Color Matching for House Paint is an Art Form

If you are trying to pick out two colors for the interior or exterior of a home, be aware that it is harder than it looks. Do not let anyone tell you differently.

That is why they pay interior designers BIG bucks!

Picking two colors that work well with each other is an art form when it comes to painting walls, ceilings, doors, and door trim but it is also a big deal in graphic arts.

There is something that is called a family of colors. That means those colors look good together. Most paint companies will have samples that you can put up next to each other.

We also recommend…

…painting samples on the walls, doors and trim on the interior and samples on the walls, eves, and gables on the exterior. 

It might be a good idea to leave those color samples up for a day or two before deciding and also different lighting conditions throughout the day.

Professional designers have picked colors that work well together in paint companies’ pallets. Some are slight changes between different colors, but some have very strong differences as in accent walls.

Do you want to paint the whole interior with two different whites with a bright white on the ceilings, doors, trim, and floor trim with the walls a darker white, or just the opposite?

In this case, the two whites need to have enough of a contrast that they will show up and look good with each other. Without enough of a contrast, the whites will look miss-matched and out of sync.

If you are trying to paint most of the walls a neutral white throughout the house and adding a much strong accent wall in each room to give different flavors all their own. 

Color Matching for House Paint is an Art Form

In both cases, it will also depend on the color and type of furniture that will go into those individual rooms. The color of the furniture needs to be considered as the third element of accent color. 

What type of light is illuminating the Rooms?

Another thing that needs to be considered in all of these color selections, is what type of lighting is illuminating the rooms and how much reflection is showing up through the windows.

A story I relate to every customer that is considering different colors is a time we were hired to paint the interior of a two-story home for a family that went on vacation for a week while we painted the house.

The homeowner had picked out a color before she left, and I come out and painted a sample on the walls beforehand and she accepted the color and gave the go-ahead with the painting job.

We finished the house the day before they returned home. I received a phone call from the owner, and she was in tears and telling me that we painted the first floor one color, the landing a different one, and the second floor with a third.

I knew that was impossible because before we started painting, we boxed (mixed) all the wall paint together so it would be uniform with no slight differences. 

I assured her we did not paint with different colors…

…and I would meet with her along with the outdoor salesman from the paint company we bought the paint from.

The walls did look like they there were variations depending on what floor you were on when the salesman I showed up the next day, so to prove that we painted the whole house with the same paint, we opened a can of the paint we used on the house and, with the homeowner following us, went to all the different rooms in the home, and brushed out a sample.  

When the samples dried, they blended right in with the surrounding wall throughout the house. The outdoor salesman explained to the homeowner that on the first floor, the sunlight was bouncing off the grass and reflecting a pale green on the walls.

On the landing, the sunlight was bouncing off the tile roof and reflecting a tan color on the walls.

The second floor, the sunlight was reflecting a light blue color from the sky. 

Needless to say,…

…all three locations gave the appearance of being painted with different colors, but they were not.

The same will also happen on the exterior of the house. Is there grass around the house (green) or gravel and rock (tan) around part of it and is there a swimming pool in the backyard giving off a blue reflection? 

So, you can see, using different colors on the interior and exterior is a more complicated matter, but it is an art form, many times that should be left up to a professional interior and exterior designer.

They are familiar with colors and lighting and they can be hired to come out to your home and help you, and your painter select colors that will match and look good on your walls.

Many painting companies can give recommendations on interior designers that you can hire for just these issues.

To learn more about painting accent walls go here to Benjamin Moore 

We have written many articles on painting for you to read here on AZ SRB Paint Blogs

Color Matching for House Paint is an Art Form

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