Showing Your True Colors

How to paint your home

By Kayla Schmidt

Design by Justin Negard

Look around your room. Is it a space you love? What colors are on your walls? Furniture? How do these make you feel? And, most importantly, do you feel like you need to switch it up?

When it comes time for a change in your home, big or small, repainting is a great option. Or, at least, on the surface it is—but where should you even start? With so many colors to choose from and so many different reasons, it can be difficult to find a color that’s “in” that you also love, but it doesn’t have to be.

The golden rule

Before you can choose your new paint color, experts say you should ask yourself the following questions:

Are you selling your house?

Are you repainting for a refresh?

Did you once love a color that you now can’t stand to look at?

“There are two worlds,” says Kathleen Usherwood, real estate advisor and licensed salesperson for Compass. “There’s the world where you’re painting for yourself and the world where you want to sell your house.”

If you are repainting for yourself, you can (and should) have some fun with it, because it’s ultimately all about what you want. For instance, if you absolutely love the color yellow, which is relatively unpopular right now, use it. Certain colors may not be “in,” but that doesn’t mean you can’t use them—unless you’re selling, in which case you should stick to the trends.

“If you’re going to sell your home, your best bet is to neutralize a little bit,” says Usherwood. “For example, a red house is not as easy to sell as a gray house. For interiors and exteriors, grays, taupes, bisques and whites are all really good interior and exterior colors.”

Now that we’ve got the very basics out of the way, let us be the first to state the not-always-obvious: you can love a color and not want it on the walls/exterior of your home. And if you’re suddenly drawn to a color you didn’t like or notice before and you cannot figure out why, that’s common.

According to Megan Albert, owner and principal designer of Fieldhouse Design, there’s a simple explanation: the colors we see in the media and in real life are typically the ones we’re the most drawn to—after all, how can you like a color you never see?

Once in a blue moon

Some experts will tell you to stick to the trends when choosing a paint color. But even this advice can get confusing. There are some trends that are truly trendy while there are other trends that are more classic.

“For the exterior, light, medium or dark gray, charcoal, black or even white colors are trending,” says Usherwood. “But interior trends are different. Really vibrant colors, like hot pink or hunter green, are big right now; so is mixing brightly colored patterns.”

So if you want to paint a room bright blue, ruby red or dark gray, you should go for it, especially if it will make you smile each time you walk in the room. But choosing a more neutral color trend is also okay because, ultimately, your house is a reflection of you, not the trend forecasters. Just make sure that whatever color you choose for your walls or exterior, it feels like “you.”

To add to the confusion, some color trends change slowly while other trends seem to change rather quickly.

Pantone, a brand that is considered a leader in defining color trends, has selected a “color of the year” since 2000. Here are Pantone’s last five colors of the year:

• Mocha Mousse (2025): A warm brown with chocolatey and coffee undertones.
• Peach Fuzz (2024): A soft peach color that enhances the mind, body, and soul
• Viva Magenta (2023): A vibrant and invigorating color that branches off the boldness of the red family.
• Very Peri (2022): A creative and inventive color that’s the perfect mix of blue and purple.
• Ultimate Gray & Illuminating (2021): Two colors that come together in perfect harmony, one a muted cool gray and another a lively yellow.

If you’re not sure which trend would work best in (or on) your home, getting input from an expert always helps, especially if you plan to sell your home in the next few years.

“It’s best to get the advice of a stager or your real estate agent on painting,” says Usherwood. “It can help give you perspective and guide you in the right direction.”

It’s black & white

Practicality is one of the most important factors when it comes to repainting the interior of your home. If you don’t choose a color and style that makes sense, you will probably want to repaint soon.

“There’s also a functional component,” says Albert. “Especially because certain colors fade faster than others, and some are more durable. For example, if you’re in a high-traffic area, like a mudroom, having a color that isn’t going to show a lot of dirt is really important.”

When thinking about durability, also consider the brand (some brands have more durable and long-lasting paint) and the type of paint (satin paint will last longer than a flat or eggshell finish) you use.

According to Benjamin Moore, there are four paint components, and each one is equally important when selecting your paint. They are:

• Additives: They enhance specific properties of paints (like mildew resistance).
• Pigment: The hide, color, protection, and finishing of the paint.
• Resin (otherwise known as a binder): The main binding property and backbone of the paint.
• Solvents: The liquid portion that makes paint easier to apply. (Fun fact: paints with less solvent last longer.)

Roll out the red carpet

When you think about it, most people only really see the outside of your home, and those who do see the inside see the outside first. So don’t underestimate the importance of your home’s exterior color, as it’s an essential part of that first impression (not to mention it can really make or break curb appeal).

To start, consider the architectural style of your home—do you live in a traditional colonial-style home? A Tudor or a mid-century modern home, etc.? Certain colors are better suited for each style.

“I definitely think it varies a lot on the style of the home,” notes Albert. “If you have a Queen Anne Victorian house in Katonah, for example, you can use a lot of fun colors, which is true to the area. But if you’re in downtown Bedford, there are a lot of traditionally white houses. So pay attention to your specific location and consider painting your home a color that can sit nicely with the rest of the houses—not that it has to, though, as there’s no real ‘rulebook’ you have to follow. It’s whatever you like.”

So if the colors often used for your home’s style don’t fit your personal aesthetic, you may want to consider the trends.

“People are taking tired, 70s contemporaries and painting them dark charcoal, and it completely freshens up the look,” says Usherwood. “We’re also seeing a lot of cool beige tones, like driftwood, mushroom and bisque, along with whites and all the shades of gray.”

The grass is always greener

Usherwood says she’s seen it time and time again: homeowners don’t test their paint color, and the end result is not what they hoped or wanted. It’s paramount to test a color (preferably multiple) before entirely committing to it. Luckily, today there are many ways you can test colors. Most popularly, you can paint large swatches on the walls, or you can go online.

“You can have it digitally adjusted before you paint, and that’s a great way to see the whole house done,” says Usherwood. “There are some really great services out there, and one of them is this company called brick&batten, which can help you choose the right color for your home’s exterior. You upload your photo, and they’ll recommend a few colors you can choose from.”

If you choose to paint large swatches on your walls, make sure to paint multiple coats on different walls so you can see how the light hits each wall throughout the day.

“You can also order swatches online,” says Usherwood. “I really like Samplize because they sell very big swatches that lightly stick on the wall. It’s enough for you to make an informed decision before you paint.”

Also consider how your preferred color will complement your existing furniture and the tones of the room. It doesn’t need to match exactly, but the color (or colors) you choose shouldn’t clash either.

“When a color doesn’t fit, the tones conflict with other things in the room, or even the flooring,” suggests Albert. “And that’s relatively permanent, so look at the undertones and make sure everything goes well together.”

Ultimately, repainting your home is all about what you like. And if you fall in love with a bright, bold trending color and change your mind in a few years, you can repaint. So look around your room and your house again. Is it time to make a change? Then pick up the paintbrush, try out a mix of trending and classic colors, pick your favorite(s), and then give those walls a fresh coat of paint. After all, the paint may be permanent, but your color choice doesn’t have to be.

This article was published in the March/April 2025 edition of Connect to Northern Westchester.