Home Painting Trends, Tips and Paint Inspiration
Whether you’re building a new construction home, doing renovations on an existing home or updating rooms to sell your home, selecting paint (the type of paint and the color) can be a daunting task and we are here to help you with home painting trends, tips and paint inspiration.
With paint you can add color, texture, and personality to any room. You can make a statement with dark brooding colors that emit masculinity or you can add a bright accent wall to a bedroom to coordinate with a princess comforter. Or you can match your wall color to your trim color and let your furniture, décor and art be the focal point.
We have built over 550 homes in the Pittsburgh area and have seen every trend possible over the last three decades, so we have a lot of advice for customers looking for new home painting trends.
Use paint to transform your space
We work exclusively with Sherwin Williams. We have used their paint and their paint colors for years and have always been thrilled with the end product. In our homes we use Sherwin Williams Builders Solutions paint. This paint is a semi-washable paint that really holds up well to wear and everyday life. It is easy to gently use baby wipes or magic erasers on any dirt or marks on the walls to clean them with this paint. We use three coats on all of our walls, one primer coat and then two coats of paint that are rolled on toward the end of construction.
In our bathrooms we use eggshell paint, which is a shinier paint that helps with water drops from kids that like to splash and moisture. In the remainder of the home we use flat paint. We also paint the walls and the ceilings of our homes all one color. People are always surprised that we do not do white ceilings throughout our homes, and this is because when you do the walls and the ceilings the same color, the crown molding of the home really pops and stands out. 7” tall two-piece crown molding is a standard feature in all of our homes on the entire first floor and 2nd floor hallway. If you paint the ceiling the same color as the crown molding, you tend to lose the beauty of all of this molding because it just blends in.
When it comes to the color trends, greys and whites are the top choices and have been for the past 5+ years. Why? Both of these colors palettes are extremely neutral and they also have various undertones that you can work with to achieve an overall feel in the home. Greys tend to always have blue, green, purple, or brown undertones. If you want to have a warmer feel in the home, opt for a brown undertone. Sherwin Williams Agreeable Grey (SW 7029) is a beautiful grey color that has a warm brown undertone to it. Sherwin Williams Repose Gray (SW 7015) is another popular grey color that customers often use. This has a slight green undertone to it but is the truest grey that we have found. Then there is Sherwin Williams Passive (SW 7064). This has a nice blue undertone and evokes a more cool, coastal vibe.
Whites are another popular color that people are using in their homes on their walls. White is the most neutral color you can use and many people use white on their walls so they can bring color into the home in other ways, whether it be through furniture, art, or decor. Common whites are Sherwin-Williams’ Extra White (SW 7006), Alabaster (SW 7008), Dover White (SW 6385), Aesthetic White (SW7035), Pure White (SW 7005), and Marshmallow (SW 7001). We use a lot of these colors also for the trim in the home.
Other trends that we are seeing recently are accent pops of colors on walls, wall paper accents, and dark moody tones. We recently painted a black accent wall in a dining nook and used Tricorn Black (SW 6258). We used gold light fixtures in the room and with all of the white trim, this accent made this dining area feel so elegant and beautiful. Charcoal Blue (SW 2739) is another beautiful dark color. A recent customer of ours used this in their library on the walls and on all of their built-ins. This paired with their light floors and gold light fixture really makes quite a statement.
Paint is one of the most fun aspects of the build process. It can truly change and transform a room. The best thing to do to find the colors that suit your tastes and the style you are going for in your home. Paint samples on drywall pieces and move these around to various rooms throughout the house. Or use the website Samplize where you can order stick on samples of each paint color that you are looking at. You can move these around easily from room to room too. Each room is going to get a different amount of natural light in it which can make the paint colors look a little different. Once you have finalized all of your colors, make sure to keep good notes on what you plan to do where, as this will come in handy down the line if you ever need to repaint or touch any areas up throughout the house!
Happy painting!