Choosing colors for an upcoming remodel project can seem like a complicated, frustrating, sometimes painful ordeal. And what's worse, so often after we finish a decorating project and finally choose the colors we want . . . we find out later that we really don't like them all that much after all. And we end up repainting and doing the whole thing again.
Well, that's frustrating, but there's an easy way around this problem. There's an easy, almost painless way to make sure you end up with the best possible color choices when the time comes for you to actually do some painting: You just need to make a color folder.
See, a color folder is simply a three-ring binder (or maybe even a manilla folder) that you fill with every magazine clipping, color chip and store ad that catches your eye. If you find a faucet you really like in a Sunday Flyer--and if you've got a bathroom project coming up in the next few months--clip it out and toss it in the folder. If you find a room scenario in a magazine--a great color combination on the walls--cut it out and put it in the folder. If you find a paint color that you fall in love with in the hardware store while you're picking up nails for another project, throw it in the folder.
As time goes by, never stop adding to your folder. But, of equal importance, never stop sifting OUT of your folder all of the things that you find yourself no longer drawn to.
See, over time, many colors and combinations will catch your eye. Trendy colors will seem bold and daring and you might throw them in your folder. Other trends will find their way in there initially. However, as you maintain your folder over the months, you'll find yourself looking through those pictures and your initial attraction to those trends will fall away. When that happens, throw those pictures out. Remove everything that no longer appeals to you while at the same time adding in anything new that does.
If you do this in the months preceding a big
remodel or even a bedroom repaint, what you'll be left with, in the end, is a folder full of the colors you TRULY and SINCERELY are drawn to. The fads, the trends, the stuff that looked good when you had a stomach full of spicy food, will be long gone.
When you flip through the folder after a few months of maintaining it, you should see a general color scheme starting to develop. You may not have narrowed your colors down to a specific brown and green and blue combination . . . but you'll likely have narrowed it down to a GENERAL brown, green and blue (or whatever) palette. You'll still have to work to fine tune EXACT colors, but at least, when you stand in front of the color display at RepcoLite, you won't have 3,000 options staring you in the face. You'll know that 2900 of those options are colors you don't want. You'll know that of the remaining 100 colors, 80 are too light or too dark. In the end, because you put in the time with the color folder, you'll find yourself choosing between only a handful of colors. And best of all, you'll know that the color you finally choose for the walls of your home will be a color you love. It won't be a trend you developed a passing attachment to or a fad that caught your interest. It will be the real deal. And because of that, you'll love it.
Well, that's frustrating, but there's an easy way around this problem. There's an easy, almost painless way to make sure you end up with the best possible color choices when the time comes for you to actually do some painting: You just need to make a color folder.
See, a color folder is simply a three-ring binder (or maybe even a manilla folder) that you fill with every magazine clipping, color chip and store ad that catches your eye. If you find a faucet you really like in a Sunday Flyer--and if you've got a bathroom project coming up in the next few months--clip it out and toss it in the folder. If you find a room scenario in a magazine--a great color combination on the walls--cut it out and put it in the folder. If you find a paint color that you fall in love with in the hardware store while you're picking up nails for another project, throw it in the folder.
As time goes by, never stop adding to your folder. But, of equal importance, never stop sifting OUT of your folder all of the things that you find yourself no longer drawn to.
See, over time, many colors and combinations will catch your eye. Trendy colors will seem bold and daring and you might throw them in your folder. Other trends will find their way in there initially. However, as you maintain your folder over the months, you'll find yourself looking through those pictures and your initial attraction to those trends will fall away. When that happens, throw those pictures out. Remove everything that no longer appeals to you while at the same time adding in anything new that does.
If you do this in the months preceding a big
remodel or even a bedroom repaint, what you'll be left with, in the end, is a folder full of the colors you TRULY and SINCERELY are drawn to. The fads, the trends, the stuff that looked good when you had a stomach full of spicy food, will be long gone.When you flip through the folder after a few months of maintaining it, you should see a general color scheme starting to develop. You may not have narrowed your colors down to a specific brown and green and blue combination . . . but you'll likely have narrowed it down to a GENERAL brown, green and blue (or whatever) palette. You'll still have to work to fine tune EXACT colors, but at least, when you stand in front of the color display at RepcoLite, you won't have 3,000 options staring you in the face. You'll know that 2900 of those options are colors you don't want. You'll know that of the remaining 100 colors, 80 are too light or too dark. In the end, because you put in the time with the color folder, you'll find yourself choosing between only a handful of colors. And best of all, you'll know that the color you finally choose for the walls of your home will be a color you love. It won't be a trend you developed a passing attachment to or a fad that caught your interest. It will be the real deal. And because of that, you'll love it.
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