The Trouble with Choosing Paint Colors - #10

Choosing paint colors is one of the hardest parts of doing room makeovers! I feel your pain. In this episode, I'm talking about some tips for choosing the right paint colors and giving you permission to select the colors that speak to YOU!

Got a question about choosing paint colors? Email me! serena@thriftdiving.com

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Transcript

Serena: [00:00:00] Hey, what's up! It's Serena Appiah from ThriftDiving.com, which is a podcast, a blog, a YouTube channel that helps you decorate and improve your home and maintain it with paint power tools in thrift stores. And the main thing is that we don't like to sacrifice our budget, the environment, or style. Welcome to episode 10 of the Thrift Diving podcast.

And I'm really excited that I've gotten to this point. I've been consistently putting out content every Friday and today, we're just a couple of days from Friday and I did not have anything recorded. And I thought, what is it that I could talk about that is relevant to what is going on now, relevant to what people are asking me questions about.

And I decided today, we're going to talk about paint colors. And the reason why is because this is something that, every single time I start a roommate over or I'm doing something and I've got to pick out pink colors, it is a struggle. I don't know about you, but it is something that I am so afraid to make a mistake with that, it sometimes paralyzes me. 

And I just want to know if you feel the same way. Whether you're painting a room, whether you're painting your house, whether you're doing a furniture makeover and you're just not sure what color to pick. So in today's podcast, we're going to talk about how to choose the right color for you.

And I'm not necessarily going to give you recommendations like, Oh, this is the paint color that's most popular this year, because honestly, I don't really care about that. I don't follow trends, which is insane because in this space of DIY, you would think that I watch a lot of HGTV, and I read HGTV magazine and follow all these designers.

I really don't. I'll be honest with you. I really follow what is true to me. And I don't care so much about what other people are doing, but regardless, I still have a hard time picking paint colors because it's something that I want to be true to what I like, but I also don't want to make a mistake because a mistake can be costly.

So we're going to talk about that in today's podcast. And just talk about some tips that we could use in order to choose the right color and feel comfortable and confident about the color that we choose without feeling like, okay, I'm choosing something that's outdated, I'm wasting money. This isn't popular. It doesn't look good. 

And I know that you struggle with this as well. So let's just jump into why I'm talking about paint colors and where this came up. 

So if you follow my blog, if you follow my YouTube channel, you'll know that I just did a family room makeover, and this is something that was a struggle because I have some light issues.

This is my family room that when we moved in, it had like this dark fireplace, right? Like this 1970s fireplace, you know that the one: the whole wall is brick and it's not a pretty brick. It's an ugly brick that you just wonder, how did anyone think that this looks good? And when we bought the house, there were these two huge maples in the backyard, and it sucked all the light out of this room.

It was just, it was dark, super dark. And when we finally over the years got the tree cut down. we got both trees cut down, actually. When we painted the fireplace, everything just brightened up. And about five years ago, six years ago, I had painted the family room and I thought, everything I love are these turquoise beautiful colors, but light, right? Some of my favorite colors.

And if you've been reading my blog, you probably have seen these like Sherwin-Williams Rain Washed is a pretty light color.  and it actually tricks the eye a little bit makes you think it's turquoise and then the sun hits it and you're like, no, that's green. So that's what I chose for my bedroom and the foyer, I chose Sherwin William, what is the name of that color? Sea salt, right? So it's a very light green color, but again, a turquoise color. So when I moved in, I painted the house with these colors and for the most part, I had stuck with a lot of turquoise. When I was painting this room, this family room five to six years ago, I decided I was going to stay in that family of colors, and it looked horrible.

I'm not lying. and I even had a video of it, of my little, at the time he's nine now, but at the time he was about. I don't know, three, four years old where they're painting, thinking this color is so beautiful and it was. But when we were done, it looked like we were in an aquarium. The whole room took on this greenish, turquoise color hue, and it just did not look good.

It felt off, it felt really off. And so I ended up having to spend more money on more paint and going over the entire thing with this very safe cream color paint for the wall and it took it back to a more light, but not quite airy, feel, it still looked a little dated, but we live with it for about five or six years.

