Tips for Choosing the Right Colours for Your Home Tired of your boring white walls? You’re not the only one. To this day, it seems almost as if the brightly coloured kitchens and living rooms of the 1950s and ‘60s are solely mainstays of the past, though people prefer to live their lives in colour. House painting, like fashion, can be an easy and effective way to express yourself, so don’t be afraid to leave those dreary whitewashed walls in the past! All it takes is a fresh coat of paint. Step 1: Choose a Colour You Love It’s a good idea to pick a colour you already enjoy. It can serve to help define your character, if that’s what you’re going for. It will also guarantee a longer lifespan since it will take your longer to tire of it. Never fear! Keep in mind that nothing is permanent. Though some interior decorators will tell you shades of green and grey are the hardest colours to paint over, even those colours can be replaced if you grow tired of them. Step 2: It’s Best to Be Balanced There’s a rule in interior design called “60/30/10” and it’s good to keep it in mind when choosing your house painting colour scheme. 60% of the space should be taken up by a dominant colour, 30% of it with a secondary colour, and the last 10% reserved for accenting. If you’ve chosen a primary colour, but can’t think of anything to pair it with, an Ottawa painting specialist would be happy to help narrow down the options to you create your perfect environment. Step 3: Beware of Clashing Atmospheres Most people don’t consider themselves “artists,” and can be a little intimidated by colour-related jargon like “warm vs. cool colours” and “bright vs. gaudy,” etc. The simple solution is: don’t overthink it. Warm colours are the colours you associate with fire (reds, oranges, yellows, browns); cool colours, with ice & nature (blues, purples, greens, greys). When colour pairing, colours in the same groups, and shades therein, tend to work nicely together. Many Ottawa painting specialists and decorators will advise you against excessively using colours that are too bright, meaning solid blocks of complementary colours that pop against the colour scheme in the background and anything that would be unique – or visually jarring – in and of itself, like metallics and neons. That being said, this is your space, and making it say something about you is most important. When all is said and done, the colours you choose are entirely up to you, even if a professional decorator wouldn’t make the same calls. In the end, you’re bound to feel more at home in a new room with character than you ever did inside a cold, clinical whitewashed room, and that’s all that matters.