Homeowner's Guide How to Select Room Colors

Homeowner’s Guide

How to Select Room Colors

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Choosing paint colors for a room is a very personal decision. The colors you like best in a home may be inspired by a favorite painting, or your wardrobe, or even by places you enjoyed visiting and now want to bring part of the memory back home. Room colors can be inspired by the latest design trends or by the mood you want to set for the room.

We love helping clients select colors for a remodeled room. We know it is an important decision for them because it is the way they want to define their new space. We listen very closely as they describe what they want to achieve and then we use our design experience to help narrow the choices.

We have prepared this homeowner’s guide as a resource to help you select the perfect paint colors for the rooms in your home. It begins with tips on how to go about selecting room colors. We then introduce several online tools from major paint manufacturers – Benjamin Moore, Sherwin-Williams, PPG Pittsburgh Paints – and walk you through how to use those tools to select the right colors for your rooms. We also have a section that shows you how to test paint before making a decision to buy and apply it.

If the latest design trends in interior colors serve as inspiration to you, we’ve included a chapter on the paint manufacturers’ 2014 Colors of the Year and a chapter on our choices for the Hottest Interior Colors for 2014.

We hope you will find this information helpful. We would welcome your questions and comments.

Sincerely,

Brian Ciota Vice President & Co-Owner

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Table of Contents

1. How to Select Room Colors ...... 4

2. Online Interior Paint Selection Tools ...... 5

3. How to Test Paint Colors ...... 13

4. The Paint Manufacturers’ 2014 Colors of the Year ...... 14

5. The Hottest Interior Colors for 2014 ...... 15

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1. How to Select Room Colors

One of the keys to using color in a home setting is to coordinate the hues of various rooms. Think of your home as a color palette when making color choices. We find that people are often afraid of experimenting with color and are unsure of what tones will be pleasing in their homes. Here are a few tips to help you select room colors:

 Consider colors that appeal to you. What colors are most frequently in your wardrobe? If you’ve visited homes or have photos of rooms that serve as an inspiration for your project, what colors caught your eye?  Look at your furnishings for keys to wall color. If you have upholstered pieces, what are the dominant colors? Would you use a similar or complementary color on the walls?  Use the “Color Wheel.” Remember your art classes in elementary school when the art teacher pulled out a color wheel? Those principles are helpful in selecting wall colors, trims and accents for a room in your home. Benjamin Moore’s “Color Language” guide has a very helpful section on how to use the Color Wheel to select interior paint colors and combinations.

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2. Online Interior Paint Selection Tools

Paint manufacturers have come a long way in creating tools to help consumers select the right room colors. Now, we’re taking it one step further by bringing you the best-of-the-best of what the manufacturers have to offer online. Just one word of caution – it is best to use these tools with a high resolution computer monitor that is capable of showing colors most true to the manufacturer’s paint colors. Benjamin Moore

Color Gallery

The Color Gallery contains more than 3,000 paint colors and 28 options for narrowing your choices. The options are organized in three groups:

 Color Families. Select from warm colors (yellows, oranges, reds), cool colors (pinks, purples, blues, greens) or neutral colors (browns, neutrals, whites, grays, blacks).

 Color Collections. Here you can select paint colors featured in eight Benjamin Moore Color Collections, including: Color Preview, Affinity, Off-White Colors, Designer Classics, Historical Colors, Classic Colors, America’s Colors and Color Stories.

 Trends and Favorites. This grouping also offers eight options, including Best Sellers, Most Viewed, Colors for Vinyl Siding, Young House Love Colors, WILLIAMSBURG Color Collection, Color Trends 2014, Candice Olson Colors and The Color of What Matters.

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2. Online Interior Paint Selection Tools

What we like most about Color Gallery is that you can narrow your choices by selecting individual options within each group. For example, if you choose ‘Blue’ in “Color Families”, “Historical Colors” in Color Collections and “Best Sellers” in Trends and Favorites it will give you three paint color choices.

Another great feature of this tool is revealed after you identify a paint color. Just click on the color and it takes you to a webpage just for that paint color where you can see:

 What the color looks like in a room  What other colors go with the color you chose  Similar colors to your choice  More shades of your color choice

Personal Color Viewer

This interactive tool lets you see how any Benjamin Moore paint color will look in a room. Here’s what you can do with the Personal Color Viewer:

 Select a photo that represents your space from their large gallery. You will then go to a webpage where you can select wall, trim and ceiling colors.

There are several options for selecting colors: enter the Benjamin Moore paint color name or number, select from Color Families and Color Selections in a drop-down format, or chose from a wide range of palette color options.

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2. Online Interior Paint Selection Tools

The gallery offers photos of five to eight interior room design options in these categories: bathrooms, bedrooms, dining rooms, entryways, home offices, kid’s rooms, kitchens and living rooms. We really love this feature!

 Upload a photo of your room and give it a name and description. You are then asked to identify the different surface areas in the room you will be painting. Walls, trim and ceiling are surfaces.

