Answer I:
I use the books of paint chips to see what’s available and I also look around at other homes to see what color combos I like.
When I remodeled my home a couple years ago with a stucco exterior, the general contractor gave me a book of stucco colors to choose from. My wife and I knew we wanted a kind of sand color and white trim (like so many houses in Southern California). So, we picked a couple of possibilities and consulted with the contractor. He recommended one of our choices, called Pacific Sand, saying that it was a good color to not have a mottled effect (I guess that happens with darker colored stucco). And, that’s what we went with.
Inside, we wanted a generic look, but with some custom tones for accents on certain walls. So, we found a color called Muslin for the base color (a kind of light khaki color), and then chose darker tints of that color for accent walls. We also painted the ceilings white. It’s a nice effect.
When we had the interiors of our rental units painted, we just went with a basic off white.
Answer II:
First, go through magazines, card stores, fabric stores, and poster or painting websites, and look at what colors and ‘whole settings give you pleasure just to be around and to look at.
If they seem too overwhelming, they can still be incorporated as an accent color to a complimentary background color.
I like to choose these in ‘icon’ size after I have snipped or cropped my favorites and put them all into one file folder so I can compare all the pics together in the icon size..20, 50, or even 100 at a time.
What draws your eye in icon size tells you more about your tastes than in larger pics because in larger ones you get caught up in details away from the whole point.
In the paint store, you’ll see also anything goes and the palette goes all the way from light to dark, so take your hints from favorite pics, places, vacation spots and restaurants you love..including the sense of ‘weather’ you love…
You’ll be surprised at how much you already know you like.
If you see a color you like but can’t pinpoint it on swatches, blow up the picture on a computer and print it from photo shop in different color adjustments so your printer finally prints it as you like it.
Then cut out a 1″ circle in a white sheet of paper and lay it over your print and view the individual colors isolated from the others it the printed picture.
Against a white background, this helps you more easily pick the right color at the paint store.
Remember that in pictures, sometimes mood lighting alters the real color of the paint.
A consult from a scenery artist can help you deduct what the actual color is were it in the absent of the light-altering scenario.
But sometimes this lighting alteration is an advantage because what one sees exactly, is often exactly what one wants, as though ‘mimicking’ mood lighting, dust, dawn, dark, or blinding fog light.
One designer uses a ’seven layers of design’ approach original to him. This shows you how to assemble the whole thing and chooses what colors to use where.
Source(s):
Art & design background
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