3 Tips For Choosing Interior Paint Colors

Making the decisions concerning the interior design of your home is one of the biggest benefits of home ownership as opposed to renting. The color of the interior walls in your home play a huge role in setting the overall tone and laying the foundation for other interior design elements. Depending on your personal style and tastes you may know exactly what you want when it comes to the color of the walls. Others, however, may find the task of choosing the perfect color overwhelming. It’s our hope that by using a couple of the tips below you will be able to narrow down your choices and choose a color you will love.

1 - Use the wall color as the background

As mentioned above, the wall color will be the background and the foundation for the room. An interior wall should be a support for the rest of the design elements in the room such as furniture and lighting, and should never be the main focus. That’s not to say you can’t select a unique color, but it should be muted enough that it doesn’t draw the eye too much. Greens, blues, and variations of white all work extremely well for homes on Maui, especially if you are going for a more tropical decor with an abundance of natural light.

2 - Choose complementary accent colors

Accents refer to surrounding trim, woodwork and the ceiling in a room. Once you have landed on a color for the main walls, the color you choose for the accents can really elevate the entire room. Older homes typically have cool architectural features as well you will want to highlight rather than let them fade into the background. Because accents represent a smaller area, you can use bright, poppy colors such as green, blue, white, and coral that compliment the main color. Alternatively, you can create a high contrast look by choosing a dark color such as brown, deep blue or even black.

3 - Try samples before committing

Unless you have your heart set on a specific color scheme before you start painting, the ability to sample colors to see how you feel about them can be really powerful. Sampling can be accomplished by hanging a free paint chip on the wall, but you will get a better idea of how the color will look by ordering a small can of paint from your local hardware store and painting a square section of the wall. Having your prospects for the main color and accent color right next to each other will also give you a clearer picture of how the room will look fully painted.

While there are many more variables that come into play during a painting project, we hope the tips above will help you to narrow down your choices regarding color. Talking to friends and family who have an eye for interior design can also be extremely helpful. Using catalogs, look books and websites like Pinterest will also assist you in figuring out what your style is and how to visualize the room virtually before committing to buying gallons of paint.

Photo by Anwar Hakim on Unsplash