People get hung up with color—paint colors to be exact.
There will be times when I’ll be called in to do a paint consultation for someone moving into a new home and they won’t have anything ready to go in the rooms yet. Despite this, they still want to repaint before they move in. And even though this is not the best time in the design process to pick colors, we do the best we can: by going with the color direction they want the most.
When is the best time to pick paint colors during an interior design project?
When you have almost everything else in the room selected!
When it’s been planned out! When it’s been designed!
There are million paint colors out there — yes, literally a million variations of all the colors of the rainbow. You can get a shade of any color in any type of paint you desire. So to begin the design process with the item featuring the most infinite selection just doesn’t make sense. Actually, it almost defeats the purpose of designing a well-planned interior.
How to choose your interior's colors:
First, you start with the rug. The rug tends to be the most difficult item to pin down with a color. You’ll need a sample, or the real thing, in order to do this effectively.
Btw: It’s worth noting that rugs always seem to vary in terms of color rendition when viewed on a computer screen. Rarely do they look the same online as they do in person. So don’t forget to keep that in mind when you’re perusing Pinterest for inspiration.
After you’ve selected your rug you compliment it with other selections you’ll be making for the room: fabrics; wallcoverings; tile or natural stone (if it’s a kitchen or bath you’re dealing with), etc. Each of these have limits on color selections. For instance: there may be 5 colorways available in a certain fabric pattern; 4 colorways in a tile; 3 colorways in a wallpaper.
After you’ve selected your materials and products for the room, only then are you ready to select paint. And not a minute before.
Fyi: While I will often select some paint colors to present in Schematic Design, I do so only as a suggestion of a color range. Some of the items laid out in my presentation might not be the ones we end up with. I would not select a paint color and get a room painted before we had those selections tied down.
Are you about to move into a new home and are preparing to paint?
At least get some colors that align with the hard, permanent surfaces in your home so your envelope can be pleasing and harmonious. And remember, there's always a chance, if you haven't selected furnishings or fabrics yet for the room, that you might have to tweak things once those are added in.