Use these professional tips for choosing paint colours for your home.

The colour wheel.

The basic principles of colour theory and design are simple. The colour wheel becomes a visual aid in helping us understand the principles of colour. It is also an excellent tool to help create harmonious colour schemes for painting, interior decorating, and commercial design. It creates an orderly progression of colour that helps us understand colour balance and harmony. Colour wheels are available at most art stored. Your Paint calgary quoter also carries a colour wheel to help you with colour selection.

Assess intensity and value

The brightness of a colour is its intensity, such as red. Sky blue and beige are low-intensity colours. Every colour has a range of values from light to dark. Sheen is also an important factor with intensity, as high- intensity colours such as red will have a statin sheen, where low sheen is preferred with low-intensity colours

Paint strips show a colour, such as blue, and several hues ranging from lightest to darkest in intensity and value. The safest colour selection is one of the two colours in the middle of the strip.

Know your colour scheme

Colour schemes fall into three categories: complementary, analogous, and neutral. Complementary schemes combine a primary and secondary colour from opposite sides of the colour wheel (red and green). Analogous colours are either warm (reds, oranges, and yellows) and cool (greens, blues, and violets). Neutrals are colours not included in a colour wheel, such as browns, whites, and blacks.

Visualize the undertones in colours

The look of a paint colour can change dramatically, depending on what’s next to it. Except for red, blue, and yellow, all colours are mixed. That white wall might take on pink undertones next to a red rug or redish harwood floors.

Undertones are hard to spot until it’s too late, so keep under consideration art, accessories and furntiture that may be feature points.

Evaluate natural and artificial light

Look at your paint chips under the kind of light in room: direct, indirect, or artificial light. Look at the paint chips against furniture and rugs. Pick your favorites and get a small jar to brush on a piece of white poster board. Tape the dried poster board to the wall and evaluate again. Assessing a larger colour samples ensures that you’re making the right choice. It is also a good idea to have two colour samples so you can compare colours from walls to walls where they join. This is also a handy trick if you are choosing feature walls, as too close a tone can just look like light is affecting the colour.

Create a mood with colour

Colour affects mood and the way you perceive the ambience of a space. Cool colours are calming and warm colours energize a room. Pair a warm colour with a cooler complement to create energy.

Change a room’s size with colour

To make a small room appear larger, paint it a pale, cool colour. To make a large room feel more cozy, use warm colors or darker, more intense hues. Using feature walls can also create a size effect. Choosing darker colour on long walls can make a room appear longer, while on shorter walls, rooms can appear smaller.

Consider colours in adjacent rooms

You want one room to flow naturally into the next although you don’t have to use the same colour. Select complementary colour schemes, or vary the intensity of one hue.

Coordinate paint with furniture and flooring

Highlight a favorite painting or rug by letting it inspire your colour scheme. The trick is to choose a paint colour that blends with the piece instead of matching it exactly.

Play it safe with neutrals

Neutrals blend in with other colours such as beige’s and pale colours. They are considered safer if you’re selling your home. Most potential buyers have an easier time visualizing their furnishings when looking at neutral walls rather than a colour scheme that fits your individual taste and decor. When selling, it’s always better to change to a neutral colour throughout the entire home, rather than the common mistake of just “freshening” up with a single coat of paint. The difference can be a home being sold or sitting on the market.

Adapted From: Painting Do-It-Yourself For Dummies