Give Your Home a Facelift With the Latest Trends in Paint Colors

No one would deny that the quickest and least expensive way to give your home a bright, new look is through a fresh coat of paint.There are thousands of paint colors to choose from, but the fact is, popular colors change! For instance, the '70s were awash with avocado green and harvest gold, something no baby-boomer could forget. The '80s went cutesy with country blue and rose and lots of ruffles. The '90s continued vintage trends, but also offered earth-tones and sleek stainless steel. As we entered the 21st century, tranquil ocean blue was popular, along with other bold tones as people decorated with dark chocolate or wine colored walls, or schemes of paprika orange and sage green with splashes of eggplant purple.

The latest trend in color is toward gentle, relaxing pastels, some with earthy undertones. People are becoming more and more aware of the need for stress-reduction, and decorating trends reflect this move toward relaxing colors. One hot new color worth mentioning is honeysuckle, a happy, clean, uplifting rose-pink with mauve undertones. Honeysuckle can be used effectively on walls in the foyer or dining room. In fact pink is showing up virtually everywhere!

Another trend is to paint adjacent walls with harmonizing colors, but not contrasting. For instance, you may choose to pair a wheat-colored beige with a light golden copper in a bedroom, or two tones of aqua side-by-side in a spa-like bathroom. Kitchens are featuring brighter colors, like chili-red or even more of that popular pink.

Regardless of trends, decorators say that there are several interior colors that are simply hard to work with because of the effect of lighting on them. Two of these colors are dark green and brick red. These colors tend to look different than you expect. If you love them and want them in your color scheme, it's best to save them for fabric accents.

Exterior color trends continue to stay in the earthy range, with terra-cotta being a favorite. Grays, both pale and darker, are replacing the brown tones, but do consider the color of your stone or brick trim when choosing exterior colors. For instance, even if cool gray is trendy, if you have brown rock trim on your home, it will look better with a warmer color of paint. Consider how it will look with your roof color, too. Of course, white is always in style, but cream-white is often best for a more natural look.

Here is another tip for choosing an exterior color. Drive around your neighborhood and see what is in style in your neck of the woods. The goal, however, is not to copy your neighbors, but to choose a color that coordinates with their homes. You don't want yours to be too different, but you don't want it to be a clone of the others, either. Also, even if you'd love to go with that trendy terra-cotta, at least for the doors and trim, you might want to rethink that plan if your home gets a lot of hot sunshine on the surfaces in question. Dark and bright paint colors fade fast in the hot sun, and will look tired soon.

There is one exception to the rule that your home color should harmonize with the other homes in the area. If you have a historic home, you probably should choose from the colors that were in use when the home was built. You might want to do a little research to pick an appropriate color, but clear yellow or light blue with cream colored trim are good choices.

Painting your house is almost like renovating or revamping it but is more cost effective. Paint can give your home an updated look for much less money than a complete remodel would cost. Also, if you happen to choose a color and then not like it, changing it is a simple as repainting.