Do you ever feel like your house looks unclean and dingy no matter how much you clean it? One of the main reasons most homeowners struggle to make their place look neat and spotless is because of the colour scheme. Although most people don’t realize it, your walls can look perpetually dirty if they are painted the wrong shade. But, how do you identify the colours that make your home look dirty? Well, it’s simpler than you might think.
Choosing the right colour palette is the first step to make your house look modern on a budget. However, since selecting colour schemes can be a bit overwhelming, here is a detailed guide that might help you out.
Tips for Choosing the Right Colour Palette for Your Home
Here are a few tips and tricks that one should always follow while picking a colour palette for home.
- Stay away from muddy and earthy tones
- Choose the right shade of white
- Be practical while picking a colour palette
- Compare and contrast
- Buy good quality paint
Let’s further discuss these tips to avoid the colours that make your home look dirty.
Stay Away From Muddy and Earthy Tones
It’s always best to avoid muddy and earthy tones, as they can make your walls look unclean regardless of how much time you spend cleaning them.
When selecting a colour palette, try and stay away from shades that have brown, tan or yellow undertones. Usually, these shades can look particularly grimy under the wrong lightning, negatively affecting the rest of your home décor. Not to mention, such interior paint colour schemes can also make your place look smaller than it actually is.
However, if you want to paint your house a nice neutral colour, you can go with a lighter shade of beige. Usually, shades of light grey colour work well with white trims and ceilings.
As a rule of thumb, if there is a certain part of your home that gets dirty really quickly and doesn’t receive a lot of direct sunlight, don’t paint it in earthy tones. Instead, you can solve your colour palette problems by going for bold, vibrant colours that make a statement.
Choose the Right Shade Of White
Choosing the right colour palette can instantly make your home look brighter, which is why a lot of people prefer painting their walls a shade of white.
Needless to say, white walls and ceilings can make your home décor look sophisticated while creating the illusion of more space. However, choosing the wrong shade of white can pretty much ruin the entire theme of your house. Not only is this colour more susceptible to stains, but white paints with green, blue, yellow or brown undertones are also among the top colours that make your home look dirty.
The trick to choose the perfect shade of white for your home is to select the colour that is neither too warm nor too cool. Since the hues on the shade card rarely give you the right idea of what the end product is going to look like, it’s always better to ask for a sample to do a small test on your wall. This will help you figure out which shades look crisper and fresher.
Be Practical While Picking a Colour Palette
If you have kids or pets, it’s always better to stay away from light or pastel colours. The reason being they can get dirty really quickly and can be extremely hard to restore to their former glory. As an alternative, you can opt for an accent wall, as they are easier to clean. If your budget allows, you can also consider choosing wallpaper.
Another option would be to replace pastel pinks and blues with darker, bolder shades. However, you have to be very careful while selecting such colours as they can make a room look small and cramped, even when that isn’t the case.
Furthermore, darker colours with brown undertones can also appear muddy under artificial light. So, if you want to avoid using paint that makes your house look dirty, go for relatively brighter shades instead of the muted, complex ones.
Compare and Contrast
As explained above, picking colours off a shade card or a catalogue is never a good idea.
Picking a colour palette for home is an expensive and time-consuming process that should not be taken lightly. It’s always a good idea to choose at least a few different tints of the same colour and then compare them to determine which ones look dirtier than the rest.
More often than not, you can’t really tell how saturated or intense a certain paint is until you put it right next to a different shade. You also need to make sure the colour you are selecting will go well with the furniture and the overall theme of your house. For instance, if you have mahogany furniture, you may not want to choose dark red or purplish paints for your walls.
Moreover, comparing different hues will keep you from selecting colours that make your home look dirty.
Buy Good Quality Paint
If you think you have chosen the right colours but your walls still look dirty, the quality of paint might be the real problem here.
Cheaper paints are also usually low in quality and don’t provide a good overall coverage. If you use these paints, you are eventually bound to notice the dark and light spots forming on your ceilings and walls, making them look discoloured. Usually, these stains get worse with time.
Even if you’re remodelling on a budget, it’s always recommended to purchase good quality product unless you want to spend extra money to get it fixed later.
Apart from choosing high-quality paint, you should also pay attention to the different types of paint finishes available in the market. Once you’ve picked the colour palette for your home, you need to choose the right paint finish for each room.
The most common types of paint finishes include high-gloss, semi-gloss, satin, eggshell, matte and flat finish. High-gloss and flat finish lie on the opposite ends of the spectrum with the former being extremely lustrous while the latter has no sheen at all.
Meanwhile, if you live in a rental or don’t have the budget to redo your walls, here are a few simple ways to add colour to your home without picking up the paintbrush.
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