The colour of your house is a reflection of your vision for your home. It helps tell the story of your personality while setting the atmosphere for your guests and family. Done right, painting a home can inject fresh air into an old room, change the vibe of a recently bought house, or make an old home more sellable in the market. A few key changes in the shade of the paint colour, like from pale yellow to a deep plum, create a different experience for the home.

Choosing a paint colour for your home may seem daunting at first. However, there are several tips from trusted interior designers and paint experts, which you can use to make the process easier.

It’s difficult to choose and then apply a new paint colour for your home if you don’t have an idea of what you want. The easiest way to go about this is by looking for inspiration from houses you’ve seen. You may have visited a friend’s home that impressed you because of its overall interior design. You can also go on Pinterest to start making paint boards for each of your room’s home.

Different colours give off different feelings. At the inspiration stage, you can decide on the atmosphere of each room and of your home.

Warm colours such as reds, yellows, and oranges can energise a room. These shades, whether bright or muted, can automatically make a room and home more vibrant. They can be perfect for activity rooms, children’s rooms, and receiving areas. They carry a warm and receptive atmosphere.

Cooler tones such as blues, greens, and purples can be more relaxing and soothing. Depending on their shade, they can also be cosy. Lighter cool tones are ideal for small bedrooms because they make space look larger and airier. They can also remind visitors of natural elements like water at the beach or a light garden. Darker shades can make places seem shorter and camouflage ducts, outlets, and other exposed wall elements.

The atmosphere of a room can also be industrial-like, in which case you’ll have to invest in matte grey paint to even out or highlight the concrete effect. More modern homes can opt for a completely neutral palette, with only a bright accent wall or pieces of colourful furniture to break the monotony.

Once you’ve decided on a general inspiration and atmosphere, you can use colour theory to bring everything together. Colour theory, or the colour wheel, is something you probably learned about in primary school. It helps decide which colours go together in the same room in terms of the trim, the door, windows panes, and walls. It can also help you choose the overall colour flow of your home.

Red, blue, and yellow are the primary colours. Secondary colours are a mix of primary colours; red and blue together create purple, while blue and yellow create green.

Many rooms and homes make use of a monochromatic approach, which means varying shades of the same base colour. You can also paint a single room with different shades of light to dark green. Alternatively, you can use analogous colours, which are the shades beside each other in the colour wheel. Painting different rooms with analogous shades of blue and purple will have a calming and soothing effect.

A more intense use of colour theory is to use complementary colours. These colours cancel each other out when combined or mixed, such as red and green, or purple and yellow. These are excellent for contrasts. If you have a bold personality, you can try having a high contrast between your walls and trim. Alternatively, you can have adjacent rooms which contrast each other.

A less intense alternative to the complementary approach is the use of the split complementary combination, which is one colour and its two complementary shades.

Colour theory isn’t limited to the colour itself, but also in the use of shades. Colours can be pure and vibrant, muted, or even shaded to create a dimmer effect.

There should always be a moment in your design planning when you consider neutral colours. It can’t be warm tones or cool tones all the time.

Neutral colours can balance out any high contrasts and range of tones. You can use neutral colours to paint your home, or at least use them for furniture. These shades of white, black, grey, and brown can tone down warm and light colours, while also bringing up cool and dark colours.

A neutral shade can also serve as an accent wall or counterpoint to an otherwise busy home.

If you’re planning to resell your home, white or off-white paint for most rooms will make your property more attractive. For most buyers, neutral shades are easier to cover with their paint colour of choice.

Stepping from one room to another should be a pleasant experience in terms of design and atmosphere. You can note which rooms can be seen from other rooms, and which rooms flow into each other, by making a floor plan and taking notes.

On the one hand, you can make rooms drastically different from each other in terms of paint colour. The abrupt change from cool to bright tones can signal a difference in the room’s purpose and atmosphere. Keeping trimmings, banisters or even furniture, the same colour can help tie these rooms together.

However, if you want rooms to blend into each other seamlessly, you can make use of analogous colours. You can also use only one underlying theme colour for each major section of the house, choosing only colour variations to spice things up.

Finally, the sheen of the paint will influence how the colour will ultimately look like. High gloss paint means easier clean-up, but it can highlight blemishes and imperfections. Semi-gloss paint is great for kitchen and baths, which need easier cleaning but less shine.

Satin-finish paint provides a smooth finish, and it’s excellent for high-traffic areas like the family room. Finally, flat or matte paint can deliver the base effect of your chosen paint colour and even out imperfections at the same time. However, matte paint tends to show dirt more quickly, so the eggshell type is seen as a good alternative for durability as well.

Every home tells its own story through its colour and design. By choosing a paint colour that suits you and the atmosphere you want to create, you’re building a home that’s perfect for your needs. However, it takes expertise in design and application to turn your choice into a smooth reality At Yarrum Designer Homes we have our own in house Interior Designer that will help you “dare to be different” yet practical in your colour selections. Call our team today.