Tolbert Painting: Tips for choosing a new paint color for your home
For a home owner, the most difficult part of a paint project is choosing a color- it’s the reason I often end up painting a house the exact color it was. This doesn’t have to be the case, though. Picking the right color is a great way to update the look of your home and bring some refreshing change to your dwelling.
Home owners often ask my opinion for a paint color. This is shaky ground for most painters, because no painter wants to be responsible for a bad color choice that would cause a repaint. Typically, painters shy away from helping in the decision making process, even though the title of the C-33 paint license from the state of California includes both painter and decorator.
Picking a paint color doesn’t have to be this tricky; you just need to have the right tools and know where to start. Here are some tips to make the often overly-stressful process of choosing a paint color a bit easier for homeowners:
- If your home is in a Home Owner’s Association (HOA), there is a good possibility that your HOA has set some close parameters on your color choices. It could be as simple as taking a look around and finding the home in your neighborhood that has a color scheme you like, and mixing and matching those color choices given by the HOA to find what works for you and the style of your home. This method is also effective for non-HOA neighborhood, driving around to see what colors work, and how different colors are flowing for your neighborhood is a good way to narrow down a color choice.
- Often times architecture can dictate the direction of a color. If you live in a Spanish Colonial style home with a mission tile roof, you’re more likely to go with more Natural colors. If you live in a Victorian style home then Craftsman colors might be more to your liking. I recently had a client whose color choice for her exterior was inspired by eucalyptus bark. She had planned to isolate some of the sienna’s and silvery browns in the tree and make those color choices into a pallet for her home.
- Your local paint store is a great resource for color selection. Using a Fan Deck from your local paint store is a great tool for finding and isolating colors. If you find a color in the fan deck you like, the paint store will have the formula on file for that color. Typically, paint stores also have pre made color schemes available to look at and take home with you.
When it comes down to it, color is all about personal preference and color choices very from person to person. Choosing a new paint color for you home becomes very subjective- it’s all about what you like and what you have envisioned for your home. By using some of the above tips, hopefully the process of choosing a new paint color for your house becomes more fun than stressful.
Joel Tolbert is a professional house painting contractor and owner of Tolbert Painting. You can reach him by email at tolbertpainting@gmail.com.
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