Banish the beige! It’s so last year
When painting a new home, plan out the entire main floor before picking up a brush
We just purchased our first home from a builder and you guessed it, it’s all builder’s beige. I want to paint and add our personal touch but I have no idea how or where to begin. Help!
Congratulations on your new home. It is truly a very exciting time and can be a bit daunting as well.
For a project like yours, I prefer to select the colours for the entire main floor at once — the foyer and hall, the living room and dining room, the kitchen and family room and anything in between.
Don’t panic! Let’s break it down and go step by step. This doesn’t mean you have to paint everything at once. You do, however, want to have all the colours chosen and know that they work with the furniture, with each other and with the fixed elements of your home before you first pick up a brush.
By creating a plan, you will have peace of mind knowing that once all the rooms are painted, they will flow and look cohesive. If it takes you three months or three years, it’ll look beautiful when it is complete.
First, decide if there is anything you will be changing or adding to your home in the near future, such as a new backsplash, upgrading the floor or anything else that becomes part of the space.
This may be in the next few months or few years. The idea is to keep these in mind when you are selecting your colour scheme.
Next, assess your furniture. Sometimes, your furniture just doesn’t work quite as well as it did in the old space.
If you are considering replacing it at some point, think about what you would like to replace it with. Will it be a brown leather sectional or a grey linen sofa? You don’t have to know the exact one, just give some thought as to how you want the room to look and feel once it is complete.
For these circumstances, keep the colour a bit more neutral so when it does come time to purchase, you haven’t limited your choices.
Then take a trip to the paint store. When standing in front of the rainbow-coloured wall of chips, it’s hard to know where to begin.
I usually start by selecting a colour for the kitchen. As the heart of the home, it has the most fixed elements (floors, counter, cabinets and backsplash) and the colour you choose has to work with all of them.
For the hall, I like to use hues that are more neutral, as the hall typically connects to every room in the home.
In the dining room, you can be a bit more dramatic.
When you have all of your potential colours, lay the paint chips in the same configuration as the rooms in your home. Is there a pleasing flow from colour to colour?
Now’s the time to tweak your selections if necessary, when no commitments have been made. Perhaps you need to go a bit lighter or darker, brighter or more muted. The paint chips are there for you to take, as many as needed until you find “the one.” Lastly, look at the chip in the room that it is meant to be painted. It will appear different from room to room because of the type of lighting within each space. I wish you many happy memories in your new home.