Picking Your Paint Colors: A Remodeler’s How-To Guide
Selecting paint colors for either your home interior or exterior is a process that seems simple enough until you get into the thick of it. You quickly realize there are infinite options that may or may not look how you expect them to once they’re on the walls.
When choosing colors, you must ensure it balances the other elements of your space, such as furniture, flooring, and décor. Plus, it should flow seamlessly with the other rooms of your home and ideally from the interior to the exterior. On top of that, you need to pick the perfect finish.
Without design experience and a trained eye for color, these decisions can be overwhelming! To make your life easier, our professional painting crew has carefully crafted a guide to picking the right paint colors.
Decide on a Color Theme
If you already have all your furniture, the first step is to look to these pieces for inspiration. Select colors that flow from room to room. In general, we recommend opting for neutral colors, such as whites, beiges, grays, and other neutral earth tones. That way, you can more easily change furniture and use fabrics to add pops of color.
Ask our team at Bayshore Remodels for a color consultation to choose a color scheme that suits your décor!
Narrow Down Your Choices
After deciding on a specific color family for your room, it’s time to narrow down your choices. Bring five or six of your favorite Sherwin-Williams paint swatches home to the room and tape them to the wall so you can see the subtle differences in the shades under your lighting.
Pick the Proper Finish
After narrowing your selections down to three or four choices for a given room, you will need to choose your desired finish, as this can change how the color reads from the wall. Let’s explore your options.
The general rule of thumb for paint finishes is the higher the sheen, the higher the shine.
Sheen will impact what the color looks like, its durability over time, and how easy or difficult it is to clean.
High-Gloss
High-gloss paints reflect the most amount of light and therefore have the most shine. Additionally, they are the most durable and easiest to clean. High-gloss paints will last a long time without needing touchups, but the negative side of high-gloss paints is they make every bump or flaw particularly noticeable.
This finish is best used on areas that take some wear and tear, such as doors, trim, or cabinets.
Semi-Gloss
Semi-gloss doesn’t have quite as much sheen as high gloss, but it is still relatively reflective, long-lasting, and easy to clean. These paints are often used in rooms with high moisture levels, such as a bathroom or kitchen.
Like a high-gloss, more prep work will be required to minimize the appearance of flaws, but the gorgeous appearance of this color is worth it!
Satin
With their soft, velvet sheen, satin paints are perfect for interior projects. Keep in mind that you will want a professional to apply satin paint since it requires careful technique to hide brush strokes.
Note: Since brush strokes can be very noticeable, touch-ups can be a challenge. This is why it's important to properly apply the paint with the help of a pro crew.
Eggshell
The name gives this one away. Like a chicken egg, an eggshell paint finish isn’t incredibly shiny but still has a subtle glossiness. Their medium durability rating that will conceal most imperfections such as fingerprints makes these paints good for areas such as hallways or dining rooms.
Matte
As you might guess, matte paints have the least amount of shine and are the least durable. On a positive note, they call for fewer coats to cover up imperfections.
While durable, most cleaning solutions will damage matte paints, so it’s best to keep them in places at low risk of close encounters, like ceilings and adult bedrooms.
Quality is Key
No matter what kind of finish you select, you should always invest in quality. Cheaper paints need more coats and regular touch-ups, which can cost you in the long run, whether in time or money (or sanity).
At Bayshore Remodels, we always use the highest quality paints to get the perfect results, without fail.
Test Your Favorites
With the finish in mind and your final lineup ready for testing, you need to put the paints up on the wall.
Paint 2-foot by 2-foot squares side by side to compare your options.
Light will impact how the color appears, so be sure to observe the color at different times of the day, in different levels of artificial lighting, and even in different weather conditions.
Don’t be afraid to let the colors marinate in your mind for a few weeks. After all, this is a big commitment!
Bring Your Space to Life with Bayshore Remodels
Bringing your home to life with new colors is an exciting process, and picking colors should be part of the fun rather than a stressful endeavor! When you work with Bayshore Remodels, you can feel confident knowing that you are Upgrading Your Home with Ease.
Call or text us to get a free estimate. Don’t forget to ask about our multiple-room special!
