Tips For Buying New House Paint

Posted on: 22 February 2018

Whether you plan to buy paint yourself from a paint store or let the painting service supply it, it's important to choose the right paint for the job. Color and amount of sheen are important considerations. Plus, you'll always want to buy high-quality paint so it lasts a long time and colors and stains underneath don't show through. Here are some tips for choosing new paint for your home.

Try Samples Of Different Colors

If you want the new paint to be the same color as the old paint, then choosing the new paint is much simpler. The painting contractor can pick the right brand and color for you by just matching the old color with a color card. However, if you want to change colors, then you may want to experiment first. The finished results may not look nearly as good as you imagined, so try painting a small area of a wall in different colors to get an idea of how a color will look on your home. You can buy samples of paint in small cans for just this purpose.

This allows you to see how the paint will look against your furniture and in the type of lighting you have in your home. Another option is to use a paint simulator program that allows you to upload a picture of your home and then change the colors of paint. Once you know the exact paint color you want, you can let the painting contractor buy all the supplies you need or you can buy them yourself if you can find them on sale at a good price.

Match The Sheen To The Room

The next thing you'll want to decide is the degree of sheen for each room. Bathrooms often use a glossy paint that reflects light. This makes the room seem larger and brighter. Plus, glossy paint is easier to keep clean since you can wash off dirt and stains. This also makes glossy paint a good choice for a child's bedroom where you might need to wash down the walls occasionally. Glossy is probably not a good choice for a living room since it allows imperfections in the walls to be more visible.

Flat paint absorbs light rather than reflect it. This makes it a better paint for ceilings and rooms where appearance is very important. However, flat paint isn't nearly as easy to clean. Low-luster paint is between glossy and flat. It is a little easier to clean and it has some sheen to it, but it also has the qualities of flat paint that make it ideal for use in a living room.

The final consideration is price and quality. Buying inexpensive paint may seem like a good idea, but you may be sorry in a few months when streaks are more noticeable and paint from underneath bleeds through. It's usually worth the cost to buy high-quality paint and since you'll need to use fewer coats to cover the old paint, it may not be that much more expensive by the time the painting job is complete.

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