Have you just purchased a new home? Having one built? Or just ready for some change in your home? Adding the right color can add flair to any living space, it can warm up a cozy family room, invoke a cool spa feel in a bathroom or personalize a child’s room.
It can also be overwhelming, have you ever stood in front of the color sample display at the paint store! The rows and rows of color strips in a rainbow of colors? Not to mention eggshell, matte, satin and semi gloss!
What can a homeowner do? Well, there are a few choices:
Hiring a Professional
This is really the best method for a large project, a professional usually has had extensive training in Color Theory and understands how the color spectrum works. Barbara Jacobs is a leading color consultant and offers great advice online. Choosing colors is much more than “that is a nice color”, it is knowing how colors affect each other and work together.
A professional consultant can co-ordinate all the color and texture choices needed to create the environment you are seeking. They will spend time with you to understand what you want and often suggest ideas that you may never of considered. You can contact your local paint store, they may be able to recommend a color consultant.
Working with a Painting Contractor
As a painting contractors, we work with customers often to select colors, we do not have the expertise of the above mentioned designers, but years of helping customers choose colors and having a variety of tools at my disposal has enabled many of us to guide customers into making choices that they may not have developed on their own. We use a variety of methods, like large sample boards, pictures of previous jobs, or digital visualizers. We also keep up with the latest trends in color selections by being active in the online painting industry.
Doing it yourself
If you are going to choose your own colors, look through magazines and home decor websties to get an idea of what you like. Then go to your local paint store, and pick up some color strips, look for something like The Color Collection by HGTV, they have several colors that work to complement each other. Take some material swatches or just about any item of a favorite color. A good paint store can custom match just about anything! By going to a local paint store, you may find that he paint quality and service is much better than you will find at the big box stores.
You can pick up small samples of a color, go home and paint a two foot square on the wall and look at it in several different lighting situations. See how you like it after a few days.
So whether you have a large project, are seeking professional advice or just need to see some options, there are plenty of choices for any homeowner.
Now look at your beige or white walls, are you ready for some color?
[simpleviewer gallery_id=”8″]