Choosing the colours that are right for your rooms
Dubbed the easiest and cheapest decorating tool, paint jolts life into rooms, boosts our spirits and can even help us get a good night’s sleep. And it’s not impossible to find just the right shade, Karen Turner discovers.
Decorators will tell you that paint is the fastest, easiest and most affordable way to refresh your home. But a few coats of colour can also add personality, visually enlarge, infuse warmth or jolt life into a space.
Some hues are said to increase your appetite, sex drive and creativity, while others boost your spirits, calm you down or help you sleep soundly.
“Paint is really that powerful in transforming a room,” says Susan Forint of CIL Paint. “Whether changing the colour of an entire space or adding a pop of colour to a feature wall or a single piece of furniture, paint is a medium that easily and affordably adds depth and interest to a space.”
Forint says paint can also bring cohesiveness to a home’s colour palette and create a decor that is inviting, relaxing or lively.
“We humans have a deep connection with colour and as such it can evoke certain reactions, and help set whatever mood you would like for a particular room,” she says.
Sharon Grech, colour and design expert with Benjamin Moore, says turning blank walls into vibrant backdrops not only personalizes living spaces, but sets a specific tone or comfort level.
“Colour is one of the main players in establishing the mood of a room,” says Grech.
“The walls often take up the largest amount of visual space, therefore any change to them creates a big impact.”
Compared to costly finishes and furnishings, Grech says paint is economical and can be easily changed.
“One of the main reasons paint is so powerful is that it isn’t permanent. You can always repaint and get a completely different look by just changing colours.”
Alison Goldman of CIL Paint admits choosing the right paint colour can be daunting for some — she calls it “paint paralysis” — since there are so many choices available.
The walls often take up the largest amount of visual space, therefore any change to them creates a big impact.
Her advice: When it doubt, start small by painting one accent wall in a bold hue or adding rich colour to baseboards, door frames and window trim. For gutsier homeowners, Goldman suggests banding a room in horizontal stripes of varying thickness or funking things up with graphic zigzags or geometric shapes.
For colour inspiration, Sico’s Mylène Gévry suggests looking no further than your backyard.
“Think about what colours in nature make you feel good. What outdoor settings make you feel most relaxed or energized — your garden, the woods, the countryside or the sea? Narrowing the feeling you’d like to achieve, and the element of nature you’d like to replicate, makes it easier to choose colours,” says Gévry.
Besides making a space look bigger or cosy and intimate, paint also has the power to visually change a room’s temperature, she says. “Yellows, oranges and pinks are warm colours, whereas blues and greens are cool tones — something to bear in mind if you’re looking to warm up a room on the shady side of the house, or cool off an area with southern exposure.”
Before a lick of paint goes on the wall, Bev Bell of Beauti-Tone paints says you need to ask yourself an important question: “How do I want the room to feel, instead of how do I want the room to look?”
Think about amount of energy in a colour, she says. “A kitchen is a great spot for a colour with lots of energy. On the other hand, in a bedroom you may want to have a more relaxing colour.”
Bottomline, she says, “if you love the colour, you should use it,” especially if it makes you feel good. “I have painted my bedroom yellow so that every day I can wake up and feel like it is a sunny day. For a bathroom, there really is no bad colour except a yellow/green hue. That colour can reflect on the skin and make it look sallow, and no one wants that.” Forint couldn’t agree more. “Personal preference should always come into play when picking a paint colour. There is no right or wrong choice if you like a particular colour, as long as it’s used in balance with the other colours and textures within a space. And especially when paint is easy to change if you don’t like the results.”
Before you commit to a particular shade, Grech recommends trying the colour on to determine if it really is the right fit for your home.
“The best way to avoid mistakes is to purchase a few pint samples and test-drive the colour options on your wall or on boards. You need to see the paint colour in the context of the room to fully see how it will work in your space.”
Hot hues for 2015 range from deep pastels to rich floral colours, including warm pinks, purple-blues, silvery greens and bright oranges.
“The back-to-basics, return-to-nature trend firmly planted in home decor the last couple years is now moving away from neutral tones toward more colourful — while still soothing — elements of nature,” said Gévy in a recent press release.
You need to see the paint colour in the context of the room to fully see how it will work in your space.