Choosing the right paint + color

One of the home reno projects on our list this year was painting..and when I look at the final result I am shocked at the difference it made!

In this blog (part 1), I'm going to share our experience with choosing the right paint color.

Choosing a paint color

There are so many options out there for paint. Multiple paint companies, thousands of color choices, hundreds of different shades of that same color. It can definitely be an overwhelming process, but it takes trial and patience to make sure you choose the right color and shade.

Brand & Collection Type: We ended up going with Sherwin Williams for our paint brand. This is a pretty reputable paint brand and decently priced. There are different levels of paint you can choose from in terms of coverage. Since we were painting the whole house, we wanted to choose a paint that would include a primer and offer 1-coat coverage. I was a little hesitant about this since we were going from a medium paint tone to a light one, but it worked out perfectly. Out of the Sherwin Williams collection, we chose Showcase.

Color: With all of the options for colors, it's hard to choose just one. My biggest recommendation is to choose 2-4 top options that are in the same color family but slightly different shades. There is an option to alter the color by lightening it by a certain percentage (which is what we did with one color), but I would recommend against this. We lightened a color by 12.5% and the color had a blue-ish tint in the light and I think a lot of this had to do with the color change. We ended up going with the full color and I am so happy we did. We chose Repose Grey, which is a versatile color that is not too light and not too dark. It's the perfect median and a great grey tone that will match with neutrals and colors. Once you have your top color samples, I recommend putting sample streaks on your wall(s). If you plan on doing this in different rooms, make sure you apply the samples in all of the rooms so you can see how the lighting looks. Now it may look weird having streaks all over your house, but I gave it a few days to see how I liked the color in the different rooms throughout our house.