For each surface, you will use several tools to define the surface area. If you have used photo editing tools such as magic brushes and wands, you will be familiar with how this works.

If you haven’t used these features before, you may find it difficult to define the surface areas, especially trims or where objects such as dressers or wall decorations cover part of the surface area. The tool does try to block out unintended objects but it doesn’t always do it successfully.

 Registration is required to use the photo upload feature or if you want to save your work.

Color Inspiration Brochures

You’ve probably seen Benjamin Moore’s popular paint color brochures at dealer stores. Now, you can also view and download them online. These brochures provide many creative ideas and suggestions about color combinations for every room. Their current interior paint brochures available online include:

 Color Trends 2013

 Color Trends 2012

 Historical Collection

 Affinity Color Collectives

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2. Online Interior Paint Selection Tools

Color Capture App

With this app for iPhone and iPad you can capture any part of a photo and find its match from Benjamin Moore’s 3,300 paint colors.

First, take a new photo or choose from your library. Touch the part of the photo you want to match and it shows the matching color and four other color matches.

When you email the color capture selection, you receive an image of your original photo surrounded by the five color matches each with two complementing colors. The image also shows the Benjamin Moore color name and number for each paint color. You can also email the choices or share them on Facebook or Twitter. You’ll have lots of fun with this app.

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2. Online Interior Paint Selection Tools

Sherwin-Williams

Paint Color Visualizer

Sherwin-Williams has a great website that allows you to experiment with their colors before you invest in paint. Here’s what you can do with their interactive Paint Color Visualizer:

 Select photos of rooms that represent your space and drag and drop palette colors to identify the shades that are ideal for your home.

They offer a large selection of interior room scenes including bathrooms, kitchens, dining rooms, living rooms, kid’s rooms, laundry rooms and dens. NOTE: the drag and drop tool works best when using Sherwin Williams’ room photos.

 Upload a photo of your room and then use the drag and drop palette color tool. We found that the drag and drop feature does try to block out items that are not part of the walls such as sinks and furniture but it doesn’t always do it successfully. You may find some frustration with this feature.

 No registration is required unless you want to save your work.

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2. Online Interior Paint Selection Tools

ColorSnap Studio App

Sherwin-Williams has introduced an iPhone and iPad app – ColorSnap Studio – that allows you to match colors in a photo to more than 1,500 of their paint colors.

With this app, you can take a new photo or select a photo from your library. Touch up to eight different color points in the photo and the app will display the matching Sherwin-Williams paint color along with the color name and number.

You can email the photo and paint samples or share them via Facebook or Twitter. The advantage of this app is that you can select more than one touch point in the photo to match.

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2. Online Interior Paint Selection Tools

PPG Pittsburgh Paints

Paint Color Visualizer

PPG Pittsburgh Paints has an interactive palette to help you visualize how their paint colors will look in a room. Here’s what PPG’s Paint Color Visualizer offers:

 Select a photo from their gallery that represents your room. They offer seven galleries – bathrooms, bedrooms, dining rooms, foyers, kitchens, living rooms and sunroom. Each gallery has two to six stock photos.

After selecting a photo you’ll need to select the colors you want to consider for your project. There are four options for selecting colors:

 Color Family (lots of choices within 11 different color families)  Collections (Harmony, Essential, Designer and Regional),  Trends (Color Minded, Insider’s Guide, Wow Color Now, Our New Home, Surreal Real and Eco Echo)  Pulling Colors from an Image (upload any image from your computer and this tool will identify the colors in it)

Once you’ve selected the paint colors you want to try you can drag and drop colors onto surfaces including walls, ceilings and trim.

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2. Online Interior Paint Selection Tools

 Upload a photo of your room and then use the tool to identify surface areas (i.e., walls, trims, ceilings) and areas not to be painted. There is a zoom feature and a straight line drawing tool to help you outline each surface.

Once you are done with this step, you select paint colors in the same way as noted above. Then paint colors can be dragged and dropped on each surface. The tool will try to block out items that are not part of the surface such as sinks and furniture but it doesn’t always do it successfully. We found this feature difficult to use.

 No registration is required unless you want to save your work.

The Voice of Color App

PPG Pittsburgh Paints has a mobile app for Android and iPhone/iPad devices – The Voice of Color – that allows you to match colors in a photo to more than 1,800 of their paint colors.

With this app, you can take a new photo or select a photo from your library. The app automatically identifies the main colors in the image and will display the matching PPG Pittsburgh Paints color along with the color name and number.

You can save colors to a Favorites category but you can’t save your image with the colors. Also, there is no function for emailing your work or sharing it to social media.

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3. How to Test Paint Colors

When choosing a color for a room in your home, keep in mind that colors will change with lighting. Purchase a paint sample and try it out on a wood board rather than a wall. If you don’t have a piece of wood, paint a heavy piece of cardboard or white foam board. Give your board at least two coats to get the true color. Move it around the room and view it in daylight and at night.

