Choosing Interior Paint Colors for Your Home

You can transform the entire appearance of your home with the right interior paint colors. The key is knowing which interior paint colors are right for your home and in which interior paint color combinations. Instead of choosing safe and conventional interior paint colors, why not take the time to research new possibilities? Learn how to choose the right paint color combinations for your home's interior.

First of all there are the questions about what kind of effect you want to achieve and what kind of impression you hope to make. Are you looking for something peaceful and harmonious or do you want to create a bold and bright impact? Do you want to fit in into a conservative, historical neighborhood, or do you live in an area where you have full scope to explore your color eccentricities? Are you going to live in the house forever or do you plan on selling in the near future? In the latter case, you would be advised not to go overboard with the colors; potential buyers may not have the same taste and may be put off from buying.

Here are some commonly followed color schemes:

• A monochromatic color scheme. Here you use the same color together with its tints and shades.
• An analogous color scheme. This scheme is made up of colors lying next to each other on the color wheel.
• A complementary color scheme. This scheme is made up of colors lying directly opposite to each other on the color wheel.

You can get more creative ideas for your interior color schemes from:

• Fabric Designs.
• Photographs.
• Paintings.
• Nature.
• Other home interiors.
• Magazine layouts.
• Floral Arrangements.
• Pottery.
• Stones and Rocks.
• Crayons.
• Bird Feathers
• Animal Fur

Just about anything that catches your eye can be grist for the mill. Collect samples of different colors, patterns, and textures. Try to put together different or unusual combinations that you wouldn't normally go for and see how they match up.

There are several things to consider before you settle on any particular color scheme:

• The room to be painted and its correlation with the rest of the house.
• The existing color schemes in the house.
• The total area of the room.
• The natural lighting in that room.
• The artificial lighting in that room.
• The existing elements in the room – stone or brick finishing, etc.
• The existing furniture in that room.
• The furniture to be installed in that room.
• The existing fabric furnishings and carpets in the room.
• The fabric furnishings and carpets to be used in the room.

Then you have to decide if you want to:

• Use just one color consistently throughout.
• Use different colors for different rooms.
• Use co-related colors for different rooms.
• Use different colors for different portions of the room.
• Use different colors to provide accents to windows, shutters, doors, wall trimmings, moldings, columns, balustrades, etc.
• Use different shades of the same color for different portions of the room.
• Use different shades of the same color for windows, shutters, doors, wall trimmings, moldings, columns, balustrades, etc.

Some things to remember when choosing paint color:

• Choose the color or colors for the walls first.
• Base the color for the trimmings on the wall color.
• Check the colors at various times in natural light and under artificial light. Colors look vastly different under different light arrangements, and what seems attractive in the day-time may not seem as pleasant at other times. And vice-versa.

Use light colors to:

• Give the room a spacious appearance.
• Highlight projecting wall portions.
• Paint long walls of a long room.

Use dark colors to:

• Highlight trim details in the room.
• Paint wall recesses.
• Paint end walls of a long room.

What you should know about interior color paints:

• Dark colors require more maintenance than light colors.
• Dark colors fade sooner than light colors.
• Dark colors absorb more heat than light colors.
• Actual colors are slightly different from what you see in color swathes or online color samples.
• The total effect of the color depends on the extent of the area to be painted. A color scheme that looks great in a large spacious room, for example, may not necessarily look as well in a smaller, less spacious room.
• Painting ceilings white will create an illusion of space. If the ceiling is very high, however, paint it a shade darker than the wall color.
• Match the skirting color to that of the floor to give a larger feel to the area.

There are a great many paint brands and paint types available. You can choose between Flat, Satin, Gloss, and Semi-Gloss Paints. Flat paints are the most commonly used ones. Satin gives a smoother finish and is easier to clean. Gloss, which is durable and requires little maintenance, is used mostly in kitchens, bathrooms, and other rooms that are frequently used. Semi-Gloss is used for doors, windows, wall trimmings, balustrades, etc.