- Go to a paint store and pick out your color in person. If you order paint online, you’ll be surprised by how different the actual color is from how it looked on your computer screen.
- Pick up a few rocks from your yard and take them to the paint store with you. The colors that surround your home often look good on it.
- Don’t rely on printed color swatches in a paint store to choose your color. Ask someone at the store to dab of bit of paint onto a card for you so you can see the actual color of the paint. Swatches printed in ink are not true matches.
- When you’re looking at that dab of paint, consider how huge the outside of your house is in comparison. Be sure you love the color enough to commit it to the largest object on your property.
- Never buy all of your paint the first time you visit the paint store. Instead, buy a quart, take it home and paint a big sample on one of your home’s exterior walls. A rule of thumb: The less experience you have as a painter, the bigger your sample should be. So if you’ve never painted a house before, use a whole gallon on your sample. If this is your second time out, a quart will be enough.
- Don’t limit your sample to one side of your house. Paint a little on all four sides. The same paint will look different on each side, depending how much sun the wall is exposed to and how many trees throw shade on it.
- Likewise, look at your sample at various times of day. A color that looks beautiful at dusk might be blinding at noon.
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