There is great joy in painting your house with the colour of your choice…until the back pain starts. Source: 100comments
- Read some magazines
- Choose the colour that you fancy
- Sample them before committing
- Mind the undertones
The keys to your new home have just arrived, and you are super pumped. I mean, who wouldn’t be? It’s your home! Your nest! I don’t mean to pry, but will you be having eggs soon with a significant other?
It’s okay if you don’t want to tell me. Anyway, moving into your new home is an exciting moment, since we are going to customise it to our own taste. And that means painting, furniture shopping, IKEA meatballs and muscular moving men with sweaty armpits.
But today’s topic is painting. The muscular moving men with sweaty armpits can wait for another day (winks). When it comes to painting, most beginners will get overwhelmed with the multitude of colours available. Just check the colour wheel and see for yourself.
Hyperventilating already? Calm down, because we are here to help you out of this colourful conundrum.
1/ Let’s spark that inspiration
Nowadays it is tough to find a magazine that inspires, besides Playboy. Source: essential home
We are not going to grab those paintbrushes just yet, and neither are we making a trip to the paint shop this early into our interior decoration journey.
Then what? Let’s head to the book store instead. Yes, we’re serious! Grab all those interior decoration magazines and furniture catalogues because we need to be inspired.
These reading materials should contain illustrations of homes nicely done and prepped by experts, so do pay attention and take some pointers from them.
Either that or you can visit some interior decor websites for more information.
The Spruce is a great website, with a wealth of tips and techniques about gardening, home improvement and cleaning.
Want some expert advice from a girl-next-door called Alice who hails from Northern Europe, check out Stylish Dekor.
If you want a beautiful house, then stop by at House Beautiful for more great ideas.
Using these as a point of reference, we can then narrow down our choice of paint colour. One of the toughest parts of choosing a paint colour is that we get too many options.
Once you are ready, it is time to pay a visit to the paint shop and grab a couple of paint colour samples to try at home.
2/ Follow your heart
I’m obsessed with the turquoise colour. I have it in everything, even the underwear I am currently wearing. Too much info? Yeah, I guess so. Source: unshelfdesign
Your house, your way. And sweetheart, don’t be changing yourself for anybody! With that said, the easiest way to choose the best paint is simply to use the colour you love.
Using it as a base colour, you can easily weave the ideal colour scheme around it. Turquoise is my favourite colour, so it isn’t a tough choice for me.
For the decor, I love to paint the wall with dark turquoise, then pair it with furniture and objects with white and black frames for a magnificent visual.
Or I could repress it by having cream coloured walls and turquoise furniture instead. Both ways work!
One of the perks of having your own home is the right to personalise it, and we should have all the pleasure of anointing the place with our very own indelible signature.
3/ Sampling
Innie. Meanie. Minnie. Moe. What is the colour for my hoe…I mean home. Source: 100comments
One moment! You can’t commit your entire house to a certain colour without sampling it. How does it taste? Good? No, taste them, not with our tongue, but with our eyes.
The trick is to paint a small portion of your room, probably the wall facing the window or the wall surrounding the door frame.
You want to get a feel of the decor and that can only be realised once the colour is interacting with the environment. Appearance may change as the light exposure increases or decreases, due to the shift from morning to night.
The sample should also look good under the effects of artificial lighting, which varies according to the light bulb you use.
The same can be said when the colour comes alongside the furniture and fittings. Hence it is vital to make a couple of samples and observe them for a couple of days before deciding.
4/ Beware of the undertones
So many colours, so little time. Source: nipponpaint
If you are to pay close attention, you will realise that the colour white comes in various undertones. Some might contain a hint of yellow, while others may be a little blue.
Beige colour, for example, may have the colour green mixed with it. That sneaky, subtle underlying colour is what we call the undertone. So if you are uncertain about a particular shade of white, try comparing the colour swatch against a piece of white paper.
Now here is another problem—undertones from other colours present in your room may also change the way your paint appears. Referring to the point above, we sample the paint first to ensure disaster does not ensue.
On another note, we should express ourselves when decorating our new home. However, adding too many paint colours to the same room can be rather distracting. The rule is that less is more! If you want to have contrast and texture, utilise artworks and fabrics instead to bring in the added layer and character.
A new coat of paint
What’s tougher than painting the whole house? Getting the husband and wife to agree on the same colour. Source: zenith
Have you done painting the house with your newfound inspiration? Give yourself a pat on the back. Oh, do mind the wet paint on your hand! Just so you know, I painted the whole house black.
Yeah, I did mention earlier that turquoise was my favourite colour, but black is my new thing! Why? Well, there’s less cleaning to do, since no one can see the dirt.
