CHOOSING PAINT COLOURS

Choosing paint colours is an individual thing, I’m a professional painter and when it comes to painting my own house its normally a compromise between what I like and what my partner likes. I have seen a few master bedrooms painted pink so its not hard to tell who wears the pants in that family.

A colour consultant can be used but they don’t always get it right either, like all of us they have their preferred colours and tend to favour them. I do remember helping a friend paint the exterior of a hotel and the colour consultant for the project just happened to be female. We were past the half way mark with the painting when work was stopped, I’m not sure who it was that came to their senses but a pub painted in shades of pink and purple wasn’t right. I can't remember what happened to the colour consultant but they ended up changing some of the colours because to re-paint the whole building again would have cost too much.

So when it comes to choosing paint colours remember what ever colour you may love may not necessarily be appropriate for the area that you are going to paint. If you alone have to live with it do what ever you like but take into account what the end result might be if you decide to sell your house.

Interior Paint Colours

How do you choose a colour or colours for your room or house, well that’s a tuff one but here are some ideas on how to use colours. Choose your wall colour and if it’s a light neutral colour then you could use quarter strength of that colour on your ceiling and double strength on the woodwork. This is just an example of how one colour and different strengths of that colour can be used on other areas and yes most if not all paint supply place’s can and will make paint different strengths. By using different strengths of one colour you will avoid choosing a colour that does not match your walls. Instructions on how to make different strengths of one colour is down the bottom of the page just in case your paint supply is not educated in this practise.

Most of the interior painting I have done lately seems to be very light neutral colours with some opting for a dark feature wall to bring colour into the room. I personal like this idea but I have also seen some dark colours used in rooms that look stunning.

Exterior Paint Colours

When customers ask me for advise on colours I normally tell them to go for a drive and have a look at other house’s. This is one of the best ways to find what you like and when you do don’t be frightened to knock on the door and ask what colours were used.  I’m sure they will be pleased that some else likes their colour choice. Remember not to ask the neighbours, they might get upset if you copy their colour scheme.

Remember you are the one that has to live with your colour choice, if you like it then that’s all that counts unless your planning on selling. I say this because every one has different tastes (if they didn’t all house’s would be painted the same colour) and you don’t want to put buyer's off, choose safe colours if your selling. Your favourite colour might be pink, but not every one would want a pink house. If you use a neutral colour people may not love it but they can live with it, if its pink they will either love it or hate it.

Making Paint Different Strengths-Shades

This is very simple, all paints are made from a base colour, light colours are made from a white base and dark colours can be made from either a Red, Blue or deep base etc. Tinter is added to these bases to make the colour you require, the amount of tint and the colour of tint will determine what colour is made. I'm not sure on the exact number of tint colours but it would be about 12 or so and these are used to make all the colours you see. Each colour has its own formula, this is a combination of different tints that go into the base colour. All that is required is for whom ever is tinting the paint to equally reduce the amount of tint that goes into the base colour. so half strength would be adding only half the amount of each tint required and double strength would be doubling up on the amount of each tint that is required. There is a limit to how dark a colour will go before saturation point is reach (to much tinter and paint will not dry) and paint shops should know this. When making a colour lighter there maybe a point where the amount of tint added may not divide evenly, generally most colours are able to be made quarter strength of original colour.

I do know of people that add a dash of their wall colour to their ceiling paint but this is not a good idea. If you run out of paint or down the track you need to repaint a ceiling it will be hard getting the measurements right.