How To: Select a Paint Color

FAIL-SAFE COLOR CHOICES
If “safety first” is your motto and you simply want your home to look neat and freshly painted, there are certain color treatments that will look good on almost any home. A near-surefire approach when doing interior painting is to paint the walls a neutral color like beige and the ceiling and trim white. In fact, if you keep the trim and ceiling white, a wide range of colors will look attractive on your walls.

Similarly, the safest approach to exterior painting is to use white, beige, or another neutral color on the siding and a darker accent color on the trim. Dark brown is often a good general-purpose color for exterior trim.

COLOR TRENDS
Commenting on the popular paint colors of the moment is, at best, a risky business. They can change at any time. With that proviso, it is possible to say that preferences are far more predictable when it comes to exterior paint colors than interior colors. For the past 200 years or more, white has been the top color choice for home exteriors in the U.S. A recent color study conducted by the Rohm and Haas Paint Quality Institute indicates that white or off-white still ranks at the top of the list. Earth-tone browns, tans, and beiges have always been popular, and they remain so today.

Interior paint colors are another matter; the "in" colors tend to change every few years. Of late, rich, saturated colors in darker shades have met with great success. For more advice on this year's hot colors, ask your paint dealer.