So fast forward to now, 2021, I am choosing pink colors. Again, I go to, I guess it was home Depot first and I bought two gallons of paint and I thought I want something light and airy and bright. We've got this new sofa coming. It took five months to get, we're going to go with something light and bright and airy to match this light, bright, airy sofa.

I ended up choosing a paint that was way too light. I'm talking bright white. Normally, for the trim, you choose something that's light and bright. Not always, but for me, I tend to go very bright on the trim. I ended up going bright for the walls and after I did a sample, I thought this is not going to work.

It's just, it doesn't feel right. And, on the back accent wall, if you've seen my video that I just posted last week, you'll see that I actually did do a pink accent wall, but the original pink I chose, guys, it didn't work. It didn't work. I wasn't feeling the bright white, I wasn't feeling this pink and I was stuck.

What do I do? I just spent-- what gallons of paint are probably about $20. I just wasted $40 on paint. Actually, it might've been more because I knew that my walls probably, we're going to use more than a gallon. So I think I bought maybe three gallons total, and now I've got this paint sitting there that I can't do anything with.

Then I went to Sherwin-Williams and I just picked some pink colors there, which we'll talk about in a moment, because this is part of helping you choose paint colors that you don't make these mistakes. And I ended up finding some colors that really just work beautifully in the room. I think I went with Sherwin-Williams City Loft, which it's a light, it looks like a light tan color, but it has some like lavender undertones to it.

It's just a very beautiful color and it has a light reflective value on the back of the color card. It was good enough for me to say, okay, this room is not going to be dark, right? And then I chose a complimentary color from that same color palette. And that brings me to the first point of what I was going to say in terms of choosing colors.

When we choose colors, there are so many options it's overwhelming and it's enough to cause paralysis. Where you just get stuck in choosing the pink color and you never move forward from that. So the first tip that I have for you is try to find paint brands that actually put the colors together for you already.

So let me give you an example. So when I went to the Sherwin-Williams store, this is not sponsored by them in any way. So don't feel that I'm telling you this because it's sponsored. I'm telling you because this was a solution. So when I went to the Sherwin Williams store, after having wasted. 60 however many dollars on the paint from Home Depot,

I realized that a lot of paint companies try to put together these color cards to make it easy for you. And what I found is that they had, I want to say probably about eight different, no, maybe six to eight of let's say six, six different collections of colors that, were put together for you to mix and match and you really couldn't get it wrong because all the colors complemented each other.

So when you're going to. do a room, make-over paint some furniture, instead of trying to come up with something all on your own, out of the thousands and thousands of colors they have start with a brand that actually has some color cards together and shows you what looks good together. So for example, and I wish I would've had it in front of me,

the color palette that I chose was, oh, gosh, I don't remember. But it used, and they had rebranded a number of years ago, maybe a couple of years ago, but it used to be like their glamorous collection. So they had some deep like purple and then they had, they've got City Loft and they've got this really nice black.

And if you were to use this color palette, it's more of a, I want to say glitzy, glam, but something a little modern, but, you know, if you had a chandelier hanging in your bedroom, that's the kind of paint color you'd want. it's not like golds and reds. And so if you try to find a paint color, paint brand that does all the work for you,

it makes it so much easier to pick a color in, know that, okay, I could choose any one of these colors and it's going to look good. So that's what I did. I actually chose the color card for this particular style that I was going for. And the colors look fantastic. So the Abalone Shell is the accent wall on the back of my family room.

And if you haven't seen this video, just go to Thrift Diving on YouTube and look for the Family Makeover video. You'll see the color that I chose, and it looked so good. It was like just a blush of pink as the accent wall. And it wasn't that in your face pink that I had chosen the first time. So when you choose these colors that they've already done the homework for you, they've already had a designer put it together for you,

it makes it really simple to pick colors that are going to complement each other. And if you like pinks, you could choose the pink that they have there. And then choose something as a dark accent, maybe for end tables or picture frames or something like that. So that's one of my tips is to choose the paint colors that they already put together for you and they make it really easy. 

