Isn’t it Amazing What a Little Paint Can Do?
No truer words have ever been spoken. I LOVE PAINT! I will always profess my undying love to this amazing mood changer! In the course of over three years (the time we’ve owned our house), we have repainted almost every room in our home. Each room must convey a single emotion when we enter.
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| Kitchen = Sunny |
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| Living Room = Cozy |
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| Our Bedroom = Relaxing |
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| Office = Calm |
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| Mudroom = Inviting |
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| Laundry Room = Fresh |
Being an artist makes me a bit of a perfectionist when it comes to color.
I’d love to share some of my tips for picking out the perfect paint colors. Hopefully this will protect you from making a bad decision. But, rest assured that if you really don’t LOVE the color after you have painted one wall, you can take your paint back to the store and ask the “paint guy” to tweak the color for you. Or worst case scenario, you have to buy a new gallon. (Well, okay, that can get expensive.)
But, if you find a color you truly “LOVE”, it will translate into loving your home. So worth it in my book!
Before I paint any room, I go to several paint departments and gather several color chips that appeal to me. The colors that I REALLY think I’m going to like, I will grab a few extra chips of (shhhh, don’t rat me out for stealing paint chips.)
When I get home, I tuck the chips behind the switch plate cover, in the molding, or tape them on several different walls in the room. It is important to place the chips next to your trim moulding so you can see if the color will work well next to it.
After looking at the chips for at least a week during different times of day and different lighting (sunny or cloudy days) I am usually able to narrow down my choices to 2 or 3 choices.
Next I run back to the paint department and buy or have samples mixed up of the colors I like. Because I am a “work until I get it done” type person, I go ahead and paint big swatches on the wall next to the moulding on all four walls. This is important because a color that looks good on your sunny wall may not look so good on a shady wall. And you need to see the colors and how they coordinate with the wall color in an adjoining room. If you aren’t quite ready to commit to painting your wall, go ahead and buy some poster boards and paint the swatches on the poster board and hang or prop them up in your room.
A few things to keep in mind while you are looking at a color. Just be aware that the color may change as the seasons change. Winter yields brighter and cooler colored light in our home because the trees are bare. In the summer, our light changes to a greener cast and less harsh lighting as the trees fill out with leaves. I can tell you right now, that I wait for summer to roll around before choosing any colors in the green or yellow family. I need to make sure they look good with the light reflecting off the leaves and into the room.
If you are still having trouble choosing a color, invite a friend over who will give you their HONEST opinion.
If you STILL can’t decide, never fear – Pretty Handy Girl is here! “Here I come to save your color dilemma!”
Some of us are visual people, we REALLY need to see the room painted before we know what a color is going to look like up on all four walls. A special thanks to Emily at Decor Chick for testing my new venture last week. I’m calling it “Paint Preview“. Thanks to the wonder of technology, I can now virtually paint any room in your home or the exterior of your home! Save yourself time and money by previewing your painting project before the first drop cloth is laid.
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| Emily’s Living Room Before – SW Baguette |
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| Emily’s Living Room Paint Previewed – SW Anew Gray |
Want more information about Paint Preview? CLICK HERE TO LEARN MORE.
Until then, I’m thinking about repainting our garage doors and adding grills to them. What do you think?
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| Our Home Before |
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| Our Garage Paint Previewed |
Paint is amazing! DO IT! Paint those garage doors, they will look fantabulous!
Thank you all for your comments. I have to tell you that the above photo doesn't really show the front of the house well. The front doors are a plum color (seen here:
Front Door Photo
I really like that they are different from any other house in our neighborhood, and being the artist I am, I love having a unique eye catching color ;-). Someday when I get tired of the purple I will repaint them. Regarding shutters, I've used almost all of the original shutters that were on the house for various projects. And, I didn't like how they looked on our house to begin with. Not to say that others wouldn't find the house more attractive with them. I do like the idea of beefing up the trim though. Good suggestions! Keep 'em coming ;-).
Brittany
https://prettyhandygirl.com
I kind of agree that the front door needs a color to set it as a focal point. The present color of the garage doors keeps them from being a focal point, but I do think grills in the same color would look great.
I'm not sure how shutter would look because the upstairs can't have them–no place to put them. I think the idea Hillary had of putting some trim around the downstairs windows would look great.
great tips!! (0% of my job as a decorator is helping people pick paint color!!
I love the idea of the grids In your garage windows That may be all you need to make it pop a bit. I like the color it is now (painting the garage doors the same as the house is all the rage right now in new construction
Your have a beautiful home. Suz at Inspiring Creativeness sent me the Versatile Blogger award and I'm sending it to you. Please visit my blog to get the details. Thank you for all your inspiration! Lesa at Home-Frosting.blogspot.com
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I agree with Betsy. Your house has so much curb appeal as it is, I think painting the garage doors an accent color might over-emphasize them. Maybe add wider trim around the windows on the bottom floor and repaint the front door instead of going after the garage doors.
I do like the grills on the garage door, though!
What color & brand of yellow is that in your kitchen? I like it!
gosh how i need this…..i think the painting of the g-doors brightens your home up but i think front door seems to be hidden by its darkness.
this is so cool! I'm going to be painting most of my house (inside and out) so this year and I'd love to use a program like this. Specially since I've done (several times) some colors that I later regret.
Great idea I think it will look better!
The garage doors look great painted! I'll be back tomorrow…..would love to win your giveaway!!
Honestly? > I think you should paint your Front door instead of your garage doors. You do have a pretty house and your focal point should be the Front door, not the garage doors. They do take up a lot of visual space, I like that they blend in with the rest of the house and are trimmed in white. Another addition that I'd suggest is adding Real shutters to All of your windows in a Deep Red or Burgundy color and you could paint your door this color as well? Just a suggestion. Just found your blog and I look forward to reading past posts.
Love your home. It's so warm and inviting! The garage doors look great painted!
Happy Tuesday! 🙂
I LOVE your house… it is so pretty. The garage doors look great painted, it makes a huge difference!
Everything looks so good.