Tips for choosing paint colors
Tips for choosing paint colors
Scripps Howard News Service
Must credit the San Francisco Chronicle
With sidebar: CHOOSINGPAINTSIDE
By LAUREN REED-GUY
San Francisco Chronicle
Choosing paint colors can be a daunting task, and Philip Reno, owner of San Francisco’s G&R Paint Co., is well versed in the “emotional drama” that many of his customers go through in their search for the perfect swatch. To ease your own color quandaries, Reno offers a few pieces of advice.
— Take note of what’s there: “Look around at the things in the room that you can’t or don’t intend to get rid of. If you have a blue carpet that you’re not going to get rid of, that’s a clue. That’ll help you to focus.”
— Hold samples vertically: “When people look at paint colors in a store, they always look at them as if they’re painting a floor — on a counter or a table. Light reflects off the samples in a way that makes them look much lighter. Hold it up in front of you like a wall.”
— Pay attention to architecture: “Sometimes the architecture itself suggests certain colors or styles. Victorians with moldings make it easier to do bold colors. With more modern architecture, colors flow into each other more since you don’t have the frames.”
— Be aware of context: “Nobody wants to walk in a room and feel like they’ve been hit in the face. Even if it’s a dramatic departure from the other rooms, it needs to make sense with the rest of the house.”
— Don’t be afraid to experiment with color: “People are generally color-phobic. If they try it even in a limited way — say, they paint one wall or a small accent a striking color — they can enliven the room at a low risk. Do something to bring color into the room.”
— Always test paints: “You absolutely have to test the color in the light of the room you’re going to use it in. The color will look different everywhere you see it. We sell painted samples to hold up on the wall if you don’t want to paint right then. The advantage to painting a sample on the wall is that the surface texture of the wall does have some impact on the color.”
— Block out other colors: “If you’re testing a color on a wall that’s currently painted a color, the current color affects how you see it. Put it over a primed wall or hang up a white sheet to get rid of the existing color.”
(Contact Lauren Reed-Guy at home@sfchronicle.com.)
(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.scrippsnews.com.)