing Color

Hello everyone!  Today, I’m going to talk about three very important things to think about the next time you are choosing color for a room or space in your home.  In all the years that I have been doing this, I would have to say that choosing color is something that really scares or confuses a lot people.  I always find this interesting because to me, for the cost of a gallon of paint or two, you can make such a big change to a room, and it doesn’t cost much.  Plus, there are steps you can take ahead of time to help prevent regretting a color choice.  So today, I want to talk about three things you should consider any time you are considering a color change.

The soft blues and grays in this room help to create a restful environment.

1.        Desired feel in the space/room:  This is soooo important!  Color is powerful and can really affect not only how a room looks but how it makes the people who use the room feel. So, as an example, if I want a restful, retreat-like feel in my bedroom, I want to choose colors that are calming…maybe soft blues or greens.  If instead I chose a vibrant red, I might find myself feeling anxious or revved up at bedtime.  That’s the power of color.  They’ve done many studies and the results show that the color red, which I used here as my example, is shown to raise your heart rate and increase your hunger.  Whereas soft blues and greens have a calming effect, lowering your heart rate.

This room has a lot of natural and overhead lighting that will prevent that cave-like feeling from all the browns and wood-tones.

2.       Lighting in the space/room:  People tend to overlook this one, but it too is important.  The number one thing that can affect color is the lighting in the space where it will be used.  Have you ever chosen a color in the store and brought it home and started to paint with it and thought that it looks very different on your own walls versus the way the color looked on the sample card in the store.  Why does that happen?  Lighting!  Think about the lighting in your home improvement store.  Lots of bright, fluorescent lights and usually quite a bit of natural light mixed in.  In your own home, you probably have maybe some sort of overhead light and some floor lamps or table lamps with hopefully some natural light thrown in during the daytime hours.  This is why it’s soooo important to ask for a sample size of the color you think you want and then you take that home and paint a nice, big square on your wall.  Watch the color throughout a day or two.  Check it in all the different lighting that is in that space.  If you still love it, you’re golden!  Go for it.  Maybe you’ll find that you wish it were a shade or two lighter or darker.  Well, luckily for you, you haven’t had two gallons already mixed that you can’t return.  Now you can go in and order your color with confidence!

Note how the yellow in the floors pull out the yellow tones in the wall color and vice-versa.

3.       What other colors exist in the room/space:  This one tends to get overlooked by people for some reason.  Consider this, almost all colors are made up from combinations of other colors.  When you place a color next to another color, it can completely change the look of that color because it can pull out the undertones.  Let’s take beige as an example here (mainly because I have done battle with it many times over the years).  Beige is supposed to be a neutral.  Goes with everything.  However, say you have a beige that has quite a bit of red in it.  You don’t necessarily see that red when you’re just looking at a sample card but as soon as you take it home and put it up on walls next to your beautiful hardwood floors that have a red tone in them…. BAM!  Now your walls look slightly pink.  Always, always, always, paint a sample close enough to your floors to make sure they don’t change the look of the color you have chosen.  Hold those colored throw pillows up next to your sample.  Take your sample card and hold it next to any furniture in the space.  You can save yourself a lot of heartache by doing these simple things before you’ve committed to gallons of a specific color!

Obviously, these aren’t the only things that you consider when you’re choosing a color scheme, but to me, they are the three most important and if you consider them any time you are choosing a new color, you will more than likely end up with a look that you love and not one that leaves you wondering if you should just go ahead now and re-paint your room!  Color isn’t really that hard, you just need to know what things to look out for and what considerations to make when you’re choosing those colors. 

Now, what will you do next to love where you live?

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