Choose the right shades, find out how they will look on the wall, get acquainted with different effects, and learn to avoid mistakes when choosing paint.
To understand what color paint to choose for the wall, you need to dive into the subtleties that only designers usually know about color formulas, mixing shades, swatches and coloring, and different effects. After that, you will be sure what color you need and how it will eventually look in the interior.
1. Find out the color formula you like
If you know the exact name of the color, then it has a certain formula, according to which consultants in the store can help you choose the right tone for each manufacturer. For example, you learned that Scandinavian interiors often use “Stockholm white” for walls. Its formula is NCS S 0502-Y. This is an NCS formula that uses varying degrees of darkness and saturation for combinations of yellow Y, red R, blue B, green G, white W, and black B.
Example: formula interpretation NCS S 0502-Y
- NCS – Natural Color System. Natural color system.
- S – standardized. The standard, most commonly used version of this system.
- 0502: 05 is the percentage of darkness, and 02 is the percentage of saturation. The percentage of darkness and saturation is very small, so you get white. What kind of white – the last part of the formula will tell.
- Y – 100% yellow. That is, Scandinavian white is just a very light and desaturated pure yellow, without impurities. If, for example, Y10R were written in the formula, this would mean 10% R (red), and, accordingly, 90% Y (yellow), since the total should be 100%. If it were Y20G, you would get 20% G (green) and, accordingly, 80% Y (yellow).
It remains only to find the most similar offer from manufacturers. For example, Caparol produces a tone that is called S 0502 Y. Tikkurila has close shades of Jasmine and Calla. Farrow&Ball has White Tie 2002, and Alcro has Aggskal.
2. Bring home store samples
If you still don’t even know roughly what you want, for example, pale blue or light green, a palette of swatches that are in stores will help you choose a wall paint color. Most often these are cards or fans with different tones and names. Bring them home, put them on the wall, and look closely for a couple of days to see which one you like best.
Do not limit yourself in choosing patterns, try unexpected, bright, and saturated options. You might not want to use them throughout the room, but take inspiration from a contrasting wall.
3. Choose: tinted or tinted material
The paint can be tinted, with a ready-made exact shade that the manufacturer has already created for you. That is, if you know, for example, that you want a pale blue wall, you just need to see how a few close samples of pale blue look on the wall.
And if you know you like blue but aren’t sure if it’s rich or pale, you need a tinted version. That is, you will change it yourself, adding white to the base blue.
4. Make colors
Once you have chosen a paint color for the walls of the room, and you have begun to accurately select the tone, go from store-bought samples printed on paper to paint – it will give a complete understanding of how the surface will look.
How to paint correctly
- You choose the area on the wall where you will experiment.
- Apply the material in 2-3 layers on an area of at least 30×40 cm.
- Observe your feelings for at least 2-3 days. During this time, you will have time to understand how the surface looks in bad and good light, and how it fits with the ceiling and floor. You can even try sticking next to sheets of paper of the same shade that the furniture in the room will be, for example, a sofa.
5. Focus on the palette throughout the apartment
Even if you are faced with the task of repainting one room, you need to take into account what colors you have already chosen for the walls in other rooms. Consider not only living quarters, but also the corridor, kitchen, and bathroom. The more thoughtful the color scheme throughout the interior, the more coherent and professional it seems. It often happens that good and stylish color combinations are chosen in each room, but in general, the perception of the apartment is not harmonious.
Even if you don’t have the goal of keeping each room in the same style and the furniture for the apartment was not purchased at once and does not add up to a single picture, the walls are just the element that will tie all the rooms together.
6. Consider the combination of walls and furniture
When choosing a finishing material, keep in mind the furniture and textiles that you will place in the interior. Is there something bright, accenting among these elements, for example, a rich red sofa upholstered in velvet? Or, on the contrary, all the furniture is very concise and restrained, and you think that the interior will turn out faded? The answers to these questions should become the basis for choosing a finishing material.
7. Change the bad shade
It happens that already during painting you realized that you don’t like the shade on the wall, and you can no longer take an open jar to the store. In this case, you can change it yourself. To make it lighter is simple by adding a white base. But you can add saturation by buying a special color in the form of a paste.
8. Use different effects
- Imitation of plaster, which is obtained by adding different materials, for example, fine crumbs, and sand. The difference from conventional plaster will be a smaller thickness of the coating.
- The effect of silk, it transforms the room due to overflows.
- Imitation of sand – as matte or mother-of-pearl.
- Chameleon effect – the painted coating changes color depending on the angle of illumination.
- A velvet finish is created by adding hard particles that add extra volume. Using this paint, you can create the effect of a “soft” surface.
The most important thing about our X that it is for
those who are in a hurry
