How to Renovate a Room If the Paint Color Is Wrong
When it comes to cost-effective ways to transform a room or your entire home, you can’t beat paint. If you’re talented enough, you can paint your walls yourself for a small amount of money and in a relatively short amount of time, and that new color on the walls can have a dramatic impact on the space. Paint can make a room look newer, more spacious and welcoming.
Of course, if you choose the right color. Choosing a paint color can be a daunting task, and almost everyone has had the experience of finishing a paint job and realizing that the color they chose – and just spent hours applying to the walls – is simply the wrong one. You can stare at paint chips and brush swatches on the walls for weeks and still hate the color. It’s one thing if you notice right away: you still have some easy ways to customize your paint shade . So what do you do if you’ve run out of vacations and don’t have the extra budget (or extra energy) to start over and repaint the room? You actually have more options than you think.
Adjust the lighting
Color is light, or more precisely, color is the perception of different wavelengths and frequencies of light. If you can’t stand the paint you’ve just had on your walls for a few days, the first thing you should check is the lighting in the room. Try different lighting temperatures by changing light bulbs, and if you can, change the position of light sources such as lamps. You can also try changing the lighting to be as close to natural as possible. Adjustable bulbs , which provide a range of temperatures, can help you experiment with the right settings, as well as create a dynamic lighting plan that changes based on daylight.
Add more color
Just like the lighting in your room, all other colors can affect your perception of wall color. If you’ve ever seen an optical illusion involving the perception of color , you know how much the same color can vary depending on the colors next to it. So if you don’t like the color you painted your walls, try
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Adding an accent wall . Of course it will require repainting, but it’s only one wall. And choosing the right complementary color for an accent wall can make other walls look completely different. You can also consider using wallpaper to create an accent wall, adding patterns that can have a different effect on how you perceive paint.
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Add decor. You can bring more color into a room through decor and trim . Using more of the same color or complementary colors from the same palette can enhance the color of your walls, better tie it into the room and thus make it more attractive to your eye. On the other hand, contrasting colors can have the same transformative effect as an accent wall strategy, changing the appearance of the wall color.
Embrace it
Finally, if you absolutely hate the color and nothing you do helps, but the idea of repainting the room makes you grind your teeth, you can cover it up:
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Art. Lots of wall art can reduce the amount of unpleasant color you see. Paintings, photos, mirrors—get creative and know that every item you hang is another few square feet of color you won’t see.
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Furniture. Bookshelves, anyone? Placing large, tall furniture around the perimeter of the room will effectively hide the paint.
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Window treatment. Long curtains that run from floor to ceiling on your windows can either hide some of that paint or transform it a bit with a complementary or contrasting color.
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Texture. A sort of happy medium between doing nothing and repainting the entire room: using a textural technique like sponging or rag rubbing can add dimension and change the color tone of your wall with a little less effort than a complete repaint.