Five things to know when painting your home

Painting is a powerful tool for homeowners.

Adding accent walls or colors is a way for a homeowner to express their personal style and painting the whole house a neutral color is an easy way to refresh a space before selling. Paint can both add to and detract from personality.

Choosing the right paint for your home isn’t just about picking a color you like — it’s about understanding how undertones, lighting and finishes work together to create the right look. Whether you're painting to sell or simply freshening up a space, these five key factors can help guide your decision.

Paint colors will have undertones that can be cool or warm. While you might think that there are warm colors (red, orange and yellow) and cool colors (blue, purple and green) it is not that simple. Even colors that are traditionally considered warm or cool have a range in temperatures. A cool red could pull more purple and a warm red would lean orange.

This concept can be applied to all colors, even white. Cooler whites may appear starkly bright and very clean. Warm white may look creamy and soft.

Pro tip: When considering paint, look around and see if your home has warm or cool accents.

Common mistake: Floors are an important consideration. Many natural woods pull warm, so a cool-tone white would create a high contrast and might not go together. The same goes for gray floors — warm white would look more yellow next to a cool gray.

The industry advice is to paint a neutral color when selling. This is typically white, gray or beige. When choosing a color, consider the style and architecture of the home.

New construction tends to be more white with clean lines and simple trim. But a colonial from the 1950s may look better in a beige or cream to accent any details or crown molding or baseboards.

Look at your home for the colors of the floor, cabinetry and kitchen to see what shades will suit the space best.

Pro tip: For painting for your personal style there are dozens of options from painting your kitchen cabinets olive green to painting your powder room eggplant purple.

Common mistakes: Be mindful that your favorite color may not look good on the wall. Most paint stores offer color consults and several paint companies offer free or paid consultations online.

Each paint will have a light reflecting value, or LRV, from pure white at 100% to absolute black at 0%. This grade will denote how much light will be reflected from the paint.

It’s recommended to stick to a high LRV if you want a room to feel bright. A lower LRV can make a space feel cozy.

While the LRV correlates with the darkness of the shade of paint, there are nuances that are not always clear.

Common mistake: Having a low LRV can make a room look dark. For example, gray paint can range in LRV, and while it may appear light on the test paper, if the LRV falls within the 50% to 60% range, it could appear too dark on the wall.

Pro tip: Look for paints with an LRV of 75% or higher when painting to sell.

Paint has a finishing or sheen that affects how the color appears on the wall. This is often described as how shiny the paint is.

For interior walls, low-sheen finishes like satin or eggshell are best because they reflect some light but are neither too shiny nor too dull.

If you are using a dark or bright color for an accent wall, consider how the sheen can be used to enhance the look. High sheens, like gloss, or low sheens, like matte, are sometimes used as accent textures.

Common mistake: Too high a sheen can look really different from room to room, depending on the lighting and shadows.

Pro tip: Paint your ceilings a flat-finish white for a clean, durable look that doesn’t distract from the room.

Two homes painted the exact same color can appear completely different due to their lighting. Rooms with lots of windows will appear brighter than a room with only one window during the day. Natural light is important and often a desirable factor, but the type of artificial light in the home matters just as much.

Like paint, light bulbs range from cool to warm. Before picking up the paintbrush, take a look at the lighting to see if that can be adjusted to change the undertone and feel of the room. If you think the room feels too yellow and warm, then consider switching to a cooler light bulb.

Pro tip: Check your light bulb’s color temperature number, which is measured in Kelvin. If it’s in the 2,000 to 3,000K range, then it is likely very warm and yellow. If it is 5,000K or higher, then it will look very cool and white.

Common mistake: Painting the room can only do so much in achieving the desired color temperature. Failing to check and change the light can cause you to waste thousands on a paint makeover.