6 Tips for Selecting Interior Paint

Are you looking for a way to freshen up your home? Well look no further than your local paint store! You can give a room an instant face lift with one weekend, paint and a little elbow grease.

The most difficult part of painting can be selecting the color. Try these tips to make it easier.

1. Match Paint to the Surroundings – Let the flooring, wood finishes and fabrics in a room be your guide when selecting a paint color. If you are remodeling, pick the paint color last because it’s the most versatile.

2. Find Inspiration in the Everyday – Start looking around you for color ideas. Inspiration can come from unexpected places like travel photos, garden flowers, a favorite chair, or even the clothes in your closet.

3. Look at the Whole Family – Once you decide on a color look at the other hues in the color family. If you love bright red, take a spin around the color wheel to see other options. It might be that orange red or burgundy is better suited for the environment.

4. Set the Mood – Colors have an effect on our moods so consider how the room is used. Where you might want your family room to be a lively setting, perhaps a bedroom should be more subdued.
Bright and contrasting = social, energetic, drama, informal
Cool or pastel = intimate, restful, relaxing, restful, formal

5. Get a Test Can – Lighting, the size of the walls and time of day will influence a paint’s color. Apply a test patch on the wall where the color will live and observe it for a day or two.

6. Get the Flow – When picking paint consider the colors of adjacent rooms. Can you see their walls? How will it be to walk from one room to the other?

Paint Colors at the Garden Home Retreat

When it came to selecting interior colors for the house at the Garden Home Retreat my inspiration came straight from the garden – earth brown, watery blue, cabbage green and habanera pepper red. For the walls I stuck with soft, cool colors and warmed the rooms up with fabrics and furnishings.

Front parlor in winter painted Benjamin Moore Natucket Breeze
Front parlor in summer painted Benjamin Moore Natucket Breeze
Back parlor painted Benjamin Moore Dried Parsley

The first floor parlors are painted soft green. The fabrics are brown in winter, but in summer we cover the couches and chairs with honey and orange slipcovers to brighten the mood. The deep red drapes in the back parlor add a pop of color, illustrating how contrasting colors can work together.

Front Parlor – Benjamin Moore Nantucket Breeze/521

Back Parlor – Benjamin Moore Dried Parsley/522

Back parlor painted Benjamin Moore Raindrops and Roses

The two cloud studies by Mississippi artist Jerry Lee Dorrough inspired the pale lavender on the walls the guest bedroom.

Guest Bedroom – Benjamin Moore Raindrops on Roses/1443

Back parlor painted Benjamin Moore Fantasy Blue

The master bedroom is robin egg’s blue, which works beautifully with the centerpiece of the room – an early 19th century tester bed. Brown and blue is one of my favorite color combinations.

Master Bedroom – Benjamin Moore Fantasy Blue/716