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Ignore the Little Voice Inside Your Head - Home Interior Colors For Beginners

DIY Blogger Lindsay Ballard of Makely School for Girls tells Glidden^® why it’s a good thing paint isn’t permanent, that not every room needs to be a bold to be memorable and how the right product can make your project go much smoother…pun intended.

Admit it. The best part about a fresh paint job is the rush you feel when you walk into the room. You want to spend time staring at your new wall, lounge in your newly painted chair, and nap under that bright white ceiling. Then friends and family come to visit and you feel the rush all over again when they tell you how great it looks. But instead of getting to that part where you feel the rush, are you hearing that little voice inside your head say, “What if you don’t like it?”

Beautifully redecorated chair

Don't let fear rule your decorating choices

I often tell the readers of my blog that they shouldn’t let fear rule their decorating and color choices. Well, what if you don’t like your new paint color? Luckily, updating a room or a piece of furniture with paint is fairly cheap and easy as long as you keep it simple. Always remember that you can choose another color if you don’t like your first attempt.

I have embraced the ability to redo (or even undo) any paint project I attempt. I admittedly kept it simple in that first house with soft, muted tones. My love of color started when I took the leap and used a gorgeous turquoise in the dining room of our second home, and I’ve been working to breathe life onto my builders’ beige walls ever since.

Subtle nursery

It's okay to go bold or go subtle

These days, I generally like my painting projects on the bold side. Most recently, my husband and I updated our forgotten bedroom. We added a dark gray and white chevron pattern to two of our walls, highlighting each gray row with a silver metallic stripe underneath. The other two walls in our room are painted solid gray. I painted a few second-hand furniture pieces in a bright yellow, and the contrast is really cheerful.

If the bright yellow and patterned walls are a little too bold for your taste, remember that you can add color to a room and still keep it subtle. When choosing colors for my daughter’s nursery, I felt pulled towards soft, serene hues, thinking it would lead her to be a better sleeper than her older brother was when he was a baby! I ended up dividing the room into two parts by using chair rail molding, and I painted the top half of the walls an antique white and the bottom half a nice grey/beige, or “greige.” The colors aren’t scary, but they still bring a lot of personality to the room when used jointly. My heart still skips a beat every time I walk through the door, but it may have something to do with that sweet little girl who now sleeps in the crib.

Even just sticking to the basics can really update a room. Just recently, I spent my daughter’s naptime painting the baseboards in our powder bath. I had recently given the walls a fresh coat of paint and stenciled a graphic pattern on one of the walls, and the baseboards were looking a bit dingy and yellowed.

Painting trim with brush and painter's tape

Handling the Trim

Generally, I try to avoid repainting trim because it’s kind of a pain. I usually end up with drips seeping under the painters tape onto my floor, and I curse myself for starting the process to begin with. So I decided to try out Glidden^® Trim and Door Paint, which claims no drips and no brush marks. The paint, which has the consistency of yogurt, went on incredibly smoothly and lived up to its claims. I was able to paint the trim in the bathroom and get the paintbrush cleaned during my daughter’s short one-hour nap. Now I won’t avoid repainting trim in the future, and my bathroom looks bright and clean with just the addition of a little bit of high gloss white paint.