There's another tip too. There's a website that I found years ago. It's called Colour Lovers and it's not C O L O R, it's C O L O U R lovers.com. I happened to discover this years ago and I think it's a great site because it's a user generated site where people could

give you all kinds of color palettes and you can submit it yourself. Let's say, for example, I love purples and I decide, Hey, I'm going to put together a color palette with some purples and pinks and some black and tan. I can create that myself and then just submit it to Colour Lovers and it's there and people vote on it and they categorize them by most popular, least popular.

And what's really great is that when you look at this site, it gives you some ideas of color combinations that look good together, and it's just user generated content. So it's not a designer, it's just people putting things together and there might be one that catches your eye or gives you an idea like, Oh, I like the way they use this turquoise and orange together, or this black and tan and a little bit of gold or whatever it is that they put together, it's all there for you. And you could use that as inspiration. 

Now, of course, once you take that color combination and you say, Oh, I like this, now you actually have to go find paint colors. You still have to do a little bit of homework, but it does give you a starting point if you're not sure what colors look good together.

Another thing I would say, another tip would be to stick with the color palettes that you love. I am someone who I love turquoise. I love pinks. I love purples and my whole house reflects that. So like I said, when we first moved in, the foyer got Sherwin-Williams Rainwashed and it was something, no, not Rainwashed, Sea Salt.

And I saw that in a friend's laundry room. And I thought, wow, this color is beautiful. What is this color? It's soft. It's got a little bit of green to it. It looks kind of turquoise. And she said, it's Sherwin Williams Sea Salt. So that has been the color in my foyer for many of years now. It probably needs an updated color, but that's what it is for now.

And when we first moved in that color palette that I chose initially is totally different than what I choose now. Like when we first, first moved in, in my mind, I thought everything has to be yellow. So the kitchen was school bus yellow. The foyer was like a different shade of yellow. mean, it was just so much yellow and I'm not saying that I don't like yellow. It's just not for me. So that color palette just, it doesn't mesh well with the look I'm going for. 

And I think your home also dictates how you're choosing paint colors, right? Because if you live in a home that doesn't get a lot of sunlight, you might want to choose paint, colors that feel more light and airy.

You don't necessarily want to go with a dark yellow or school bus yellow, which some people may say is bright, but. if you look at how much light is being reflected there, it's sucking up a lot of light. So maybe you want to go with something a little lighter, a little brighter so that you can mitigate some of that darkness that just automatically seeps into your home.

And when we moved in, I didn't realize that's what my house looked like. And now that I'm thinking about it, it's really interesting because when we moved in, it was December of 2010. Now think about it. What happens in December? Your leaves are all gone. You've got sunlight streaming in. So your house looks one way in the fall and the winter than it does in the spring and the summer, because when all those trees started growing in my house just turned into this cave and I thought, what in the world?

What house did we buy? I don't want to live here. And I actually really did not like my house. And we'll talk about that in an upcoming podcast, but it was a transformation as my home spoke to me, as the leaves grew in, as I saw that things were not working. But over the years, I have just developed this love of light turquoise and blue.

No, not green, but more in the shade of blues. And something happened in the recent years where I thought, you know what? I really love pinks. So my dining room is a shade of pink or actually, no, it's more of a shade of purple. My master bathroom, that's a shade of pink Okay, so that's two rooms and then you've got my laundry room that's like another shade of pink. Purple. And then now we've got this family room with a blush pink accent wall. So you see where I'm going with this? So that tip what I'm trying to say is, stay true to yourself. Stay true to yourself. If this Royal blue, green, let's say Royal green or like brilliant orange color is the Pantone Color of the Year.

That doesn't necessarily mean that you have to choose that color so that you have a more modern updated house. It's the colors that speak to you. And there was someone on my YouTube channel that had a negative comment. And here's the thing. It doesn't matter how many people love what you do.

It takes that one person to tell you something nasty that makes you remember, oh yeah, not everybody likes me. Not everybody likes what I do. And it sticks out like a sore thumb. Well, this person had just said yeah, your family room looks very outdated. It just, it looks outdated. Now, keep in mind. I just did this room and remember I chose this blush pink accent wall.

