crafting to decorate your home

Walking into a paint store can be overwhelming; there are so many colors to choose from, and narrowing it down to the perfect color can seem near impossible. Here are a few tips to make it easier for you to find just what you are looking for:

1. Get Inspired

The first step to painting the room of your dreams is to get inspired. You can find color inspiration in three easy ways: 

From a Photo Online: Finding inspiration online is easy. A simple search for images can give you hundreds of photos of interiors. Find one that resonates with you, and base your color scheme off of it. It can be helpful to bring the photos along so you can find the best color match at the paint store. 

From an Accent: Another great way to be inspired is to take something you already love and pull a color from it. You can get colors from a favorite painting, photo, or pattern on a bedspread, couch, or curtain. You can take the art or object with you to help you choose the color, or you can bring home color swatches to match it. 

From Another Room: You can draw inspiration from a different room in your house or someone else's. If you like something you see, you can snap a photo and match it at the paint store. Many paint stores have a color matcher that can take a tiny chip of paint and mix you a perfect custom color.

2. Consider the Light

Color is all about light, and colors can look vastly different depending on what kind of light is in your room. To check out the lighting in your room, take color swatches home from the paint store and tape them to the wall. Check out the color at different times during the day to find a good match. Some paint stores have little color samples of paint available, and you can actually paint small swaths of the wall to test out the color in the light. 

3. Choose the Right Finish

There are four main finishes in paint: gloss, semi-gloss, satin, and matte. The more gloss a paint has, the higher the shine. Gloss and semi-gloss paints are easier to wash off, but they can also give a bit of a glare. Matte is the flattest kind of paint, without any glare; it can be hard to get clean and feels dry and chalky. Satin is the middle of the road, fairly easy to clean, without a lot of glare. An associate at a paint store should be able to answer your questions about the finish and point you in the right direction.