Color Selection

You are welcome to choose all of your colors if you know what you want and are ready to go. However, we find most homeowners would like a little guidance so we offer two primary options for helping to choose your colors.

Cost Considerations

Option 2: DIY Process and Chesapeake Method

Select potential new colors based on their own merits; using swatches from your local paint stores and contrast them to a white piece of paper or place them against larger white surfaces that will remain present such as your doors, mantle, or cabinets. White allows for colors to render true and you’ll see right away undertones you like or dislike. The majority of the time, if you like the color based on its own merit you will love it on your walls. Once you’ve ruled out the colors you don’t like and narrowed down the few remaining considerations you can scale up; CPS can order larger swatches for you or if necessary will sample the actual paint products in your preferred finish on whole walls (upon acceptance of your estimate).

Establish YOUR Theme

First select a neutral color, usually a value of 2-3 (1-10 with 1 being the lightest) to be used predominantly throughout the main living space and common areas. Next, choose a coordinating darker neutral color, usually a value of 5-7 to use minimally, and help the layout process. Commonly, ceilings, trim, and doors are typically valued about 1-1.5, so when choosing your wall colors, they should be separated from one another by a value of at least 2 to achieve “POP”, otherwise the effect can be lost, unless a more monochromatic palette is desired. Much like coordinating your clothing style, often the top and bottom are complementary while the middle (belt) and shoes help to coordinate the outfit. We think of wall colors and the layout the same way, if you wouldn’t wear it, you probably won’t like it on your walls!

Our “Signature” Approach to Laying Out Colors

We like to be fundamentally neutral in the middle and to use colors in the satellite areas (powder rooms/bedrooms/offices/laundry/mudrooms). While the inverse can work, having neutral colors in the common spaces throughout the home, allows for most any other decorative items to coordinate (artwork, window treatments, rugs, tile, technology, granite, other textiles, etc.), and not spoil the ‘theme’. After the main color (lighter value) and coordinating color(s) (darker value) are realized, the location of the colors often reveals itself, much like the carver of a totem pole slowly uncovering the story or art that already exists within a piece of wood (Totem Pole Theory).

If Colors Go Together – Let Them Flow Together!

The transitive property principle of colors: If A=B and B=C then A=C so… Don’t end colors on outside corners because most living spaces of homes have an open floor plan, so making sure there is a ‘flow’ to the colors throughout that space is paramount. It is also important to avoid the carnival effect, by having colors start and stop where the rooms do. Don’t paint just one wall, it will look like an afterthought or seem incomplete, and lacking ‘flow’. With a coordinated color palette you’ll be able to prove that all colors work together from multiple vantage points whether from the grand foyer to the great room or just down the hall to the bedroom or office.