+ Color consultants shouldn’t impose their taste, but they may well suggest colors you wouldn’t have considered. Keep an open mind.

+ Trim, flooring, artwork, furniture and lighting dramatically affect wall color. Visualizing how a color will “read” in your home is where the pros earn their stripes.

+ Forget you ever heard that white walls make a room look bigger. Color makes a room warm, cozy and complete.

+ Even if you’re painting only one room, keep your entire home in mind. Avoid hopping from, say, a red room to a blue room to a yellow room with no unifying elements.

+ If you forgo professional help, learn to read a paint chip. Cut off all white borders and adjoining tones. Hold the chip vertically, so the light will hit it the same way it hits your wall. Take the chip home and tape it up. Move it around and test it in all kinds of light, including lamplight.

+ Colors often look different on the wall than on the paint chip. To test it, buy a quart or small sample, like the 2-ounce Devine Mini Paint Pouch or Benjamin Moore’s 2-ounce paint jar, coming to retailers this summer. Both brands retail for about $3.50. Test-paint the lightest wall (across from the window), the darkest wall (the window wall) and an area near the ceiling.

+ For mess-free testing, try C2’s “ultimate paint chips” ($4.99) These are 18-by-24-inch posterboards painted – not printed – with the actual colors of the C2 palette. You can tape them up and move them, risk-free.

+ White walls don’t necessarily make a house more saleable. Eve Leonard of Windermere/Bainbridge, a certified staging professional, hired color pro Mary Jane Rehm to redo a vanilla fixer-upper. With new interiors of green-gray and pale brick tones, the house sold in two weeks at a higher price than bland homes that have sat on the market six months.

+ Accent walls can add interest, but they’re sometimes overdone. Use them only where they make sense.

+ Some paint stores have color consultants on staff. They’ll give shoppers free pointers and can offer a second opinion on the palette your consultant has created. Keep in mind that a quick, in-store chat won’t match the in-depth guidance of a home visit.

+ Buy the best-quality paint you can afford. Expect to pay $25-$35 a gallon. And don’t stint on the rollers and brushes.

+ To get the truest color, prime before you paint. If switching from light walls to a dark tone such as burgundy, ask the store to create a gray-tinted primer. As an alternative, C2’s new Accent Color System includes a transparent-base primer that can be custom-mixed.

+ “Eggshell” is the most popular sheen because it’s washable, low-glare and works in all rooms. If you love the velvety look of flat paint, there’s a new, scrubbable option — Benjamin Moore’s new Matte Made in Heaven. Pratt & Lambert’s Accolade promises a “child-proof,” stain-resistant flat finish.

+ Expect an emotional roller-coaster when you do a major color makeover. The colors your consultant suggested will look different — perhaps awful — when you first start painting. Be brave. The effect should come together in the end.

+ Trends come and go, so if you can’t live without off-white walls, take heart. Some day those bland walls will look new and fresh.

by Cecilia Goodnow
(adapted from article entitled “Color consultants help reinvent bland walls” by Cecelia Goodnow)

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