How to Choose Paint Colors
This is a test. Yup a test — just like the ones you had in school. It’s a simple one-page, ten-step test which, if you pass — and you will if you just follow directions — will help you make sure you don’t choose the wrong paint color. How to choose paint colors, the simplified edition:
You need a pen and a black Sharpie and this test printed out. Read through steps one to nine before you actually do anything, then read step 10 and do what it says. DONT SKIP AHEAD AND SPOIL EVERYTHING.
Directions for choosing a paint color:
1.Pick a color you love and consider that one for your room, You don’t have to consider the furniture, carpet, art or even the direction the windows face; pick a color you love.
2.Disregard the undertones in your flooring or other hard surfaces such as the fireplace, countertop or bathroom fixtures.
3.Believe that all your possessions — gathered over the years — will look fine no matter what color you choose. It will work, right? After all, there is every color in the rainbow represented here.
4.Ask all your friends for their ideas. Most of them will have a definite idea of what color you should use but don’t be surprised if it’s the same color as they have in their home.
5.Ignore the color of your window trim. It doesn’t really make any difference to the paint colors in the room.
6.Go to the paint store and pick up at least 10 paint chip strips and lay them on the table and pick the one you like the most.
7.Paint a 14 x 14-inch square on the wall of each color, putting them close together so you can stand back and see all of your choices at once.
8.Disregard your lifestyle — or your families. Paint color has nothing to do with lifestyle.
9.Forget about hiring a professional. What do they know that you don’t? It’s your house, after all.
10. Go back to direction number one and, using the pen, write, “Don’t” at the beginning of the first sentence. Take the Sharpie and blackout the remaining sentences in that step and repeat for steps 2 to 9.
Reread. Commit to memory.
