Last Updated on September 8, 2022
How do you choose the right shade of blue for your bedroom? What about the perfect shade of white for your kitchen cabinets? Or even the right neutral paint color for your powder room?
Choosing a paint color can be tricky. You can’t just select any white or any blue, there are hundreds of shades, all with various undertones.
Don’t choose paint colors you’ll regret later when you understand how to choose the right color for your space.
Here are 5 paint color mistakes to stop making right now:
Only choosing paint colors from a paint chip sample
The first thing to stop doing if you want to love the paint color you selected for years down the road is to stop choosing colors from a paint chip. Paint chips are meant to be a starting point. Select several colors in various shades and get samples to take home.
If you don’t like the mess of tons of paint cans, consider getting samples online from Samplize. They sell peel and stick samples using two coats of the paint color you order.
It’s also not a good idea to go off of advice from a friend in terms of what paint color they used or from pictures online. Yes, get inspiration from friends’ homes and online pictures, but make sure you test the color in your home before you commit.
Not viewing paint samples correctly
Now that you know it’s not a good idea to evaluate paint samples strictly from the paint chips alone, let’s talk about how to paint a sample on the wall.
For the best results, you’ll paint a 12×12 square on white poster board and tape it directly to the wall. Don’t lean it against the wall, as that will alter how the light hits it and change the way the color is perceived.
Not evaluating the light in your space correctly
If you’ve ever purchased a sample of paint you liked from the paint chip at the store only to bring it home and absolutely hate the way it looks on your walls, it’s largely due to lighting differences in your home versus at the store.
In a room facing north that doesn’t receive a lot of natural light, colors can look much darker and undertones will be more present. Take Accessible Beige for example– it looks like a warm blend between gray and beige that’s not too dark in a south facing room with plenty of windows. On the contrast, in a north facing room, the color looks almost brown.
Remember to evaluate the color in every single room you’ll be using it. If you’re trying to consider a neutral paint color you’ll use throughout the downstairs of your home, make sure it looks good everywhere based on available light.
Not considering your fixed elements and decor
We mentioned above that paint colors have undertones, and these underlying colors will come out when paired with certain elements. For example, the ever popular Revere Pewter actually has a green undertone in it.
Pairing Revere Pewter with items that have pink undertones, like terra cotta tiles, red cherry hardwoods, or carpets with a slight pink undertone, will just accentuate the pink even more and bring out the green in Revere Pewter.
If you have a hard time discerning undertones, try the paint color in question next to other paint colors in the same shade family. You can quickly see the undertones that way.
Not selecting a white trim color that works well with your wall color
There’s no such thing as a plain white shade of paint. All white paint colors have undertones in them. There’s creamy white like White Dove or off white like Swiss Coffee or even white with gray undertones like Moderne White.
Try out your trim color with your proposed wall color to make sure you like how the undertones of each color work together.
Keep reading: The best paint colors for your front door and the power of paint in 10 amazing before and afters.
