Paint Colors for Your Home in 2008

Too many homeowners are afraid to paint their walls with color but color can really make a house sell.  Color is an inexpensive and easy way to radically transform a space, and it can set your house apart from the competition.  If you’re thinking about selling your house this year or even if you just want to freshen up the space you live in now, there are two great sources for choosing trendy colors.

Sherwin Williams has predictions for 2008.

Pantone is the company known best to graphic designers and printers for its color matching system but also makes predictions for color trends.  Style Chicago has thankfully put a summary of Pantone’s guide on-line (normally only available for purchase).

If you’re still afraid to paint your walls, here are some guidelines I follow when selecting paint:

• Once you’ve selected a trim paint, base your wall paint selections on the trim since the trim will be in every room. Then, pick some paint swatches you like for the rooms and hold them up to the trim paint swatch.  If you like it, set it aside.  Once you have a few selections for your rooms, hold up the wall colors to each other.  Weed out the ones that seem to clash until you have selected one or two wall colors for each room.  I’ve been known to take 50 or more swatches from the store and lay them out on the floor at home.
• Use an object in your home as a basis for your color selection, such as a rug, painting or kitchen coutertop.  If you like the colors together in the object, you’ll probably like them on the wall. 
• Get sample colors and test them on the wall first.  I’ll hold up fabric or window treatments to see how they look.
• Pick lighter or neutral colors if you’re afraid to go really bright or dark.