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4. The Paint Manufacturers’ 2014 Colors of the Year

Many major paint manufacturers select a “Color of the Year.” Each offers a color that differs from competitor choices. Here are some 2014 Colors of the Year:

Benjamin Moore: “Breath of Fresh Air” 806

Sherwin-Williams: “Exclusive Plum” SW 6263

PPG Pittsburgh Paints: “Turning Oakleaf” ATC-38

Valspar Pantone: “Radiant Orchid”

Paint manufacturers offer products that coincide with interior design trends. Benjamin Moore is featuring a “Neutral Palette for 2014” of 23 colors, five are blue. Sherwin Williams has entered into an agreement with Pottery Barn to create “Pottery Barn Colors for 2014.” The palette of 20 colors complements Pottery Barn furniture and fabrics. There are many mid-tone colors selected to enhance the white, black and dark wood furniture finishes.

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5. The Hottest Interior Colors for 2014

This year “hot” is “cool” when it comes to interior room colors. Designers are selecting from subdued palettes. We will be seeing gray, beige, blue, teal and white wall and trim colors in homes.

When selecting colors for our annual list of the “Hottest Interior Room Colors” we look at the best selling colors from major manufacturers for tried-and-true paint colors that will stand the test of time. We also review trends on popular home décor websites and in magazines. Then, we consider how these colors may actually look in homes with products our customers here in Central New York choose for their remodeling projects.

Whites

We are seeing white used as wall color and as trim to complement beige, grays and blues.

Benjamin Moore's White Dove PM-19. This shade of white has a gray/olive undertone that provides a hint of color when used on walls but also complements gray, blue and green wall colors when used to paint trim.

Benjamin Moore's Simply White 2143-70. “Simply White” has a pale gray undertone, which makes it appear crisp. This is a color to use on trims, ceilings and walls.

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Beiges

Beige works well in rooms with blue, teal, purple, earth-tones, red, gray, green and black furnishings and accents. Since beige is a neutral, it makes colors in a room ‘pop’.

Benjamin Moore's Navajo White 947. Soft yellow undertones add a cast of gold to this perennial shade of beige. This color appears on many designer palettes and is one of Benjamin Moore’s best sellers. It pairs well with teal, blue, purple, green, dark gray, taupe and brown as a trim and stands on its own as a wall color.

Benjamin Moore's Muslin 1037. If you’re looking for true neutral mid-tone beige, this is it. There are no strong undertones of yellow or red. “Muslin” is one of those colors that works with many others and looks great with natural wood, white, black or blue finish cabinetry; stone veneers; wood flooring; and granite and quartz countertops.

Benjamin Moore's Putnam Ivory HC-39. Putnam Ivory has a subtle undertone of gold and stands out as a wall color when paired with white trim. It is a relaxing color that looks fantastic with the teal and indigo accents that we’re seeing so much of this year.

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“Greige”

Designers are using neutrals paints that mix gray with beige and refer to these colors as “greige”. We’ve picked three shades of greige for 2014.

Benjamin Moore's Edgecomb Gray HC-173. This is a color for walls and trim. Teal, olive green, russet, black, brown and shade of purple are enhanced by “Edgecomb Gray.”

Benjamin Moore's Copley Gray HC-104. “Copley Gray” is from Benjamin Moore’s Historic Color palette. The gray is more prominent in this color but the taupe undertones make it a good choice with earthy elements such as stone and wood.

Sherwin-Williams' Mega Greige SW-7031. This color creates a dramatic effect in a room. “Mega Greige” appears gray but has a brown undertone and could be used in a bath to complement granite and natural stone tile, a son’s room, an office, as an accent wall in a family room or in a contemporary-style kitchen.

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Grays

You will most likely be seeing a lot of gray in home interiors this year. At the 2013 CNY Parade of Homes, gray was used by many of the designers. It complements today’s marble, quartz, granite, soapstone and laminate countertops as well as stainless steel appliances. It also complements many colors such as yellow, red, black, navy, orange, violet and teal.

Benjamin Moore's Gray Owl 2137-60. “Gray Owl” is a soft versatile neutral wall color that looks stunning with “Simply White” trim. It can be used in kitchens with white painted cabinets, baths and bedrooms or any room of the house. If you love the look of a gray room with yellow, black and gray furnishings, give this color a try.

Benjamin Moore's Sea Haze 2137-50. HGTV interior designer extraordinaire Candice Olson worked with Benjamin Moore paints to create a designer palette. “Sea Haze” is one of the colors she chose. It’s a mid-tone gray that adds richness to a room.

Blues

Two shades of blue that you will be seeing everywhere this year are teal and indigo.

Benjamin Moore's Palladian Blue HC-144. We’ve listed “Palladian Blue” before. This shade of teal is timeless and one of Benjamin Moore’s best sellers. Year after year designers who consult with the country’s top home magazines use this color in almost every room of the house. It can change in light but always looks great even on cabinets.

Sherwin-Williams' Distance SW-6243. The designers at Pottery Barn chose this blue color for their palette, we like it too. It would be great for a child’s room or a media room. There are violet undertones that add warmth. White trim, doors and ceilings are the perfect accents.

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