When choosing paint colors for your home, there’s literally 500 shades of “off-white” and grey to choose from. How do you know which one to pick?
We always like to choose a true, basic white first; we pick a white that we will use for baseboards, ceilings, trim etc. Generally, my favorite is Swiss Coffee, because it‘s a balanced warm white, that isn’t stark or cold. This is VERY important because no one wants to live in a cold white hospital-esque room. Once you have that picked out, get a sample can in the sheen you are going to use for the walls.
For the wall color, we usually pick out about 10 of our favorite paint swatches, then narrow down from there. If you already have a sample of your flooring, bring that with you when choosing paint. It’s a great idea to lean towards off-white colors when choosing your wall color because it’s easy to make the space feel bright and airy, especially if you’re working with a small sqft space.
After you limit your favorite paint swatches down to about 10, narrow it down further to your favorite 5 or so and get sample cans of each of them. Get separate foam paint brushes for each sample can too!
First, paint a whole wall of your home with the warm white baseboard color you chose first - the Swiss Coffee (or a white primer if you want to). Then, paint small divided areas with the 5 favorite wall color options and label them on the wall so you won’t mix them up!
We normally like to then walk around the house into different areas with various lighting and paint more swatches (Don’t forget to label them on the wall!) This is how we narrow down to our favorite color.
And there you go! You now have your paint color!
pro tip: Make sure you take a photo and email it to yourself or save it in a safe place for future reference. Often, it’s hard to recall which one you picked (especially years later) when you’ve looked through so many color names!
Now go let Brad know which color you chose and let’s get your home painted!