Interior paint colors come in many, many forms and techniques. When it comes to paint these days, people are not just staying with the “safe” white eggshell anymore. They are going bold, loud, subtle soft colors, and the newest décor item these days for designers and homeowners alike is faux techniques. When picking out your interior paint colors you need to not simply pick a color based on your favorite. Let your room tell you a story, and what color it wants. How you decorate your home with accents and décor items do make a important tie in combining everything to have the “flow” it needs to look, just right. Interior paint colors your home gently and boldly, creating a theme, telling a story, providing a comfort. Listen to your walls.

What the heck is a faux? What are warm colors?

As I said, paint is not just your old school drab these days. People are making statements with their homes, and even something as wonderful as your new babies room is being done in interior paint color murals of jungles, beaches, and so on. There is absolutely no limit to what you can do if you choose your interior paint color carefully.

Here is a quick list of some terms you will become familiar with.

Soft colors (also known as "cool" colors) include light purple, blue and green. These interior paint colors are bold in color but simple to the eyes. They don’t encourage you to stare at the wall endlessly paining your eyes with such bright colors, they are inviting, welcoming you to look at the walls.

Hard colors (also known as "warm" colors) include red, orange, and yellow. These are bright colors that soothe you. These are famous colors for many restaurants. A lot of the new homes these days are going with these hues as a time capsule to the Venetian days. Red, and yellows are the most popular colors sold in the interior paint colors pallet. You may not even realize it as to your everyday eye your walls appear white, but are not. There are many versions of white from many different paint companies, but if you place a stark white cloth against your wall you will see your white wall is actually yellow. They add mustard yellow to the paint mix to give a warm white, almost crème feel.

Then you have your earth-tone colors, which include browns, beige, gray, and taupe. These are my favorites. I happen o like the simple look and go bold with my décor, rather than simple furniture with bold walls. I love taupe. These earth tone interior paint colors are elegant to look at and simple. The hues can be anywhere from tea stained to coffee. If you want a sophisticated look, stay with the earth tones.

Faux painting is an actual technique you can do with a combination of interior paint colors and utensils. Just to name a few, Venetian Plaster, stippling, crackling, aging, suede, and so on. I love these. I worked in the paint department for a few years trying to learn these techniques. I found out I am not a good painter, but will likely hire someone to do some of these effect for my home. They add such a wonderful addition to an already beautiful wall, or clean up a drab wall. Be creative. I went to a friend of my husbands home, and in their son’s room they let the child write his own name across one entire wall and then the parents went over it to tidy it up and did matching colors that “flowed” together and did a faux technique on the remaining walls. It looked so neat; I imprinted the image in my mind to have my newborn son do when he is old enough to appreciate the fun he can have in his own room.

This brings me to an important thought. You spend the majority of your time in two specific rooms in your home. If you think about just how much time you spend in the family room, or your teenager spends in their room as we all did at that age, you should really think about placing interior painting colors that will work for YOU. Not simply getting colors that are “in”, go with colors that will bring you comfort rather than an open house show when you have company, it is after all your home. Daily.

Know your facts before painting interior paint colors in your home.

Make sure you ask about going over existing colors. Many people think that just because they have white that they can go directly over it. How old your house is and when it was last painted makes a lot of difference, and can save you so much money and time if you simply just ask. If you have a older home that was painted years ago, it is likely done in oil based paint, which means that since oil base is almost completely non-existent these days, that you can NOT go directly over it with the newer water based paints in the store. Your paint will fall off your wall. Literally. But such rules, vary, if you have oil base paint on your walls you can go directly over it if you use oil, the same applies to water based. Just makes sure you ask, to save heartache. There are ways to test your walls with every day nail polish remover, or straight Acetone from your local hardware store.

Be creative, have fun, and let loose on you’re walls creating a inviting, elegant home that you just love coming home too. Your mood effects how you relax, and your walls can help you relax if you’re in tune with your décor choices.