Thinking of repainting your Vancouver home but you’re just not sure what colors to use? We’ve checked the top interior decorating sites so you don’t have to. Every year designers do their best to predict what colors will be the newest trend. Of course, it’s also important that the colors you use withstand the test of time. Unless you like repainting every year or two it’s important to choose colors that you and your guests can appreciate for years. We’ve reviewed the recommendations on the top 5 home decorator sites on Google and looked for where designers agree. Whether you’re looking for bold, trendy, or timeless, you’ll find reliable color choices here that will beautify your home for years to come. Read on to discover the 5 best interior paint colors.
The 5 Best Interior Colors: The Challenge
When painting your home you need to take into account several factors, before even deciding upon the colors themselves. Room size, natural light, flooring, and furnishings all influence what is best for that room.
Small Rooms
Stick with lighter colors. If bold is your thing, there’s no reason not to go bright. You want to avoid dark colors as these will make a small room seem even smaller and give it a claustrophobic feel. Consider painting one wall a lighter color than the rest of the room. Done strategically this can make the room feel larger.
A clever technique is to paint one wall in a lighter shade than the others. Strategically done, this creates a visual depth that tricks the eye into perceiving more space than exists. So, whether you’re a fan of subtlety or crave a burst of vibrancy, remember: that the right color scheme can be a powerful ally in transforming the perceived dimensions of your space.
Medium Rooms
The color selection here can vary more. Kitchens are usually best done in a light color but if you have unique or trendy surfaces in your kitchen bolder colors can work as well. Do consider the colors of your cabinets and countertops and ensure that if you’re going with something creative it doesn’t clash. Dark colors are best avoided unless you have a lot of natural light. We want our kitchens to not only be clean but to ‘feel’ clean. While a dark wall color by itself isn’t a problem, it soaks up the light. The resulting darker atmosphere can give your kitchen a grungy feel.
If in doubt in your kitchen, you can’t go wrong with white. If you want something with a little more character, try the warm gray listed below.
Large Rooms
Larger rooms allow for the most creativity in your color choices. If you have small windows so your living room or master bedroom doesn’t get much natural light, you should probably still stick with a light or bright color. Otherwise, feel free to flex your creative muscles. Bright, bold colors can breathe life into an otherwise plain living or family room. For your master bedroom, if this is your relaxing space consider rich blues or greens. If romantic is your goal in the bedroom, violets (even fuschia!) and warm blues can enhance the atmosphere. Avoid red in the bedroom though. It may be the color of romance, but it turns black in low light.
Furnishings
The colors you choose need to work with your furnishings, but this isn’t as restrictive as you might think. Having brown furniture does not limit you to neutral colors on your walls. If you want to go with something bold, use an online color picker (see below) to find vibrant colors that won’t clash with your furniture. Black or white furnishings have the most flexibility. With these neutral colors in place, you can put almost any color on your walls without fear of committing a color faux pas.
Tools
As we mentioned above, online color pickers allow you to virtually paint your rooms before a drop of paint enters your home. They allow you to upload photos of your rooms and change wall colors with a click of your mouse. You can try out our best interior paint colors picks and see if you agree with us, or use these tools to explore endless ideas of your own.
Here are several of our favorites:
Color Visualizer. Several paint manufacturers use this tool. We’ve provided the link to Dulux.
Sherwin Williams Room Visualizer
Benjamin Moore Color Viewer
You can use any of these. The brand of paint does not matter. We can match any color with the pro brands that we use.
PRO TIP: When taking photos of your rooms be sure to take them in even light. Strong shadows and dark areas won’t work well. Poor contrast can also cause trouble. Better yet, learn to use the HDR (High Dynamic Range) settings on your camera. It’s not difficult to learn and most modern SLRs and even some cell phones will do this automatically. An HDR photo will lighten shadows and provide a much evener distribution of light. This will give you much more reliable results when using these tools.
