Home advice: Paint shows your true colours

Try adding colour to non-public areas of your home before you go straight for the dining or lounge. Photo / iStock

Trust your judgment to find the right paint.

Some people have a natural instinct when choosing paint colours for their home but the more chromatically challenged will spend hours agonising over the precise shade of white to use in their bathroom. If you fall into the latter category it may simply be a matter of learning to trust your own judgment or instincts. So before you call in a colour consultant, check out these simple guidelines on colour selection.

1: Be inspired

Think long and hard about the colours you like. Choose a colour palette based on a favourite piece of art or furniture, a photograph, rug, even an item of clothing you adore. Some paint shops can mix colours to match if you take them a fabric or carpet sample. Carefully examining your inspirational image or item will provide plenty of clues about the types of colours, their shades and tints that you innately prefer.

2: In the mood

Another key pointer for colour selection is the type of mood you're aiming to create. Bedrooms are normally calm, quiet places, hence the frequent use of cool blues, greens and neutrals on their walls. Social spaces such as family and dining rooms invite warmer colours. Red is said to stimulate the appetite and yellow is associated with food, cheerfulness and energy.

3: What's there?

Large elements in your home, such as the carpet, wooden floors and furniture, will have a big influence on the colours around them. If you have timber flooring throughout the house obviously you need to choose a colour for the walls that complements it. Remember that light will be reflected from a floor, particularly a shiny one, on to the walls, affecting how you see their colour. And there's no point painting the living room only to discover the colour doesn't work with the new sofa or your favourite armchair.

4: Test drive

The best way to avoid such a dilemma is to never select a colour based on how it looks in the shop. Take colour cards, chips and test pots home and see how they look in the room you are painting, particularly in different lights. Ask for larger brush-outs as these can often be easier to assess when placed against or pinned to a wall.

5: Light it

Never under-estimate the effect light has on colour. Natural daylight is the only way to gauge true colour but this can vary, of course, at different times of the day and even according to the season. Artificial incandescent lighting casts a yellow tone whereas LED and fluorescent lighting is bluish. You might find a colour too bright near a large window, but it can look completely different on a wall with indirect light.

6: Use a colour wheel

It can make life so much easier. Colours need at least one unifying feature to work well together and using a wheel will help you find out whether they harmonise (are close to each other on the colour wheel) or complement each other (come from opposite sides of the wheel). It also helps if colours are similar in tone, that is they contain roughly the same amount of grey or black.

7: Private view

Don't choose colours for your living room first. Practise on spaces that are not public, such as the family room, bedroom or even bathroom.

8: Double feature

If you're nervous about using strong colour but would love to use it in your home, try painting a feature wall (or two).

Colour forecasts

Every year, designers, colour scientists and marketers deliver their predictions on what colours will trend globally in fashion, interiors and product design for next season.

According to the Pantone Color Institute, next year the emphasis will be on natural colours, such as rosy clay plus brights like cobalt blue, pastels of pale peach and wan blue and muted and smoky colours. Other forecasters suggest olive green will be big as well as spicy colours and neon brights. Grey wins the prize for hottest neutral.