I got this new La-Z-Boy furniture that I waited five months for. And she told me that it was outdated. And I could've had my feelings hurt, but I responded back to her and I'm like you know what, this is what I like. This is what feels light and airy to me. And even though I'm putting it on YouTube and you're giving me comments and I appreciate the positive comments, but if you want to leave a negative comment, you obviously didn't learn from your mother,

if you have nothing positive to say to someone, keep it moving. Like you don't need to spread all that negativity in the world. But no matter what you choose for your home, there's always going to be someone who thinks it's outdated or that's an ugly color. Why did you choose that? In fact, when I was telling my family members and even the people that live in my home, that I was going to go with a pink accent wall,

everyone's no, that's not going to look good. Don't do that. But I stuck to what I knew was true for me and what I love and what I had that vision of for that family room. And so I went with it and I loved it. And most of the people who watched the video, they're like, that's the perfect pink.

Like, I wasn't with you in the beginning when you said you were going to do it. But I like it now. I see it. And it looks good. So that's okay to do you. If you love orange, then go with it. I have a friend who she just loves orange because somebody told her years ago, you look really good in that orange shirt.

And from then to here, everything that she buys is orange, and she's got an accent wall in her family room that's a bright orange. So be true to who you are to what you love and don't worry what other people say. If it's not, on the cover of HDTV magazine is, the color of the year, who cares, who really cares as long as you love it, and you love how you feel when you walk into that room. So be true to yourself. 

And let's see, I would also tell you, just look and do your research for colors. If you really don't know what speaks to you and you're looking for ideas, we all know, Pinterest of course is where everybody goes for inspiration.

Of course. So go and do your research and think on it. Maybe do a little board, get a, what do you call it, like a poster board and start putting something together. that you can actually touch, go get some fabric samples and see, okay, if I had pillows with this fabric that I want to make, is it going to match the paint? But there's no right or wrong answer as to how you paint your house, what colors you choose.

The main thing is not wasting money and not wasting time and effort. So let me tell you, I actually did a little bit of research before I sat down to record this. I did a little bit of research and I called three. Well, I called two places and one place I didn't call. The first place I called was Sherwin Williams.

And I asked them if I buy paint that I don't like, can I bring it back? And they're like no you can't bring the paint back, but we'll try to fix it for you if you don't like it. Okay. Yeah. You'll try to fix it, but you can't take it back. So you have to be sure of the colors that you want if you're shopping at Sherwin-Williams.

If you go to Home Depot, same thing. Home Depot used to take paint back and maybe it is a location by location rule, but I remember they used to have an oops paint section, like what happened to that? Cause I hadn't seen it for years. And so they don't necessarily take paint back to give you refunds, but they will help you to correct a color.

So if you go in with your receipt and you're like, Hey, this paint is a little too light. I was looking for something a little darker. Can you try to help me get to that color? They will help you fix it. Same as Sherwin-Williams. Now let me tell you, I love the fact that Lowe's, Lowe's will actually take your paint back and give you a refund.

I called them. I was like, what if I don't like this paint that I bought? Can I bring you back? And they're like, yeah, you can bring it back with a receipt within 30 days. So they will actually take your paint back. So before you buy colors and if you're not really sure, that might make a difference in where you buy your paint from.

So keep that in mind. If you're not sure of the colors you're buying, buy it from a location where you can actually take it back, or if you buy a lighter version of it and it's too light, see if you can get them to modify the color, just to make it a little bit darker, if that's what you want. When I started this conversation, I just really wanted to acknowledge that I feel your pain. Choosing pink colors is so hard. I think I told you this in a previous video, I am actually getting a shed built in my backyard. I'm ordering it.  I mean, I could build it myself, but I'm actually going to have it pre-fabricated offsite. They're going to come. They're going to put it together.

I decided that I'm going with a concrete four inch concrete pad with gravel and all that. And I kept wavering today. I kept wavering back and forth. Do I want to go with white or do I want to go with this Sheffield gray? And it's not even gray. It's a dark blue, but it’s got a little bit of something mixed into it, but it's gorgeous.

It's gorgeous. And I did not know whether I wanted to go with that color or white, but I ended up going with my gut. So I called my contact back and I said, Hey, let's go with Sheffield Gray. Let's do it. So when you have doubts, look at what your body is telling you. Do you feel okay with the decision that you made?

