The simplest way to give your home a fresh new feeling is to paint the walls. A fresh coat of paint gives us that new home smell, erases any dirt and dinge that has piled up over time, and can definitely change the vibes in your home to a new feeling of freshness.

Whether this is the only change you are making to your home, or this is a decision to be made as part of a remodel, it is one of the most important decisions you can make regarding the overall aesthetic of your space.


To begin making the decision, start with what else will be going into the space. What is the general color scheme of your space, and what colors or ideas are consistent throughout the home. Most people don’t drastically change the undertones of the colors throughout their home, meaning that if you like a modern, bright white with a blue undertone, you are likely to have throw pillows, small pieces of furniture, bedspreads, etc, in these snowy white tones. The same goes for a parchment white. You might lean towards terra-cotta colors and creamy off-whites, or towards very neutral grays with splashes of purple throughout each room. Look throughout your space now, or at the pieces of furniture you are most considering for your home, before you begin considering paint color. Often, this isn’t even a conscious effort of consistency. You are just drawn to a similar color story when you make purchases.

Once you have gathered a good sampling of those colors that you have found make you feel at home, then get samples where you can. If you have fabric samples of the incoming furniture, drapes and area rugs, place those together. If you have flooring samples, wood or paint colors of wood furniture, add those as well.


Then of course is samples. Always, always, my highest recommendation for making the right decision, is samples. I absolutely love Samplize.com for this. And this is not an ad, just a resource I use frequently. Samplize sells large samples of pre-painted peel-and-stick surfaces in several colors. They have the color libraries for Banjamin Moore, Sherwin Williams, Farrow & Ball and PPG. I have a set of go to whites in each of these, but typically for my clients I order 6-10 samples, which includes a variety of the shade they are considering, be that white, blue, green, etc, and always in the mix I add a wild card. The wild card is a color that we might not be considering, but that with everything else happening could really be a show-stopper.

Place the materials sample you gathered against these Samplize samples to see if there are any you can immediately eliminate. Then, you’ll want to take the remaining samples and get them on your walls.

I personally never actually use the peel-and-stick feature with the Samplize, but I do use painters tape and tape them up on the walls. The key here is to move them around over a period of a week, because the colors WILL look different on different walls, at different times of day.



After that week, take your 2-3 favorites, and buy the pints or sample sizes of these from the manufacturer, and put the large swatch of that on a select wall. Live with this for another week before making your decision.

The color isn’t the only decision to make when preparing to paint your home, but this process will help you be sure that you are making a great color decision. One last note-Be sure that the color brings you joy, and let yourself be bold. Start with some bold samples. Just because you order samples does not mean you have to put that color on the wall, but what if…? This isn’t about what is “expected” or “normal”. This is your home. You have permission to put on your walls any color that makes you feel the way you want to in your own home.

If you would like to talk about a color option, get my suggestions on colors to order from Samplize, or talk through what else you may need to consider when thinking about painting your home, please feel free to reach out here. If you are feeling overwhelmed and need more help, then consider our Overcome the Overwhelm Service and I will give you a call to see if that is a good option for you.