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If the new year has you thinking about refreshing your home to help make it better organized and look and feel nicer, or you plan to buy a new property, you’re sure to consider paint colors soon.

While it can be intimidating trying to make choices about your palettes with so many different hues on offer these days, getting this decision right can go a long way to making your home as cozy and calming as you hope for. Read on for some tips you can keep in mind about how to best pick the perfect paint colors for your place.

Pick Furnishings and Fixtures and Fittings First

Start by picking the furnishings, fixtures, and fittings for the rooms you want to paint before deciding on paint colors. It’s always easier to match the wall hue to your belongings than to paint first and then realize your furnishings or other items in the room don’t suit what you chose.

Consider the least flexible items in rooms first, and go from there. For example, you might want to buy a small ceiling fan or pretty light fixture first, as well as choose flooring, cabinetry, tiles, sofas, tables, chairs, rugs, shelving, and the like before you pick out your paint colors since these things are harder and more expensive to change.

It pays to select one or more colors for the paint that are complementary to or match the prime shade in one or more of these pieces. Plus, don’t forget to utilize the handy paint testers you can get from hardware stores, paint specialists, and the like to see what hues are likely to look like on walls once you’ve painted whole areas.

Check Out Other Places for Inspiration

Next, since deciding on paint colors is rather tricky, you might like to turn to other places for inspiration to help you see what you do and don’t like. For example, apart from getting ideas from the fabrics and textures of the fittings, fixtures, and furnishings in a room, as mentioned above, you can source ideas from other properties. Go to open homes and auctions to see color schemes in action or check out for-sale listings online.

If you have an architectural home, such as a Craftsman or Mid-Century Modern dwelling, look at other similar period properties for inspiration, and see how they’ve matched wall colors to the era of the architecture. There’s also content galore available these days that can provide food for thought. Read blogs, look at social media sites like Instagram and Pinterest, flick through some interior design magazines, and read books about home decorating to see what shades appeal to you and how and where they’re used.

Pay Attention to Color Theory

Another tip is to pay attention to color theory. This theory has much to it and has been around long term, so you can learn all sorts of things from studying it. With just a short education on the basics, you can discover how to use the color wheel to see which hues will work beautifully together and which ones clash.

As you look at a color wheel, remember that the shades next to each other on the circle coexist effectively. Turn the wheel, too, if you have a physical color theory chart, to see how various shades relate to each other.

Keep Other Designer Rules in Mind

Other interior design and art or architectural-based rules are worth learning about and following, too, when you pick out your paint colors. For instance, the popular 60-30-10 rule revolves around the concept of dividing spaces into three components as you design them.

The theory posits that you should have around 60 percent of the room’s color come from a major component, in this case being the wall hue, and 30 percent stemming from a secondary shade, such as the color in key fixtures and fittings, materials, furnishings, etc. The final ten percent of your room’s color will come in via accents, such as accessories like art, vases, pillows, throw rugs, and the like.

To help you decide on the best paint colors for your home, it also pays to think about the finishes you want to use in the space and how lighting will affect how things look in the room. Plus, consider which hues you genuinely love and aren’t likely to get sick of over time.

If you still can’t quite choose or you pick something and find it doesn’t look how you’d imagined, it’s worthwhile hiring an interior designer or another specialist to provide advice and recommendations.

Selecting shades in which to decorate rooms can make a big difference to how the spaces come across and how much you want to be in them, so it’s something you need to get right.