How to choose paint colours for your home
The Gunter & Co Guide to Choosing the right paint colour
Choosing a paint colour can be a little daunting, especially with the overwhelming number of choices out there. Rather than just focusing on what’s trendy (remember everyone painting their entire home grey in 2018?), it’s incredibly important that you pick a colour that lifts your mood and really suits the room.
At Gunter & Co, whenever we’re working on the interior design and cornerstone finishes of a a project, such as choosing the right paint colour, we consider everything from light (is the room north or south facing?) and how it affects colour, to how the room will be used (do you spend your evenings or mornings there predominantly?) and how the paint colour will tie in with the interior scheme of not only the room, but also the house as a whole.
Here are our top tips to consider when choosing paint for a room:
Consider how light impacts colour when choosing paint
Understanding how colours behave is one of the most difficult aspects of decoration to get right. Natural light and artificial light really affect how colours appear. Before you start looking at colours, spend some time working out if your room faces north, east, south or west. The different lighting that will come through your windows depending on the way the room faces is very important, as well as any artificial lights already in the room.
North facing rooms
Generally, north facing rooms bring out the cooler tones in paint - stay clear of these types of colours as they will make it feel more cool & unwelcoming.
I’d recommend looking at yellow based colours, which will help light bounce around the room and will brighten the effects of the cooler natural light.
We usually go with the darker impression that you often face in a north facing room and embrace a darker wall colours. I often use navy blue and deep green paint colour for cooler darker rooms as they just instantly add a very cosy feel and say ‘please hang out here for a while’ . When it comes to north facing hallways - or in fact hallways with very little daylight, Little Greene’s Sage Green is the perfect paint for dark hallways or snugs.
East & west facing rooms
Consider when you use an east or west facing room the most - the time of day you spend in there will impact on the light in the room.
West facing rooms have a cooler light in the morning and brighter light in the afternoon so if you’re mainly in there in the morning then a yellow based colour would help to add some warmth but if you’re there in the afternoon when it’s brighter a pale tone could work well.
East facing rooms are the exact opposite - warmer, brighter light in the morning and cooler light in the afternoon.
Artificial light
Halogen bulbs can emit a very warm / yellow tone of light which could help to lift a cooler palette in a North facing room.
Be careful to ensure all light sources in a room have the same light temperature. Often you find table and floor lamps emit a warm light whereas spotlights and LED strips can be cooler. Lighting temperatures are measured in Kelvin. We make a real effort to ensure that all light sources throughout a property are a consistent warm light, at 2700K (Kelvin).
Best practice when it comes to paint samples
In our office we have large A3 boards with our project paint colours on when working on an interior design project. These are our go-to when making sure paint colours work with the schemes we have chosen for our client. They are also great to take to site and hold up against the walls to make sure the colour works in the space and with the light. This works much better than painting random areas onto the wall as usually you’re just judging the new colour against the original wall colour rather than judging the new colour in their own right.
Unfortunately, not everyone has access to large samples of pre painted paint but it’s well worth the effort to get hold of some paint samples you like, painting them onto cardboard and moving them around the room - the inside of a cereal box works perfectly! They can seem so much lighter or darker compared to how they look on the sample card (where they’re surrounded by a white background which gives an artificial impression) and it’s important the colour of the walls compliments the tones coming through in your fabrics and other surfaces throughout the room.
It’s also less messy and means you can take your time to plan and consider your interior scheme without patches of colours on your walls which aren’t quite right. This also gives you a chance to see what your chosen colour looks like against your existing furniture or is easy to take with you when picking out soft furnishings and furniture for your new and exciting scheme.
Think about how you will be using the room when choosing a paint colour
It is always worth considering what the room will mostly be used for and when to help you choose the best paint colour.
Relaxing
If you want to wind down after a long day at work or you are reading a book in bed ready to go to sleep, instead of choosing a bold colour I’d recommend a nice light warm and cosy colour that doesn’t distract or stimulate your brain. My current favourites for a bedroom are Temple by Paint & Paper Library and Setting Plaster by Farrow and Ball, these shades of blush are incredibly soothing, warm and inviting.
Socialising
In places such as dining rooms and sitting rooms, you have an opportunity to be slightly more bold with the colour you choose. Choose something stimulating and interesting to spark conversations, I often choose a patterned paint effect with a green element for big social spaces and think our favourite new neutral navy is the best paint colour for a kitchen.
Working
Depending on the individual, you may want a very calm, tranquil paint colour preventing you from getting stressed or distracted when working. Or you might want something really cool going on in the background to keep you stimulated, inspired and creative. A safe bet would be to start with a neutral such as one of the Slate colours from Paint & Paper Library in combination with a richer colour for accentuating features to create an interest and improved balance to the room.