Learn how to pick the perfect paint color for your home with my simple, step-by-step guide! From understanding undertones to testing samples, I'll walk you through exactly how to find a shade that suits your home perfectly.
I can't believe I've never written a comprehensive post about how to pick a paint color! I've talked about it and around it for years, but I've never sat down and laid out the steps for choosing a paint color for your home until now.
It's one of the home decorating questions that trips most people up. But here's the thing: there's a process for making the right choice the first time. It just takes some knowledge, a little patience, and a tried-and-true elimination process.
Let me walk you through the process!
How to Choose the Right Paint Color in 6 Simple Steps!
1. Furnish the Room First
A common mistake homeowners make is choosing a paint color before anything else, but let me talk you out of doing that!
Before you ever pick out a paint color, choose the flooring, rugs, furniture, and even art in the room. I know it seems backwards, since you'd think you should pick rugs and wall color before moving on to decorations and furnishings. But trust me, it's much easier to choose a paint color when furniture is already in the room. It's far simpler to match a paint color to a beloved piece of art than the other way around.
So if you're decorating a room from scratch, at least choose a couple of pieces and place them in your home before you settle on a paint color.
Design TIP: Learn how to decorate a room with furnishings first in my How to Design a Mood Board post!
2. Consider Existing Elements
Consider the existing furniture. Even after you've gathered a piece of art or a rug, you'll also want to consider existing finishes like permanent flooring, or countertops if you're painting a kitchen, laundry room, or bathroom. Whatever undertones those elements have need to be taken into account. Does your countertop call for a green or pink undertone paint color? I'll share more on undertones in a minute.
Consider the existing colors in adjacent rooms. This is what I cover in my Whole Home Color Palette post, but essentially you want your home to tell the same cohesive story, not become a chaotic fun house of colors. I repeat colors or color families throughout my home so it all feels like it belongs together. I love making a graphic in Canva of a floor plan (not my exact floor plan) to see how the different colors work together.
And lastly, consider your room's exposure to natural light. This depends on the number of windows and the direction the room faces. Here's a quick rundown of what to consider:
- North-facing rooms: cool, gray natural light; paint them in warmer colors to keep them from feeling "cold"
- South-facing rooms: warm, yellow natural light, and bright, washed-out colors at midday; cooler colors will balance the warmth, or you can embrace it with warmer undertones
- East-facing rooms: white, bright light in the morning and cool, gray light in the afternoon; slightly warm colors work well in these rooms
- West-facing rooms: flat, gray light in the morning and very warm light in the afternoon; you can go with cool or warm undertones.
Decor Tip: Lightbulbs Matter!
PLEASE, please, please, for the love of all things holy, use quality light bulbs in your space. The wrong bulb will drive you crazy when you're picking paint colors. If nothing else, use the SAME light bulbs throughout your home. I've shared all my tips in this light bulb post, but if you don't have time to read it, just buy these for your lamps and overhead lights, and you'll be light years (pun intended) ahead of the average homeowner.
3. Educate Yourself on Undertones
You don't have to be a master decorator or interior designer to understand basic undertone knowledge. I'm self-taught, but I can look at a paint color against a white background and tell whether it reads warm (orange, yellow, or red) or cool (green, blue, or purple). That will determine whether your color reads warm or cool. I'm writing a post all about understanding undertones soon, so stay tuned!
To find the undertone, hold the paint chip you're considering next to a sheet of pure white paper. This will get you on the right path to seeing the true undertones.
4. Narrow Down Your Color Family
Finally, it's time to start selecting your colors. Do you see now why going straight for paint colors means skipping some very important steps?
Using my Whole Home Color Palette system, choose a color family (or two) that you think will work in the space. In my recent bedroom makeover plan, I chose a dark taupe or brown paint color family by process of elimination, based on the furniture I already have in the room, the natural light, and the paint colors in adjoining rooms.
5. Research Selected Colors
This is just my own method, but I like to start searching for paint colors on Pinterest and Instagram to see examples of paint colors in the color families I've chosen.
We'll use my bedroom as an example again. I searched for "brown bedrooms" and "popular dark taupe paint colors."
I made a list of the colors that kept popping up, or colors I liked.
6. Test Samples
Once I'd narrowed my selections down to 5-10 colors, I ordered samples from Samplize. I find these are the easiest, most convenient way to test samples first. You can stick them on the wall, move them around during the day, and see how the paint colors look in different light. You can also order sample paint pots from the paint store, but they're larger, messier, and harder to store for later or dispose of properly.
Testing paint samples takes a few steps:
- Sample the paint on various walls at different times of the day. Sometimes I leave my samples up for days or even weeks.
- See how the light plays off the color in both natural and artificial light.
- Test the new color against a white background, like poster board or white printer paper. This helps neutralize the paint color so it won't clash with the existing wall color.
Once I've sampled several peel-and-stick samples on the wall, in different lights, over the course of several days, I'll order 1-2 sample paint pots of the color I'm leaning toward and paint small sections of the wall.
If you're still struggling to choose the right color, sit with it for a while and see whether you start leaning toward one color or another. Ask a friend to come over and help you choose! And sometimes I change my mind even after I've selected a color. In the end, it's just paint, and it can be changed for the cost of a new gallon.
Final Thoughts
And there you have it, my full process for choosing the perfect paint color without the stress (or regret!). Once you slow down and take it step by step, the whole thing feels so much easier, dare I say, even fun!
Remember, it's not about rushing to pick a color that looks pretty on Pinterest. It's about finding one that feels right in your home, with your lighting and your style. I hope this helps you make confident, beautiful choices that make every room feel like home.
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