How to gain confidence when choosing paint colour for your walls

Choosing Colour for your Walls

Colour is a very personal thing. When faced with a bare wall in an empty room, it can be really difficult to know where to start on what effectively is a blank canvas. The paint charts can be overwhelming with too much choice and so many varying shades. Never mind the initial decisions as to whether to go for a light colour or a dark paint colour, warm hue or cold...

sanderson colour choices, living room project

But let me tell you that Colour is your friend!

Since painting our bedroom in bold blue, I've decided that colour can very much be your friend! Learning to have no fear when it comes to choosing paint colour for your walls opens up endless possibilities. Because seriously, what's the worst that could happen? If it's not quite right, then it's totally cool - you can just paint over it again. So I'm all in for going with your gut instinct; don't second guess your choices, just delve in and see what happens!So here's a blog post dedicated to colour charts and choosing paints for colourful interiors.So where do you begin? Sometimes learning what your safe colours are can be useful as a starting point. These tend to be the colours your drawn towards, so check out your home and wardrobe and see what the reoccurring theme is....

..then experiment by mixing it up!

Try moving away from your comfort colours and experiment with new ones. For me this would be trying to learn that less is more and go for a neutral palette - I always find this so difficult! Bright. vibrant, colourful interiors tend to be my 'go too'.

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Introducing the Colour Wheel

colour wheel to consider when choosing colour for your walls

Bringing the outdoors in to the living room. Decorating the living room with reclaimed wood furniture

So I've discovered that the colour wheel can be a nifty tool to refer too when choosing paint colours. I'd aways really overlooked the colour wheel, or perhaps when thinking about it, it did in fact play a part subconsciously. But when analysing colour choices and why certain combinations go together more than others, the colour wheel makes perfect sense.So here's a couple of colour combination examples for consideration and how the colour wheel analogy works:Blues, Greys and Greens On the colour wheel they sit close together.They're warm and inviting colours which are harmonious and pleasing to look at, largely because they're found in nature and therefore familiar and comfortable.In our living room, we went for a soft green paint colour, opting for a bit of the indoor/outdoor natural feel. Choosing the exact colour for our living room certainly took us on a journey of decisions - check it out here!On the flip side, there's colours that are spaced out over the colour wheel.Reds Yellows and BluesOn the colour wheel they sit opposite each other.These colours can bring a completely different feel to a living space. For example, red/pinks, yellows and blue -which we went for in our bedroom! Going for this type of colour combination can bring vibrancy, personality and fun. And I'm all for bright, colour popping interiors!A TOP TIP I've learned is to choose one single paint colour to dominate and another two colours to act as accents. Yellow, for example can be a really good accent colour as it tends to spring forward in the room,helping to create that extra spark of life and creativity.There's so many amazing colour combinations to consider. I think I need to work on my Zen Colours, for example cool hues of violets and blues and hints of mint green.Or alternatively Neutrals... and then use textures and materials to help add the details and contrasts. For example, add in lace, trims, wools, throws, wood or pottery.

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So to round it up, here's a few TOP COLOUR TAKE HOME TIPS that I have learned when considering colours for your walls, that I'd like to share with you.In general, the following colour combination rules apply (although rules are often made to be broken!)

Warm colours advance into a space and cool colours recede
Cool colours can help to create an illusion of space
Warm colours help to create cosiness and intimacy and so can be helpful for large, vast rooms
Contrasting colours can help to produce exciting, dynamic and vibrant schemes
Related colours can help to produce comfortable, relaxed harmonious schemes
Consider choosing a trio of colours, one as the main colour, then a secondary and then a third colour as an accent colour.

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So hey presto, you've chosen your paint colours for your room, what next? Well now of course grab that Pinterest board, seek out those inspirational glossy home interiors mags (at last an excuse to buy the latest edition of Elle Decor guilt free!) and start creating your mood board which will help you to pull all your interior decor ideas together - but that's another blog post all together - (check it out here!)So have I convinced you that colour can be your friend? I hope so. If you experiment and go for something daring, the results might just surprise you and you'll come back wanting more!Think outside the box and perhaps you might even GO FOR GOLD! But what ever you do, make sure to enjoy your own colour journey. Here's a few photo snaps of ours X

VOTE FOR MAIRI HELENA IN THE AMARA INTERIORS BLOG AWARDS

If you are a lovely reader of my blog and enjoy our regular blog updates…then I am thrilled to say that my blog has been shortlisted for an Amara Interior Blog Award for ‘BEST COLOUR INSPIRATION BLOG‘! I would love it if you would like to vote for me by following this link here!

Forever grateful and I hope you continue to enjoy reading our new updates! xxx

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