What’s the difference between beige and taupe? What’s the difference between a warm and cool neutral? Since when is there a color called ‘greige’? What neutral paint colors make the best bedroom colors? What does neutral actually mean? Neutral isn’t as simple as grey, brown and beige; it’s every shade in-between.

Choosing the right paint color is difficult from the get-go and with more and more colors available to you, it can certainly seem like an impossible task.

To help you find your way, we’re going to take you through everything you need to know to choose the right neutral paint color for your home. Whether you’re painting your hallway, kitchen, bedroom, or even the outside of your house, we turned to  interior designers for cues to help you get to know your Balboa Mist from your Carlisle Cream. 

WHAT DO YOU WANT FROM YOUR NEUTRAL?

Neutral paint colors aren’t boring; in fact neutrals can be exciting. There are lots of reasons you might choose a neutral home paint; you might be after a relaxing atmosphere, you might want to make a statement or help something stand out. That being said, choosing the best color for bedroom walls (or whichever room you are painting) can be tricky, deciding what you want your neutral home paint to do for your room, is a good place to start.

If you want to make your room feel light, airy, and spacious, go for one of the lightest colors you can find. Remember, white doesn’t just mean bright decorators white; there are whites with all the subtle undertones you can imagine. If you’re looking for a more luxurious feel, go for something much darker.

There are some beautiful dark neutral paint colors which will give your room a much more intimate feel – don’t forget that dark colors can overpower a room (particularly if it’s a small room) so make sure you have something to break up dark home paint colors. 

KNOW YOUR UNDERTONES

An undertone is essentially a ‘tinge’, it’s a background color which makes a surprisingly big difference. You might have heard of a color being referred to as ‘cool’ or ‘warm’; this is all to do with the undertone. Cool neutral paint colors would have a traditionally cool color as the undertone – think blues, grays and greens.

A warm neutral would have a warm color as an undertone – think browns, reds, and yellows. If you were mixing paint and you had the same grey, then add orange to some of the paint and green to the rest, you’d see how dramatically different the colors would be. Undertones aren’t always obvious, but once you start recognizing the difference between the paint colors you have in front of you, they’ll start to stand out to you.

To figure out the undertone color in your paint, take a look at the paint swatch. Looking at the darkest shade, gives you the best idea of the undertone in your paint. Once you’ve found an undertone you like, choosing the right neutral paint colors will be much easier. You can look through your color swatches and those with the right undertone will jump right out at you. 

COMPLIMENTING UNDERTONES

You may find that the neutral paint colors you thought would go perfectly with the rest of your décor, just don’t. Usually, this is because the undertone isn’t correct. If the undertone color doesn’t go with your art, your soft furnishings or your furniture, there is no way it is going to look good in your room.

Finding undertones which complement the rest of your interior is a sure-fire way to choose the right home paint colors. Comparing the undertone color of your paint with the items in your room will help you determine whether the paint will look good on your wall.

A home paint with a blue undertone might not sit well with luxurious dark brown leather sofas, just like a home paint with a red undertone might not sit well paired with a bright blue rug in a playroom. To find the best paint colors for bedrooms, make sure the undertone of your paint goes well with your bed linens, furnishings, and flooring. 

COMPARE YOUR CHOICES

Once you’ve narrowed down your preferred paints, it’s time to compare them. Let’s say you are redecorating your master bedroom and you’ve got six possible master bedroom paint colors, consider the pros and cons of each. Not only do you need to compare the different paint colors with each other, you need to consider how they feel around your room.

Home paint colors can look completely different in the light, in the shade, next to furniture, by flooring and alongside architectural features in your room. A paint color you love next to the window might look completely different to you when it’s in the shade of a cabinet. Ensuring you like the paint color you’ve chosen everywhere in the room is very important – as it saves a lot of time and money on repainting when you change your mind or need an update. A pro tip is to avoid painting samples on walls – they make a mess of your room.

Paint samples onto paper, then you can use making tape to stick them to the wall. If you paint straight onto the wall you can end up with your room looking pretty unsightly, and if you do it too thickly, it will still be visible when you paint over it. Painting neutral paint colors onto paper also enables you to move the samples around your home with ease. 

LOOKING TO SELL YOUR HOME?

It should come as no surprise that a fresh coat of paint can help when it comes to selling your home. Neutrals are a ‘go to’ when you’re looking to entice a buyer. There are a few reasons for this; the lighter, brighter colors cheer up your home and make the rooms feel more spacious while unobtrusive, neutral palettes allow potential buyers to envisage the rooms containing their belongings – a blank canvas, if you will.

Neutral paint colors also work for the outside of your home as well as some of the best exterior house paint colors are neutrals, and they look amazing. However, ‘how to choose exterior paint colors for your house’ is a whole other conversation, but you get what we’re saying?