About Color (in three parts)
For me, choosing wall colors is both the most enjoyable and the most tricky aspect of decorating. There are a couple of really important points to know. One is that if your room has any daylight whatsoever, the changing nature of that light throughout the day (including lamplight after dark) will drastically affect the look of any color.
Secondly, the paint chips you get in the stores are woefully inadequate for all but the initial choice that makes that color a contender in the first place. Paint looks VERY different from that little chip once it’s on an eight foot wall.
Fortunately, many stores (Lowe’s, Home Depot, Sherwin Williams) have inexpensive samples ($3 - $5) that they will custom mix for you, and they give you enough paint to cover a large practice board (4 for $3 at Lowe’s).
So try this:
1. Go to one or more paint stores, feast your eyes on all those beautiful paint swatches, grab a bunch that appeal to you and take them home.
2. Play with the swatches. Hold them up to stuff in your apartment, both things that take up a lot of visual space (bedspread, rug, curtains) and things whose colors you already love (your dishes, a favorite sweater, a picture on the wall) and see how the colors interact with each other. You might be surprised by how easy it will be to eliminate some colors, and how others really pop or just seem right. Don’t forget to check them out at different times of the day.
3. Narrow it down to about four colors and buy the sample pots, and apply each one to its own practice board.
4. Tape the practice boards to your wall and live with them for a day or two, looking at them at different times in daylight and lamplight.
5. Take the plunge and choose one.
Oh, and one more thing: if the color looks “iffy” when you start to paint, don’t worry. It usually looks much better once it’s dry!
This is from a post last year, and I still use this method.
Photo: favorite sweater, vintage insulator, beach pebbles
