Just because you think a color is great doesn’t mean you should use it to paint a room

Rather than spontaneously buying paint and throwing it on the wall, step back and consider how the color will work in the larger context of the room and what that room is used for. Even if you love a color, it may not be one that draws people in.

Work With What You Love

With thousands of paint colors to choose from, picking the perfect color for your space can be overwhelming. One of the best ways to narrow down selections and hone in on the tone that will make your space sing is to look at your existing furniture. Think about the colors of your couch, rug, floors and cabinetry. The colors you’ve chosen to furnish your home are a good indicator of the palettes you like. You can also try to pull colors from a favorite painting or art piece that inspires you.

Don’t be afraid to put a little color on your ceilings

Ceilings are a great place to highlight architectural details or create a mood by painting them a color other than white. If you’re apprehensive about testing this idea in a main room of your home, try it in a small room, such as a bathroom. In fact, a small room will benefit from a colored ceiling, which tie everything together without darkening the room.

Use trendy colors

Put them on your walls rather than carpet or tile Decor trends come and go, and it’s much easier, and cheaper, to change the paint color than the tile or carpet. If someone is in love with a particular color, I suggest using paint for that color, because carpet, tile or flooring color is not so easily changed.

When painting an accent wall, make sure it’s the correct one

That is, don’t accent the wrong wall. Painting an accent wall with a different color is a great, cost-effective option for accessorizing a room, but not all walls are appropriate to accent. You want to use an accent color on the wall that has the least interruptions, such as windows or doorways. Look around the room and find the wall that has some strong vertical architecture, and that’s usually the perfect wall for an accent color.

Find Your Light

There’s nothing worse than choosing a color in the store, then getting it home and seeing it completely change as the light hits it. When choosing a paint color, keep in mind how much light the room gets, noting that in very bright rooms, each wall may look different at different times of day. The best way to test paint colors is to tape chips horizontally to the walls. Once you select your color, get a paint sample and paint large patches on each wall in the room and spend some time with it (at least a few days) to see how the light affects the color throughout the day.