Common Decorating Mistakes When Choosing Wall Colors

Although choosing the right color scheme for your home might seem simple, there's actually a lot at stake.

It’s normal to make mistakes when it comes to choosing the colors to decorate our homes. Not everyone knows how to do it well. It can also be a mistake to give in to impulse and buy the colors, tones or elements that catch your eye, rather than what suits your home.

While we all make mistakes, there are some really easy tricks you can use to fix them. It’s all about making little adjustments to help maintain the sense of harmony. It’s also important to learn to avoid clashes and conflict. In the following article, we’ll not just tell you how to fix the mistakes you’ve already made, but also how you can avoid them in the future.

Make the most of all the tools at your disposal

The first mistake people usually make (and perhaps the most common one of all these days) is not using online tools or software. This can help give you an idea of what your ideas will look like when applied to your room.

In the past, people chose to sketch and color their design ideas, but as few of us have faith in our own artistic skills, this was never too common, even before the arrival of new technologies.

Decorating mistakes: choosing the paint

When it comes to going to the decorating store to choose your colors, there are many mistakes that it’s all too easy to make. These are:

• Looking at the color chart and choosing a color without asking for a sample to try at home first.
• Buying the exact same color you saw on the color chart, without taking into account the fact that it can look different when you apply it to your walls.
• The third mistake people normally make, often alongside these last two, involves trying out the paint in only one area of the room, so that they can’t see what it looks like in different lights throughout the day.
• Choosing matte paint, often because of its low cost. This type of finish gives walls a softer look, so it’s a great choice for decorating walls with imperfections in rooms with lots of natural light. However, you have to remember that you’re talking about painting your entire room in one color, which can be really boring and monotonous.
• Choosing your color at the last minute, i.e. choosing the furniture first and then the colors you want to decorate with.
• Selecting several different strong colors to decorate the same room and creating too much contrast.
• Only thinking about the color of the floor after choosing the wall color.

Decorating mistakes: applying color to the walls

The following mistakes usually occur when applying color to the walls.

• Adding too many colors to the walls, furniture, and decorations is something you should try to avoid. Even if you’re decorating with vibrant colors, you still need to maintain the sense of balance.
• Another mistake is only using paint, and not making use of other, perhaps more interesting materials, like wallpaper, for example.
• Using dark colors in rooms with lots of natural light won’t make your room look more welcoming or hide how big it is. Instead, it will create a room that looks heavy and dull.
• Similarly, painting the ceiling a dark color will ruin any sense of harmony in terms of lighting and depth.
• Painting every room a different color is a really common mistake these days. There is no sense of continuity, and the transition from one room to another is too abrupt. Far from creating a pleasant, harmonious environment, it can actually be overwhelming.
• Using one color to decorate the entire room is also a mistake. It can create a really plain and boring environment.
• In relation to this last point, not thinking about the changes you’ll need to make to the decorations and the furniture after you’ve painted the walls is another really common mistake. If you don’t, it can make your room seem heavy and monotonous.
• Painting rooms that don’t get much natural light in white is a really common decorating mistake. What people don’t realize is that this can make rooms look cold and unwelcoming. Instead of painting walls white, you should consider using warm, neutral colors, like marble, vanilla, cream, and beige.

Creating the perfect combination

You’ll need to keep everything we’ve told you in mind if you want to create the perfect color combination. Our top tip is to choose the main color, a complementary color, and a contrasting color. They should be used as follows:

• 60% of your space should be decorated in your main color
• 30% in the complementary color
• And 10% in the contrasting color

Another tip for perfect walls is to choose one color and combine it with one lighter and one darker shade. And remember, don’t forget about the decorations and furniture.