Do you feel some hesitation? And if you're feeling some hesitation, there's a reason why. So ask yourself, why are you feeling the hesitation? Are you worried what other people are going to say about it or do you just really not like it? And if you're feeling hesitation, make a different decision before you get started and see if that makes you feel a little bit more comfortable.

And of course we know, if it's possible, get the small sample sizes, do a big square, maybe a two foot by two foot square and put it on a piece of paper, hang it up on your wall and see how it looks. And if you like it, go for it. And remember sometimes you'll have changing light. Like for example, in the back of my house where my family room is, it gets a lot of natural sunlight in the morning, but of course, as the sun starts to come up over the house and set in the West, it gets real dark in my family room.

So for me, since I like to see a lot of like beautiful sunlight in my room, I want something light in that room. And when it gets dark, when the sun's moved to the other side of the house, I want to make sure that it still feels light and area and not like a cave. So think about that too. Where is the sun rising and falling in relation to your house?

Because if you get a lot of sunlight and, maybe you get maybe you have a nice bright room throughout the entire day, you could go with something that's a little bit darker and not feel like you're taking anything away from the brightness of the room. But if your room is like mine, where you're really only getting a little bit of sunlight for just a few hours,

maybe you don't want to go with a dark color because it's going to feel really heavy in that room throughout most of the day. So just look at your home, look at the colors that are speaking to you. Choose those colors that you know already work well together and make the best decision. And if you have to take it back to the store and get them to try to remix it and give you a different color,

do that. Or if you can get the paint refunded, do that and get a different color. 

So there's really no right or wrong choices is what I'm trying to tell you. Don't feel bad for the colors that you're choosing. Cause I sure didn't feel bad about my pink wall. The way that I felt about it was when I was looking at it,

I'm like, yeah, that's kind of pink. I don't know. That's a bright white, that's not really working for me, but I knew that's the color scheme that I still wanted. I just knew those colors we're not right. And those colors, they're beautiful colors. I will find another way to use those colors.

And if you're not able to get rid of those colors by having them remixed you could actually donate them to Habitat for Humanity. If I think the rule they have is that if you have paint that is at least half full, you can donate it. So if you've got something just a little to the bottom, they're not going to take that.

But if you honestly made a mistake and you're like, okay, I just have these two extra gallons sitting around here. I can't remix them. I can't use them. Donate them because it's going to help habitat for humanity or, find a friend or a family member who likes that color that can use it. Because otherwise you do like I do you have tons of paint cans stored up in the house, some of them completely full because you bought the wrong color.

That's a waste of money. So if somebody can use it, pass it on to someone, post it on Facebook, post it on Instagram, ask someone if they liked this color. Do they, when do you want to come by and pick it up or maybe I'll sell it to you for half as much of what I paid for it. There you go. That's an option. 

All right, guys. So I'm not going to take up too much of your time with this episode, but I really just wanted to talk about being okay with the colors that you choose, go with your gut, choose the color you want. Don't apologize for it. And if you truly don't like it, guess what? You can repaint.

The only thing that you've wasted is time and money.  Here at Thrift Diving, we don't like to waste time or money. So try to make a good decision from the beginning. But if you make a mistake, repaint it, that's okay. I've worked on projects on, like furniture painting projects, where I thought I wanted to go in one direction and then it didn't work out.

I was like, nah, we're not going to do gray on that leg. Let's do white. And. thankfully I figured it out before I did the entire thing. It just wasn't speaking to me. All right guys. I hope that this was helpful and, leave a comment. where can you leave a comment? Some of these podcasts don't have episodes blog posts, rather.

And I think I'm going to get to the point where I have more time on my hand, where I'm able to like, do the blog post with the podcast. So I'm going to tell you, shoot me an email. If you really want to respond to this and you want to talk about paint colors, shoot me an email, because I would love to talk to you about it.

Let me know what you do in order to choose the right paint colors. And if you don't choose the right paint colors, how do you manage that? How do you take that back to the store and get the right color? All right, guys, join me next week for episode 11. Again, I have no idea what we're talking about next week, but I can guarantee you that it's going to be fun.

It's going to be good. We're going to be talking about DIY and all the things related to your home when it comes to decorating, improving and maintaining your home. I'm Serena Appiah and I will see you next episode.