After we painted our entire house (literally) I wasn’t too sad to put down the paint brush for a bit. While I enjoy the painting process, I also like sitting on the couch (and not the floor), getting manicures, and not coming into work everyday with paint in my hair. For my previous reflection on painting, see my Dear Painter poem here.
Well, we’re about to jump back on the painting saddle to tackle the baby’s room, and I think I’ve now settled on the shade of blue we’ll be using (see nursery mood board here). I’m kind of in love with the color and wanna paint my whole body with it 
I’ll be sharing the deets with you in a future post, but before that I thought I’d bring up the topic of choosing paint colors.
Picking out paint colors can be reeeeally overwhelming, especially if you happen to be a generally indecisive person, as there are so many colors to choose from! And don’t even get me started on mixing paint colors. So for those who have painting on the brain (Howarths – this one is for you!) here are a few personal recommendations for choosing paint colors:
Narrow it down. Before you go too crazy, decide on a general color first (i.e. blue) and from there, play around with the shading. Baby steps, friends
Research it. While picking up free paint swatches at your local paint or hardware store can be helpful, I also recommend searching for pictures of rooms already painted in the colors you’re debating. I find Google Image searching really helpful for this. Simply type the paint color into Google and click the “image” tab at the top. You can get a really nice feel for how the color looks with different trim and accent colors, and it’s risk free!
Test it out. Buy a small sample and test it out in your space. The type of lighting you have, as well as the time of day and amount of sunlight exposure in the space can make a HUGE difference with how it looks, so it’s important to test it out in a small area. Also, those small sample sizes (will run you less than $5) are great to have on hand later, as you can use them for quick touch up jobs.
Wait it out. I strongly recommend taking a few days after you’ve painted to really evaluate whether or not you like the color. Sometimes just the change in itself feels overwhelming, and prevents you from being able to really evaluate whether or not you like the look. A lot of times 2 or 3 days is all you need to get used to the color, and realize it works (or doesn’t – see #5).
RELAX! It’s just paint! If you hate it, sit back, have a beer, and paint again
Got any paint color tips to share? Leave them below!
I agree that this can be sooo overwhelming. with our house, i decided not to overthink it. I googled lots of images and chose colors without even doing samples (crazy i know!) we’re really happy with the results and I saved myself lots of agonizing!
I am SO with you, Danielle! A few of the rooms we painted we just went with our gut from the swatches, and were happy with it! However I also tend to be a pretty decisive person, so not sure if that made it easier