How To Choose WHERE To Paint Your Best Color

Did you know that the right paint color in the Wrong Location will still Look Wrong? Where you paint your carefully chosen room colors is just as important as making those choices. This invaluable guide will help you decide Where, When and WHY your paint colors can be located to make the your whole home look terrific. Don’t start painting before you read this!

It’s never just about A single color in a single area

One of the hardest concepts to keep in mind, especially if you are only painting a one room, is that ALL rooms/areas are part of the whole residence.

This why it’s important that all of your paint color choices play well together, even if they are in different areas of your home. The goal is to give your rooms a cohesive look as a unified environment.

You don’t want to feel like you are traveling to a different country and back again as you move around your home throughout the day.

Color Continuity Is Important 

There are several effective methods to achieve that “considered” and “pulled together look” you may have wondered about.

If you are painting the entire residence, choose a door and molding color that works well with your chosen color palette and then use it for all the molding and doors throughout your space. This is the easiest way to establish continuity and ensure that every room “ties” together.

Do you have a favorite color? Then you are in luck. A smart and beautiful method to achieve easy color continuity is to favor only one color family in a range of light to dark shades for all the adjacent rooms.

• Use one color for all the hallways.
• Again, use one color for all the doors and moldings.
• Consider choosing lighter tones for the public spaces and darker shades as you move back into the private areas.

You can also branch out and still limit your color palette overall. Start by referencing a few of the colors used in the fabrics and/or rugs, per room. Then, re-use these same colors or shades of these colors more than once, by moving them around to different rooms for use is different areas.

This idea proved to be an elegant solution for a two bedroom, two bath apartment I worked on in New York some time ago. The simplified color palette made coordination with the furnishings easy and seamless. The result appeared effortlessly beautiful...

For example: use only four colors in your wall color palette along with a single unifying color for doors and moldings (as described above).

Your Paint Color locations Could Look Like This:

• The ceiling color could be a pale tint of the wall color, or accent color. Be sure that the accent color is referenced in other rooms too.
• The wall color of one room could be the ceiling color of another room.
• Your hallways can tie rooms of different colors together. Use the same neutral color for all of them as suggested when working with only one color family.

Is there such a thing as a right “wrong choice” or a wrong “right choice”?

Don’t be afraid to challenge “Design Rules”. They can lend a sense of false hope that if you follow the “Rules”, you won’t go wrong…

“A Right Choice” can depend on your tolerance for “safe but incredibly boring”.

Expand your horizons beyond the usual suspects of Pinterest and Instagram. Especially since Instagram wall color ideas can lead you astray in a very loud way.

Remember that those images are beefed up and color saturated to facinate “scrollers”…in real life those strong colors would be very distracting (headache producing too) to live with.

Instead, check out some of the great old design magazines like Architectural Digest and Elle Decor for inspiration. See what some of the best designers in the world do and when to break bad design rules for a more beautiful home. The digital versions of these magazines are a wealth of ideas, not to mention Shopping Opportunities.

Design rules can be misleading too

The classic Design Rule Assumptions that only white paint makes a ceiling questionable.

White Paint Color Does Not Have Magical Properties

Rumor has it that:

1. It makes ceiling appear higher!
2. It lightens up a dark room!
3. It makes a room appear bigger!

No, it doesn’t really doesn’t do any of those things...

A white ceiling doesn’t make a room look taller as much as it draws attention to itself. It’s very stark and doesn’t really make sense as a design component, unless white is also being used in significant amounts around the room.

What does make the ceiling appear higher is color, used thoughtfully. Mix a little of the wall color into a soft off-white to give it the same hue, if you want to keep it light.

This way, you can make that Fifth Wall work with your color scheme in a truly effective way.

White paint doesn’t make a dark room lighter (as in lighting effect) either. Actually, in an inherently dark room, white paint seems like an unnatural act, somehow. It’s too strong without being effective. Pale colors, generally won’t work either. Though softer than white, they tend to look dull in dark rooms.

Bright/light colors won’t brighten up a dark room either. At best, the room will seem more vivid. Though it may seems like splitting hairs between Lighter or Brighter, there is a difference:

If you paint a dark room Orange, it will still be a dark room.

Darker/more muted shades of colors will work more harmoniously with the existing lighting c. In other words, Bright Sunlight Yellow, in a dark room, won’t serve you as well as Mellow Old Gold.

You could also just keep it simple and turn on some lights.

READ>>>How To Create The Best Lighting Solutions For Your Home

A White Ceiling Is A Great Choice, Sometimes

In a room with modern architecture and minimal moldings it has its advantages. In this instance, if you want to use a strong paint color for your walls, a white ceiling with white door and window trims will look crisp and fresh. It will also play up the graphic lines of the architecture.

Don’t miss An opportunity for a brilliant color solution

While committing to a dark/strong color for major rooms might not be to your taste for your main rooms, don’t over-look those areas that you just “pass through”, such as entry foyers, hallways, stairwells or even small powder rooms.

These are areas where a bold stroke looks genius. Strong color can be fascinating without being overwhelming or tiring because you aren’t settling in for an extended stay.

Make sure whatever unbridled move you make also can be related to the adjoining rooms. That fabulous color can be carried into adjacent areas in the form of pillows, throws, occasional chairs etc.

The keys to great home design are always continuity, repetition and relatedness.

How to make smart color choices For Moldings, Trims And Doors

As with ceilings, toss out the notion that trims, moldings and doors always have to be white. Though, if you do have great moldings and doors, a creamy white is often a wonderful choice. 

It’s just not the ONLY wonderful choice on the menu.

Don’t hesitate to paint the doors and trims the same color as the walls

This is especially good advice when they aren’t in great shape. Using a satin finish for trims/doors and a matte finish for walls in the same color, is an elegant looking solution.

In smaller rooms, it’s better to minimize the extra distraction of graphic white trims. White will always draw attention in a commanding way. Though small rooms aren’t a bad thing, it’s very helpful to “blur the edges” with matching color anyway.

For a little more definition, you could also consider using a trim color that’s a few shades lighter or darker than your wall color, in addition to a ceiling color that is a shade or two lighter than the walls.

The effect is sophisticated, without being jarring.

What types of finishes should be used in various applications?

Generally, a satin finish is good for the trims and doors, although high gloss finishes seem to be having their moment, again. A matte finish is fine for the walls.  If you are going to use a dark wall color, eggshell/pearl finishes have a sheen that tends to take the edge off a potentially murky look. 

As always, it’s a smart idea to test that effect before you commit!

Over To You

I’d love to know what you think...

Was there a tip that was especially helpful? Hopefully, you found a little inspiration and maybe even resolved a long standing quandary brilliantly!

are there other topics you might be interested in?

Setting out to create the best version of beautiful home design, tailored especially for you, has a lot of potential questions built in. Please let me know. I’m here to help. You can write to me here.

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All photos courtesy of Unsplash unless otherwise noted.

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Cindy Bergersen, ASID Allied

Cindy Bergersen has been a professional home design consultant for over 30 years. She is also a published author on the broad topic of home design and all its elements. Decades of experience as a design consultant to private clients as well as retail clients for well known, high end furniture retailers has proved to be invaluable training.

She is both passionate and committed to sharing her experience and knowledge to help anyone, help themselves, to a beautiful, comfortable home, without confusion or overwhelm about where to start and how to proceed.

When not with clients or writing about home design in real terms for real life, she might be found cycling through city parks or curled up on the sofa with a good book. You’ll find more details here.