Tips for Selecting Wall Color

Trying to decide what colors to paint your walls?  Or are you considering wallpaper with color and pattern?

Here are tips that I learned from Ann Pailthorp, a color consultant with Farrow & Ball, at a recent House Beautiful Color Institute in Atlanta.

Layering Color – Consider layering different shades of the same color to help transition from one room to another.

Contrasting Color – Color contrast either adds drama to a room or opens up a space.  For a dramatic impact, paint the walls a dark color with a lighter contrasting paint for the trim.  If you want to give your space an open feel, paint the walls a lighter color with a darker trim.

Baseboards with Patterned Wallpaper – A light colored trim will draw your attention to the contrast line where the wallpaper meets the trim.  Creating a grounding effect might be a better way to draw the viewer’s eye to the beautiful wallpaper.  To do this, paint the baseboards with a darker colored paint.

Darker Walls – Paint your walls a darker color to create effect.  Go bold in a small space like a powder room.

Depth Perception – A long, narrow room might not seem as long if you paint the far wall with a color that advances towards the eye. 

Sense of Balance – The room on the right looks heavier than the room on the left.  A sense of balance could have been achieve by selecting colors of equal weight.  Try this in area where rooms connect with large openings.

Sample Paint Colors – Paint a large piece of poster board and move it around the room during different times of the day.  Display the sample vertically against the wall so you can see how light interacts with the color.  The light levels at different times of the day interact with the pigment in the paint changing the value of the hue.