The 5 Best Interior Colors: The List
Google “interior paint colors”. Go ahead. We’ll wait. Check the top 5 results. You’ll notice right away that they don’t agree. Each site has colors suggested by their interior designers, according to what they think are the next ‘hot’ colors. This is very important to remember. While there are often trends that will determine how long it will be before your new wall colors start to look dated, it comes down to personal preference. Still, it helps to have guidelines provided by professionals. So we’ve gone through the top 5 sites and found common ground.
Bold Blues
Of the top 5 sites, 4 of them feel that bold, rich blues are an upcoming popular color. Only Behr disagrees. This is hardly surprising. Blue has long been the number one favorite color for Vancouverites. Perhaps it’s our proximity to the ocean, but more likely there’s just something about blue that speaks to everyone. Calming and bold at the same time, blue can convey a tranquil atmosphere or charge the backdrop for your next party with electricity.
Where to use it:
Anywhere you entertain or like to relax in your home. Living rooms, family rooms, dens, and bedrooms. Blue will work in all of them. Just remember one of the rules we mentioned earlier. Dark blues can make a small room seem even smaller, and they’re not recommended for spaces that don’t get a lot of natural light.
Clay / Terracotta
The only one every designer agrees on and it’s not hard to see why. The orangey-brown hue of clay evokes thoughts of the air after a spring rain. An earthy tone you can almost feel, as though you were digging your fingers into it. Warm and inviting.
Where to use it:
This color can work with almost any décor and in almost any room, from bathrooms to an accent wall for your dining room.
Sage Green
Don’t confuse this with the Forest Green that everyone loved, then hated, in the 90s. Sage green is a much less obtrusive color that matches very well with any earth-toned furnishings.
Where to use it:
If you do have browns, tans, or greens in your furnishings sage will provide a neutral backdrop to a living room, den or home office while still breathing life into the room.
Warm Gray
Neutral colors are almost always safe, but let’s face it, many of us are tired of white. A light, warm gray can work in almost any room and with almost any furnishings. From small rooms to large, it’s hard to go wrong with this color. Consider adding an accent wall of a darker grey or cobalt blue.
Where to use it:
Anywhere. As a neutral color warm gray can work in any room of your home, and for those who like every room to be the same color it may be the perfect choice. Out of our list of the best interior paint colors, this is the one we think will best endure the test of time. If you only want to paint once every 10 years, this is the color for you.
Tan
Colors come and go but tan walls seem to be timeless. From the ever-popular taupe, which is a darker shade of tan, to tans so light they glow yellow in the sunlight, this is a color for those who don’t want white but still want a color that won’t look dated 5 years from now.
Where to use it:
Living rooms, hallways, and bathrooms. It may have a bit too much of a ‘metropolitan’ feel as a bedroom color for some of you, but in the common areas of your home, this color is safe and goes with almost anything. Discover the best interior paint colors to elevate your space. Doctors services ensure expert guidance for a healthy, vibrant home. Experience a harmonious blend of aesthetics and well-being with our premium selections.
Just Don’t: 2 Colors to Avoid
Now that we’ve revealed the best interior paint colors, here are two ‘trending’ colors we think you should avoid.
Good Housekeeping’s recommendation of a light pink or blush color dubbed ‘millennial pink’ is one of those trendy colors that will become an embarrassment in a few years. Trust us on this. Just don’t.
Remember that Hunter Green we mentioned before? It’s making a comeback. We’re convinced its popularity won’t last any longer than it did the first time. Use only if you’re prepared to paint over it next year.
Doing the Job Right
If you’re considering hiring a pro to paint your walls we suggest you read our post on The Ultimate Vancouver Guide to Home Interior Painting . This guide will help you to choose the right company for the job. Also, we have a vacancy for a painter.
If you’re considering hiring a professional to paint your walls, look no further than Hemlock Painting. With years of experience, we guarantee that your interior paint job will be stress-free and of the highest quality. Call us with any questions at (604) 250-2561 and request your free estimate here.
