At home, a new coat of paint can make or break its aesthetic. But choosing the appropriate hues can be daunting.

First of all, store-bought color swatches don’t always provide an accurate representation. Room exposure and lighting conditions can bring out subtleties you may have overlooked in store displays.

1. Know Your Space

Selecting paint colors can be a stressful and daunting decision, yet making an appropriate selection for your home is crucial to its design and style, especially in today’s open-plan designs.

Color can accentuate architectural features like molding, mantels, built-in bookcases, arched doorways and wainscot. When selecting wall colors to accentuate these features, choose hues that complement those found in furniture, fabric and accent pieces to prevent creating visual distractions and disjointed looks.

Ask your hardware or paint store for their largest swatches of paint samples and bring them home with you to test out in your space under different lighting conditions at various times of day, to better understand which hues work well with the lighting in your actual room and decor. This will give you a better sense of whether they will match with or clash with it.

2. Know Your Style

When selecting paint colors for your space, it’s also essential to consider its style and desired ambience. Warmer shades tend to create a welcoming environment while cooler hues may create more drama or intimacy.

Based on your design goals, paint colors should also complement and highlight permanent features of the room – moldings, mantels, built-in cabinets and doorways all present opportunities to add visual interest with paint.

Bear in mind that every color has an undertone, even neutrals. Knowing how to identify this undertone when choosing paint colors will allow you to find one that complements brick or stone walls easily – you can do this easily by testing paint samples on walls before making your decision.

3. Know Your Budget

No matter whether you are refreshing one room in your home or updating all of it, picking paint colors should be straightforward and stress-free. By setting a budget first and narrowing down your choices accordingly, ensuring that you achieve the look desired without exceeding it.

when selecting colors for your home decor and furnishings, it’s essential that you consider existing furniture, fabrics and decor before selecting new hues. This ensures your chosen hue won’t clash or stand out too drastically from those already present in your space.

When selecting paint colors, it’s also essential to remember that they will always appear different than they do on a sample card due to lighting. Natural lighting, daylight fluorescent or halogen lights all play an integral part in determining how a shade looks as well as its undertones.

4. Know Your Materials

Existing finishes such as tile floors or brick fireplaces should play a part in your color selections for your room; if you plan to install new flooring or furnishings however, then your choices can be more varied.

Color can do everything from make a room seem bigger to covering defects on walls; but to use color strategically and to achieve desired effects you must understand your materials and their reaction to whatever hues are chosen.

Waterfield suggests taking home samples and taping them directly onto your walls or purchasing sample pots so you can test out paint directly onto your surface. She advises comparing how it looks in natural and artificial lighting throughout the day as you observe its hues.

5. Know Your Colors

As homeowners of open-plan homes, it’s crucial that the colors you choose for each room work together seamlessly. To achieve an integrated appearance, “save strong wall colors for rooms viewed less frequently,” such as bedrooms or powder rooms.

Make sure to set aside ample time for sampling paint colors before making a purchase decision. Unfortunately, many individuals forget this step and end up returning multiple gallons.

Be mindful that colors can appear differently under various lighting conditions and depending on their undertones; for instance, lavender could look grayish under direct sunlight but more bluish after sunset. When choosing your hue, always test a sample in your space at different times throughout the day to ensure it matches what you expect.