Interior Painting Color Ideas

Interior Painting Color Ideas

Whether you’re painting one room or the entire home, color is an important design element. The right paint color can help create a welcoming atmosphere, make a space feel more functional and even add value to your home.

Here are some of our favorite interior painting color ideas to help you get started with your project:

Blues & Greens

If you’re looking for a calming, relaxing space, consider a soft blue that has hints of green. These colors are perfect for creating a bedroom oasis or even for bathrooms and dining rooms.

Grays & Neutrals

Many people opt for warm-ish neutrals in their homes, such as Sherwin-Williams Sea Salt (SW 6204) or Benjamin Moore Gray Owl (2137-60). These hues are often described as chameleon-like because they look different depending on the room’s lighting and even the furniture in a room.

The best way to determine the right interior painting color for your space is to test it in a real-life setting with natural light. That means putting a paint swatch on a 4-by-4-foot sheet of foam-core board and letting it sit for a few days to see how the paint reacts to the upholstery and other elements in the room, suggests Benjamin Moore color expert Doty Horn.

Another great way to find the right paint for your space is to use a color wheel or color palette tool, like Foyr Neo’s. These handy tools can generate color scheme ideas quickly and can be used in conjunction with other resources, including your favorite paint manufacturer’s website.

Pinks & Oranges

Pale, sorbet-inspired shades of pink and orange are sweet and bright but also lively. They’re a great choice for living rooms and bedrooms, and work well with white trim or other bold furniture pieces to keep the overall mood of a room in check.

Deep Reds & Browns

If you want to bring in a touch of color without making a space seem too busy or overbearing, try deep shades of red. These hues can be paired with other neutrals to help balance the mood in the room and add interest and texture.

Alternatively, dark reds and browns can be a more dramatic choice for an accent wall. They can also help create an architectural emphasis where one doesn’t exist, according to Doty Horn.

Hygge Shades of Green & Grey

The growing popularity of the hygge movement in Denmark promotes a sense of warmth and coziness, and these colors are a great way to represent this feeling. PPG Paints color expert Dee Schlotter recommends Whiskers (PPG 1025-3) as a soothing greige that can help create this feeling in your space.

Earth Tone Paints

These paint colors take their inspiration from the natural world, which lends a sense of grounding to any room in your home. These colors can be used in bathrooms and kitchens to create a soothing environment or as an accent color in living rooms for a more dramatic effect.