Painting is the cheapest way to your home a revamp—it can give your home a complete facelift without burning a hole in your pocket as opposed to other projects like tearing down a wall, constructing a new one, remodeling parts of the entire home & so on. But it is only effective if done right, otherwise, all your money will go into the drain and you might have to live with the colors you don’t like for a couple of years (at least). As professionals, we cannot afford to make such mistakes because unhappy clients are the last thing we’d want. Well, now that you’re on this blog, you’ll definitely be able to save yourself from such mistakes as we are going to discuss some of the top mistakes people (and sadly professionals too) make in finding colors for their interior paint.
Tips To Avoid Painting Mistakes
1. Getting the LVR Right
Light Reflectance Value, aka LVR, denotes the amount of light a paint color gives off. It ranges between 0 to 100, with generally dark colors at the lower end of the spectrum and light colors at the higher end. This is because light colors like whites and other bright tones reflect light, whereas dark colors like black, navy blue & more absorb light—science fundamentals you must have already known since school, but little do we apply them outside textbooks into our practical lives. You can check the LVR of different colors on your paint chips or decks and determine how to paint your home’s interior walls.
2. Making Small Spaces Large
Is it even possible—well, not literally; although, paint has the power to make small spaces feel large. In fact, you’ll be amazed to see the difference paint can make in making the same room suffocating or spacious. A trick that most interior designers use to make small spaces look big is unifying them with paint. Oddly enough, one can go from absolutely light to intense dark tones to achieve this effect—they will work the same. The key is to make your interior head to toes, from walls to ceilings, baseboards, crown moldings & everything, work out together. This includes door jams as even a small element can break the visual effect of one big space you wish to achieve.
3. Working with Angled Ceilings
One challenge homeowners often come across is working around angled ceilings. With the ceilings that low, the room is bound to feel smaller. This stands true for big open floor plans as well where they are lots of odd angles against walls. The more the contrast in colors between the wall & the ceiling, the more we highlight the unattractive part—using different colors just makes the odd angles stand out, and clearly, we want the opposite. Thus, using the unity fundamental by applying the same color, you can make the room look big, diminishing the difference between the walls and the ceiling.
4. Adding Some Sheen to Walls
Not all walls require that smooth shiny texture; some may call for a rustic matte effect and the others, a pearl or satin-like texture. Depending on the area, its use & other factors, you need to determine the need for sheen. Typically, there are 5 types of sheens, namely, flat/matte, eggshell/pearl, high-gloss, semi-gloss & satin. Here’s how you use these:
- Matte Paint goes well in low-traffic areas in our home. This is because, matte paints provide a nice, soft & elegant texture to the wall and are not cleanable. Thus, we usually reserve it for areas like the bedroom, formal areas, living room & more.
- Eggshell Paint, aka pearl paint, is perfect for homes that have kids. They provide a performance finish and are also used for spaces like kitchen walls, ceilings, bathrooms & more where durability is required.
- Satin Paint for that oh-so-elegant sheen look that adds a touch of glamour to the space. It is a step up from the standard eggshell paint, providing a universal appeal. We use it for millwork cabinets, modern trim, and even front doors.
- Semi-Gloss Paint is widely used for traditional and transitional spaces. It adds durability and aesthetic appeal when applied to moldings, cabinet fronts, doors & similar areas. They are easily cleanable and look good.
- High-Gloss Paint gives a varnish or mirror-like finish to the applied areas. Its super glossy finish makes the space look glamorous. Its light reflectance value makes it perfect for areas like front doors, barn doors, and so on. Its super-smooth finish is very easy to clean—check for substrate before painting to avoid bumps or dips. When applied by professionals, it mimics automotive paint with that super-shiny and smooth texture.
5. Decoding The Light & Color Play
It is extremely important to understand the relation between light and color to get the paint right on your walls. The color is, after all, solely a function of the lighting around. The same color can look much different in a well-lit room as compared to a dark room. So it is super important to analyze the natural lighting in the room, the lights you are planning to install, and related factors before finalizing the paint. In dark or low-light rooms, warm-toned neutrals are the best bet as they make the room look brighter. Since there’s no light to be reflected in dark rooms, colors like white are off the table—it only looks bright because of its ability to reflect light. Also, using dark colors can make the room look smaller; saturated colors in light to medium tones are best for low-light areas.
6. Sampling to Get It Right
One of the biggest mistakes any homeowner or professional can make in the home painting process is going lazy in sampling. If you’ve hired a professional painter, make sure you ask them to provide you with samples. If they demand additional charges, just pay it—a little effort now could save you all the trouble later and help you achieve desirable results. Once you have your brush-outs, the first step is to pin down the body color, i.e., the color of walls, and then move on to other elements like the fireplace, flooring, windows, and so on. The body color will give you a direction and help you decide how other elements should be.
Professionals usually follow a secret rule of three that helps homeowners in pinning down their color of choice easily. They paint blocks of two sq. ft. at three different places—floor, level, and ceiling—of the wall. The same sample can also be tried in three different areas of the room—a corner, a wall across your window, and a shadow area. This way, you get a fair idea of what the final results would look like. Make proper labeling of different color samples across the room and study how it looks under different light conditions for three days, and that is how you will find the best color for your walls.
7. Feeling Afraid to go Bold
Last but not the least, a mistake that most of us would be guilty of is feeling afraid to go bold. Ken Charbonneau, a famous New York-based color consultant, suggests the importance of bold paint choices, saying that people who embrace colorful interiors do not have the fear of making mistakes. If you are going with neutrals just because you are too afraid to paint your walls colorful, it is time you get over that fear—the best way to start is with your favorite color. You can use it for a rug, fabric, painting, and other elements in the room. And if you think that that is the color for your wall, then go for it. Your walls define you, not the trend someone else is setting.
The colors you decide now, are the ones you are gonna live with, in the years to come. In following the latest trend, make sure out don’t choose something you might outgrow in some time. Steering clear of these mistakes can make your paint journey a happy one, providing you with better control of the process and final results. We hope this read was helpful. Stay tuned for more updates!
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