Choosing Paint Colors: Paint Is Today's Most Important Decorating Tool

By Lis King

(HIT) - Did you ever stop to think how often we use color to express our feelings? We talk about being green with envy, in a black rage, or in the pink. And then there's the proverbial "scarlet woman" and all those people with "green thumbs".

We've talked about color this way for centuries, and now psychologists confirm that the emotional impact of colors is serious business, indeed. Red actually increases our pulse rate, while cool, Nordic tones are calming. Green is said to be nurturing and healing, while purple promotes creativity.

Shari Hiller, home fashion expert for Dutch Boy Paints, agrees that color influences almost everything we see, think and feel. "It produces emotion, creates illusion, and evokes mood," she says. "So is it any wonder that choosing paint colors is the most important decorating decision there is? Take a paint brush to a wall, and the effect is magical."

How To Choose Paint Colors

Choosing paint colors is often a difficult decision. Oddly, even the woman, who'll pick the right color dress without a moment's hesitation, finds choosing color schemes for her home a daunting task. But then again, decorating products come in thousands of shades. In paints alone, Dutch Boy Paints offers nearly 1000 colors from which to choose. And Martin-Senour Paints offers a choice of more than 2000 different colors.

Like most designers, Hiller says that one's favorite colors are often a good starting point for choosing paint colors for home decor. "They'll probably show up in a favorite scarf, pillow, quilt, or painting … study the color combinations, and determine why those colors work so well together. Study nature for color inspiration, as well. For example, if you love a deep ocean blue, try to picture the colors that go with it in nature: pristine white clouds, soft corals, tropical greens …".

More Tips For Choosing The Right Paint Colors

Hiller recommends choosing warm paint colors for active areas, such as the family room and kitchen, and restful, cool hues for private spaces and rooms that get strong doses of sunshine. "Want to get a good dinner conversation going?" she asks. "Then see what scarlet walls can do …".

She also likes reds, yellows and oranges as a paint color choice for rooms with limited natural light, but recommends choosing neutral paint colors if you live in small quarters where a few rooms have to work very hard and serve many functions.

Joe Downey of Martin-Senour Paints recommends choosing paint colors to accent a room's positives and eliminate the negatives. "Expand small spaces by choosing pale, neutral shades of paint for walls and ceilings," he says. "Shorten long, narrow rooms by painting end walls darker than sidewalls. Highlight good architectural details by trimming them in contrasting colors. And remember that you can even use a painting technique that will add texture and dimension."

Color Choice Factors

It appears that we don't just choose paint colors because of their immediate eye-appeal. Hiller and Downey reveal that our color choices reflect our physical, emotional and intellectual values. Politics and the state of the economy as well as travel and cultural events are just a few of the factors that influence our color selection, they say.

For instance, when the economy is good, we use bolder colors, and do so exuberantly. And when the economy is down, we use colors much more conservatively. Uncertainty tends to foster a return to tradition and romanticism in interior design. That means many homeowners will choose the rich, deep colors of Colonial Williamsburg, the Victorian and Edwardian eras.

But more than anything else, we're presently expressing our environmental consciousness in our color choices. In fact, green is called the great new classic, and earth tones are newly fashionable. But they aren't just the browns and beiges long associated with the term. The new earth tones also include a spectrum of blues from sea and sky, greens from pale springy hues to deep forest shades, sunset colors, mineral tones, and even garden brights.

To learn more about choosing paint colors and color schemes for today's rooms, visit Dutch Boy and Martin-Senour online.

Courtesy: Home Improvement News and Information Center