Susan Hable, author of “A Colorful Home: Create Lively Palettes for Every Room,” joined The Washington Post for an online chat about paint recently. Here are some of her answers — with an additional suggestion from The Denver Post’s staff — to common paint questions.
Q: How can you tell what the undertones to a paint color are — for example, a peach that ends up looking more pink once it’s on the walls? Or whether a white will have a yellow undertone?
A: Because lights are different in the paint store, at home and in every room in a house, the color is going to shift no matter what. The paint store should have the truest bulbs, but I usually step outside when I’m looking at undertones.
Denver Post: You can often buy small sampler containers of paint to try out colors. Paint them on a piece of foam board that’s at least a few feet wide and tall and tape it to one of your target walls, so that you can see it in sunny daylight, gloomy daylight and artificial light. Relative to the price of a couple of gallons of paint — which is already one of the best, most inexpensive ways to make a home more attractive — buying sample sizes of paint is cheap insurance — and it’s fun, too. (Once you choose your color, though, don’t scrimp on paint quality; get the best you can afford.)
Q: If I paint the baseboards in my bathroom a whiter white, do I have to paint the doors and door trim as well?
A: It is preferable. You will be happier in the long run.
Q: My home is a terra-cotta orange brick (very Colonial-style). The brick is punctuated with almost-black and cream bricks as well, and the mortar is a taupe color. It currently has black shutters and a black front double door. Do you have any recommendations for door, shutter, and trim colors that might work with this brick?
A: Have you considered just changing the front door to something fun? I have a pale blue house with white everything else and started with a wild hot-pink lacquered door. Now it’s cobalt blue. It’s just paint! I don’t know if the rest needs changing, unless you want to switch it all to cream and then do something different on the door.
Q: My apartment is filled with color — yellow, purple, pink, etc. I am moving in with my significant other and want our place to be colorful, but I also understand that he might not want to be surrounded by such feminine colors. What is a good strategy for compromising on color?
A: I think it’s worth a discussion. Try to designate a room that he can be in control of if he feels like he needs a more masculine space and a say.
Q: What are the best colors for a bedroom? Ours is a boring beige.
A: I’d look at colors in the gray family. I had a bedroom in New York City that was Benjamin Moore’s Sidewalk Gray, and it would shift colors all day, and art was great on it. Currently my bedroom is a sky blue. There are many windows, so it flows to the outside — something to consider with the way the room is situated in the house.
The Denver Post staff contributed to this story.
