4 Easy Tips Choosing Right Wall Color

Color can accentuate architectural details as well as direct traffic and create flow in your home. But how do you choose the color that's right for a given room?

1. Color Wheel
Spend some time with a color wheel to see what you like. You remember this tool from high school art class; it shows all the colors of the spectrum arranged in a circle and highlights the relationships between them. You may find yourself naturally gravitating to one side of the circle (say, cool blues and greens) or the other (warm reds and oranges).

2.Trends
Some perennial combinations never lose their charm,  like crisp blue-and-white kitchens or calming green bedrooms. But new ideas are exciting, too.

3. Experimentation
Complementary colors are those that lie opposite each other on the color wheel - that means they’re visually balanced, although the high contrast may be more drama than you want in a room.Sometimes combinations are more interesting when the colors aren’t direct opposites. You may also like the look of an analogous color scheme, which pairs colors that lie directly next to each other on the wheel; these combinations are common in nature, so we tend to find them pleasing.

4. Test Drive
Paint swatches won’t tell you everything you need to know. Buy the manufacturer’s test size in your new color and brush some on the wall (preferably where you can hide it with a picture later). Look at your paint sample in the morning, at noon and at night, so that you can see how the color changes as the light quality changes.