The George Schneider Painting How to Make Choosing Paint Colors Fun and Easy series is here to help you make refreshing one room or your entire house with paint enjoyable. Do You Want to Run When You See Those Aisles of Paint Samples? That’s why this blog series breaks each step into 5 easy tips per subject.
1. Why it’s best to just step away from the paint sample aisle! If you want to make your own greeting card, those samples of house paint colors are handy, but in the early stages of planning, they can be overwhelming.
The sheer number of colors would confuse anyone.
They are too small to test effectively on your walls.
They can make you favor or eliminate colors too soon.
Okay, now for the fun part…
2. Spend some time reflecting on what color means to you. The colors of your home reflect your personality. Think about what colors you’ve always liked. Which flowers are your favorites? When it comes to fashion and design, are you a classic like Audrey Hepburn? Or, are you more of a trendsetter?
3. Consider the purpose of each room. The activity you do in each room has the greatest impact on the color you’ll enjoy there. How do you want to feel? We’ll go into greater depth in future posts, but here’s a broad look at the spectrum of basic colors:
Some think white is bland, but it can make any room feel lively and spacious. And, white makes even small amounts of other colors in the room pop.
From the blush of a peony to the snap of bubble gum, pink brings an upbeat, feminine touch to a powder room or a girl’s bedroom.
You may fear red would make too daring a statement, but the right reds conjure intimacy and comfort.
Think peach tones and squashes not the juice for a color that stimulates creativity.
Associated with wisdom, soft shades of yellow mimic the warmth of the sun.
Green: Greens make us think of what we see in nature—a balance of tranquility and invigoration.
Soothing and cool, blues provide a meditative calm.
From sensual royal shades to cooling, stimulating blue-violets, purple holds endless possibilities.
Dark chocolate with red wine. Smooth café con leche. Browns make a room elegant, warm, and inviting.
Looking to create drama? Nothing brings out other bright colors quite like black.
A fabulous neutral for any room, in part because gray sets off even other soft colors beautifully.
4. Don’t Worry About Color Lingo You don’t need a degree in art or a language immersion to understand the basic terms we’ve explained here. But, we’ve made this so easy, you could skip it if you prefer because here at George Schneider Painting, we know exactly what you mean when you say things like “I want that blue the sky gets on a clear night right before the sun goes down.“ And, rest assured, no paint shall be applied until you have approved of the colors.
Hue
Hue is another word for color. Red is a hue, blue is a hue, and so on…
Value
Value is a way to discuss how light or dark the hue is.
Saturation
As you learned in grade school, the primary colors are blue, red, and yellow. In a mixed color like orange, as you add more yellow the yellow hue becomes more dominant.
Intensity
While saturation is the amount of certain hues in a color, intensity refers to how brilliant a color appears. A primary color like Red tends to be more brilliant than a green with a high saturation of yellow.
5. Start Dreaming Collect pictures of rooms you like. Use an app like Pinterest to keep track of web pages or make a folder of pages torn from magazines—whatever the method, enjoy imagining how wonderful your house will feel with fresh new colors.
Local Painters in Philadelphia
Still wish you could hand this project over to someone else? You can! We regularly recommend interior designers who can quickly and affordably help you choose colors you’ll be delighted by. Just give Bob Schneider a ring at 215-901-5254 and he’ll help you out.