Where To Find Color Inspiration And Ideas

Choosing paint colors for inside or outside your home is always a difficult task. The paint container can say that it is a Teal but when you have applied it on the surface, it reflects the color Moss Green.

Though the process involved with interior house painting or exterior house painting is simple — if you plan to paint it plain — but if you want to try being decorative by faux finish painting it could be complicated if you’re not aware of the techniques. Going back, selecting the paint colors is tricky and extremely difficult that is why some homeowners rely on trusted house painters.

The Basics

Hue, Value, Intensity, Temperature — these are some of the terms you will encounter in choosing the right color -- either paint or something else.

Hue is another word for color that is coined by professional exterior or interior designers.

Value refers to the lightness and darkness of a color. It is determined by the amount of white or black added to a solid color. Intensity is the measurement of brightness or darkness of a color. As a tip: low intensity hues are greatly used as main colors while higher intensity hues are best used as accents.

Temperature is referred as warm or cool. Color families of red, orange and yellow are warm, while blue and green are cool colors. Neutral refers to a combination of warm and cool like the colors beige. The temperature helps set the mood and it can affect perceptions of the room.

A hue can be combined with another in an infinite number of ways. The goal is finding the balance between these four terms. Determining which paint colors you like or should avoid is your biggest challenge. An understanding of color and its effect on your mood will help you make choices. Developing your own color scheme and sense of style is a large part of finding inspiration and ideas in painting.

Inspiration and Ideas

A great way to start in selecting colors is to see different combinations used by others. Inspiration and ideas can come everywhere around you.

• Magazines

Magazines are one of the best resources you can scout for inspiration or ideas. In fact, magazines like Better Homes and Gardens are born with this need to inspire and give ideas to readers. The thing is, due to limitations of the printing process, the colors in magazines or any other printed materials may not be an exact representation of any paint color.

• Manufacturer’s color fan deck

Another resource you can use is a manufacturer’s paint color fan deck. These can help you choose the best combination of house painting colors for your house. The fan deck is set accordingly by color families so you can have variable choices for the picking. You don't need to understand color theory or years of professional experience in choosing the best colors for your house, but rather the choice is entirely dependent on your mood and lifestyle.

• Television and Movies

Television shows and movies are very powerful influencers. Home magazine shows like HGTV or your favorite movies can inspire you in finding ideas for your home project. For example, you like the segment on HGTV where they featured a house decoration, you can wait at the end of the show where they acknowledge it so you can search more about it — same goes with the movies.

• Portfolio

Professional designers and decorators keep a portfolio of the previous projects they’ve done for clients. If you are intending on hiring a creative, professional service, you can ask their portfolio for inspiration.

• Internet

It’s a big, big world out there. The Internet is the ultimate resource when finding inspiration and ideas for your home. If you feel like emulating a Caribbean color palette to your house, all you have to do is just click and you can browse website pages to your fancy.

• House Painters

House Painters or painting companies also offer creative services to homeowners wanting a unified look for their homes. House painters are professionals with many years of expertise not just in painting house interiors or exteriors but can also offer exterior wood staining, drywall installation or lead paint removal.

Like designers or decorators, they also keep a portfolio of the projects they have done for homes or office buildings. You can ask them about it and they can walk you through the whole process.