apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

Honestly, I've never understood this question. It's just paint! You can paint over it!

Most paint manufacturers now offer "tester" paints in small quantity so you can get a bunch and try them out on the wall and then decide.

There is no reason to be afraid. Paint is one of the easiest and inexpensive things you can do to dramatically change your space and is just as easily reversible.

I agree with Laura! Buy good brushes and rollers, take care of them and you can repaint all the time for pretty cheap!

The beauty of paint is you can change it every weekend if you'd like.

I would recommend with one or two walls, see if you like the color through different light (day, night, artificial) and then finish the job if you're happy with the color choice.

I think it's a fair bet to say many people dread the idea of painting their walls from a practical standpoint (at least from my experience talking to paint-fearing friends); the physical act of preparation (moving furniture, covering details and the flooring, etc) is a major investment in time. Even doing a single wall can be enough of a challenge preventing many folks from taking the plunge, and there's something about application to walls that at least seems permanent in itself when going from a completely white wall to a room with colour. I've found offering non-permanent options help people resolve these issues more easily...something clicks in their head once they get over that initial fear.

But perhaps the best inspiration to motivate people to bring in colour is seeing other people's home where colour is executed well. An inspiring example trumps all :)

Go to your closet- there's a good chance that you have a certain color preferance that you don't even know you have!If you prefer baby blue button down dress shirts and khakis , you're pretty safe with a decor of soft blues taupes and browns- If you prefer to wear red and orange hawaii print shirts, you could get a little more adventurous with your color choices!!
Don't forget, it's your space ,and your the one who has to look good in it; so 'dress' your home accordingly!!

What I tend to do in choosing color is to decide generally on what color I want before I look at swatches. E.g., I'll decide I want a creamy, muted yellow, not too dark. Then I'll go to the paint store and try to get as close as I can to the color I've already envisioned. This works better for me than just looking at a wall of paint chips, because if I do that I'm inevitably drawn to my favorite colors, which aren't necessarily best for my walls (lime and olive greens, for example).

Plus, when you're at home, you're looking at your furnishings and fabrics and can decide what will look best. I'd also recommend bringing any pictures or fabric swatches you can to the paint store, though, to make sure your paint won't clash.

The paint I use is C2. LOVE it. Anyway, they sell 18" x 24" paint swatches that are made from the actual paint slathered on posterboard, so you don't even have to break out a brush to test the color. For $6 you can buy the swatch, take it home and see how it looks.

I also agree with gregory's advice to look at other people's homes. If someone's used a color you really like, ask what it is and get a swatch or tester to see if it'll work in your room.

You'll have to paint samples on the wall. They always look different on the wall than on the chip.

Something to consider - a lot of chips are printed on a printing press. That's one thing nice about the Devine "chips" - their 8x10 chips are spay painted with actual paint.

Even still, you'll see a difference when you actually paint it on the wall.

I liked their sample for "moss" but on the wall it was too dark and I went with the lighter "olive".

Like someone else said - it's only paint.

Here's something that may help - look at lots of pictures. Go to the news stand and get a bunch of home design magazines. Rip out the pages you like and spread them out and you'll get a feel for color schemes that will work for you. Also don't feel locked into a single color. I used chocolate brown, a taupe, and a wine-red color together in the same space.
- but that's me, everyone has different ideas.

Also go get a Pottery Barn catalog - they have started to print on some of the pages the names of the paint colors in their pictures, so if you like Pottery Barn that's another way you can go. I actually got the idea for basing my chocolate patette from a Pottery Barn ad, although I used different paints than they did.

What Gregory said -- the hassle of painting is huge, especially with a small child in the house. I fear it.

About the canvases -- is there any particular reason to use canvases? They're so expensive. I was just going to use big pieces of paper.

Here's what I'm worried about. I have an open floor plan - kitchen flows directly into living room, which is a wierd shape, kind of composed of 2 alcoves and one long wall. Kitchen is going to be a light spring green (BM dill pickle, I think - the color of Scrappy Girl's living room on dominomag.com). I'm thinking the living room is going to be light blue and light orange. I realize this will make no sense with out a visual, but the main walls of the living room would be blue and the alcoves would be orange. Cobalt accents in both living room and kitchen. I love the way the scheme works in my head (trust me) but I'm afraid it's going to be too many colors in a small space. Painting samples on the wall won't really help me figure that out. Any suggestions?

In case this helps--

I paint one wall at a time. Sometimes weeks go by in between. I'm a busy person, but I actually enjoy painting, so I just kind of work around my schedule. The cool thing is you don't really have to move everything in the room. You just push it away from the wall you're working on. Way easier. Push it all back when it's dry and you can live in the room between attacking the various walls.

I recently painted my office and boy was I glad I sprung for small cans of Ralph Lauren paint to sample (they also sell little tiny sample packs but they didn't have the color I wanted and I didn't want to wait for an online order). Also, since I was painting the room one wall at a time, it gave me a moment to live with the color and really figure out if I loved it. Which I did. But if I didn't, I'd only have had to repaint one wall instead of four.

If you don't want to commit to painting a whole wall just yet, go to an office supply store & buy some poster boards in white. Buy the paint colors you want in the smallest size available, & paint away on your boards. Then hang, stick or tack the boards up on different walls & see which color you gravitate towards the most.

Or buy 8x10 paint chips of the Devine paint colors. At $2 a chip it's cheap and 8x10 is a pretty big size. Also Devine sells paint "pouches" for $4 that let you paint a really big section of wall so that's a cheap way to go. They have an online store if you can't find a dealer in your area (www.devinecolor.com).

do a little at a time and see how you feel about it- maybe do the blue, then wait a week or so and decide whether it needs the orange, maybe then do one alcove and if you hate it try something else- believe it or not there are NOT exact rules for painting/decorating- everyone's taste is different and no two spaces have the same feeling/light etc.
I once used leftover paint to do a new apt after loving the color scheme in my old place-I thought they were similar enough to carry it, but I was very surprised as to how wrong the colors were for the new space!!So what works in one person's home or in a magazine may not work for you...go with your head though, if you want blue and orange just do it!!

I think canvases best emulate wall surfaces, and they're fairly affordable when you got a decent art supply store. You can also easily move it around and hang on different walls, living with the new possible colour choices in different settings. I personally like to see large swatches of colour instead of small cubes...the scale of colour and its impact changes a room dynamically, and I think swatches are insufficient.

If you get poster boards, paint the shiny side, it's mor elike a primed wall surface. These are great for moving around to see how the light plays on the new color.

I was another posterboard fan but then I started using freezer paper, it's just as easy, lighter weight, and less overall waste when I'm done using it. It comes on rolls in the grocery store in the same section as plastic wrap, it's white, has a flat side and a shiny side (I already use it as a temporary palette when I'm doing decorative paintwork). I paint, choose a color I like, make multiple sections of that, and hang it on at least two walls so I can judge the impact of lighting and shadow on my perception of the color. I generally use the flat side and, as long as you're not testing a water-saturated medium, like a thinned glaze, it works well for me.

I also need to try the colors, first. Putting it up on the wall and watching it change colors throughout the day allows me to get the whole picture. I'm lucky enough to live in Tucson and I can visit Citron Paint anytime I want. I can get samples of paint (they sell 3oz pots) and try out the colors first. I'm having a love affair with Mr.Darcy, a deep blue that captures the elegance of the colors' namesake. I've also discovered Porch Light, which is a creamy, glowing yellow that reminds me of my mom, who left the light on for me when I was a teen. There are so many wonderful colors and none are dull or boring. I want to paint every wall a different color!!