apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

The best tip someone told me is when picking a room color place the color chip in a corner--that will be most like the color of your wall once it's painted. Too often you place a chip in the center of a wall where it's the brightest.

The best hint I ever got was to use opened file folders for samples. It gives you a large enough surface that you can really appreciate the color against your furniture and accessories. You can move the file folders around to see how the color looks on different walls at different times and in different lights. You can fold it up and take it shopping. Best of all, you don't have patches of color all over your walls while you decide; colors that you have to prime over later.

Yes, you can always repaint, but who wants to do that? Enjoy the process and take your time. It's a journey, not a destination.

Lots of good tips in that article. One of my favorites was #13, because I'll be buying Ralph Lauren paint when Benjamin Moore starts marketing sportswear.

Some paint brands have tiny samples of their paint colors. You can paint little patches in the darkest corners and then in the spots where the sun hits in the day. Wherever your light changes from day to night. I did that and lived with painted patchwork for awhile... it raised a few eyebrows from friends wondering if this was some weird new look I was going for but it really did help me to choose.

I'm just going through this process. The house we're painting was recently painted by the home sellers, probably specifically in preparation to sell, but they chose a bunch of life-sucking colors. I wish they had just painted everything white rather than the various shades of mud, rock, bark, and baby poo they chose. I collected swatches and inspiration pictures then went to Lowe's to get $4 cans of samples and painted them on poster board. It really helped us make our final decisions and only cost about $40.

I also like the tip about basing your paint color on your existing furnishings and artwork rather than the other way around. This seems obvious to me, but I know that it is possible to be so seduced by a particular color that all common sense evaporates.

Thanks for sharing this. I will be painting soon and looking at colors is exciting but also overwhelming.

We did the painted pieces of cardboard thing as well and it works wonderfully, but I guess the main thing is that you still need to assume that whatever color you pick will look much, much darker/more intense on your wall, even if you have a very bright apartment like we do. The other thing to be careful about is durability... we used Farrow & Ball paint because we LOVED the colors, the matte, satiny finish, and the low VOC levels... but man, that stuff is delicate. We've only lived with it about 6 months and we've already got condensation marks in the living room and kitchen, condensation marks and bubbling in the bathroom, some cracking in spots in the bedroom and fading near our heater, and lots of stains and scuffs that are impossible to clean off. We're going to have to do major touch-up this summer. No, we don't have a house of rampaging dogs and little boys... in fact, we're hardly ever even home. Nor did we paint ourselves, we hired professionals. It's just really fragile paint, and now I kind of wish we had gone with something lower-maintenance.

That said, our apartment *is* gorgeous.

I just read quiltmasters comment.. gee, that is such a smart idea! And here I am making a quilt out of my walls! Great tip, I'll try that next time I decide to switch out colors.

Posterboard is nice for samples, or a section of cardboard box. However, if you do paint on the wall, I advise my clients to do a good-sized section, at least 2' x 2' square. Leave distance between different colors, if trying more than one. And be sure to observe the color in evening light as well as daylight.

Never pick a color from under fluorescent store lights, they will distort colors (usually towards a greener, muddier shade).

And if you'll be buying a decorative rug, for heaven's sake, buy it first. It is so much easier than trying to retrofit a rug to an existing color scheme. You can use the rug for inspiration, pulling colors from that and scattering them throughout that section of the house. It's a fast, simple way to get a designer look.