Three Important Things to Know When Choosing a Paint Color

Colors are the main focus of any design theme. Whether it's a modern designed skyscraper or a classic Victorian mansion or a small college dorm room, color plays an important role in any design theme and in any space. But with millions of colors to choose from, picking out the right one can be difficult at best. Use the following three tips for choosing a design color and get the most out of your next colorful interior or exterior design project.

Warm or Cool-What's Color Temperature?

There may be lots of colors to choose from but you can categorize most colors into two areas: cold and warm. Warm colors are red, orange and yellow hues that are bright and bold and bring warmth to the space.

Cold colors are blues, purples and greens, the colors that remind you of cool waters and frozen ice. Modern themes tend to be more on the colder side of colors while traditional designs tend to benefit from warmer brighter and bolder colors. Choose a color temperature that fits your design theme and you can't go wrong when picking out a paint color.

Negative and Positive

Just like our universe, there is light matter (everything you see) and dark matter (everything you don't). The same theory is sort of true for decorating-there are positive areas that will always attract the eye in the design and there are negative spaces that often go unnoticed in the design.

Negative areas benefit from bright colors that tend to draw in the eye while positive areas in a design theme work best with neutral colors that help to blend in the sometimes bold attributes of a space. Switch it around and use bright colors in a positive area of the design and you may find you've made the design theme too busy.

Take the Color Home

One of the most troubling things I often see is when homeowners are at the paint store looking at paint swatches. They start picking and choosing, then decide on the color swatch they like, color the paint and take it home. Wrong! Choose a few paint swatches, buy a few sample colors, and then bring them back to your house. Paint the samples on few small areas on your wall at eye level and see how they feel after a few days. Once you live with a few colors for a while, you'll be better able to decide how well that color really goes with all of your existing stuff.