A great interior paint job doesn’t happen by accident. A great paint job begins before anyone even picks up a brush. It’s all about choosing the right paint. Here are some interior design tips.
Color
For most Alpharetta homeowners, color is the most important part of choosing an interior paint color. It’s for a good reason too. The color of your walls reflects your lifestyle, your personality, and it enhances the vibe of the room. Cool, warm, light, dark, vibrant, or muted; choosing paint color is a big decision. So how do designers choose?
1. First, decide what you want the mood of the room to be. Exciting? Relaxing? Social? Sleepy? This will help you settle on a color family. For example, red can be warming, welcoming, and invigorating, or on the other hand, a bit too stimulating. It depends on the function of the room and the shade you choose.
2. Then, consider the practicality of the color and how it will look in your home’s lighting, with your décor. If you can, test a patch of the paint in the actual room before you paint the entire thing.
3. Finally, you can consider current trends in the residential painting industry, and try to align you style with the “in” colors of the day.
Quality
While homeowners and designers may fixate on color, professional residential painters care most about the quality of the paint, and for good reason. Paint quality affects everything, from the integrity and vibrancy of the color, to the ease of applying the paint, to the durability of the paint.
It’s true that higher quality paints will be more expensive, but they are more than worth it when you consider the benefits. Quality paints have better ingredients like prime pigments, and more of them, in the formula. Cheaper paints are filled with solvents and fewer pigments, meaning the color will be more watered down and the consistency of the paint won’t be as creamy, rich, or thick as it should be. Great paint goes on easily, fairly thick, and covers imperfections. It also retains its color longer, even with some typical sun fading. So avoid the cheapest paints on the market and compare the ingredients of competitive brands to get the best paint.
Variation
When you have found a high-quality paint and decide on a color scheme, next consider the overall finished appearance of the paint. Do you want a simple, solid color on the wall or do you prefer some variation?
Variation can mean a number of things. Wide, bold stripes have become a popular trend in recent years, as well as two-tone paint jobs where the walls are a different color than the ceiling and trim. Two-tone paint jobs add dimension to the house by bringing out the color of the walls and drawing attention to details in crown molding and other accents. Variation can also mean adding texture to paint. For example, distressed kitchen cabinets or chalky-finish accent pieces are very popular techniques in home interior painting right now.
Feel free to get creative!