How to Choose and Test Colors for a Whole-Home Repaint

Start with the finishes you will keep

Look at your flooring, tile, cabinets, counters and fireplace before choosing wall colors. Include large pieces of furniture you plan to keep. These surfaces are part of the color scheme, even when they are outside the painting scope. Compare your paint choices beside them, rather than picking a shade in isolation.

Choose a starting point in a room that connects to much of the home. It might be the kitchen, living room or entry. Use its lasting features and a favorite rug or fabric to narrow the color family. If you plan to replace flooring or other finishes, test against the new materials too.

Compare the undertones in whites and neutrals

An undertone is a subtle hint of another color within a paint shade. A white can lean yellow, pink, blue or green. Similar-looking whites can feel quite different beside the same cabinet or floor. Compare several physical samples to see those differences more clearly.

Hold the choices beside existing trim, tile and woodwork. Look for the combination you like, whether it blends or creates contrast. If the trim will also be repainted, compare the proposed wall and trim colors together. Treat warm and cool labels as clues to explore, rather than a rule that decides every room.

Check the view from one room to the next

Stand in doorways and look through the rooms you can see together. Include halls, stairs and open living areas in the comparison. A whole-home plan can use one main wall color, related colors or clear contrasts. What matters is how those choices look together in your home.

Repeating a trim color is one way to connect spaces with different wall colors. Continuing a wall color through an open area is another. These are options, not requirements. Place the samples where the rooms meet, and check the view in both directions before deciding where a color should change.

Move from screens and chips to larger samples

Online photos and color tools can help you find a starting point. Your screen may show a color differently from the paint itself. Small store chips are useful for narrowing the choices, but larger physical samples let you judge the color in the room. Try a painted sample board or a movable paint sample.

Check what the sample represents before treating it as the final result. A color sample jar may use a different formula or sheen from the paint planned for your walls. It is for testing color, rather than judging the finished coating's performance. For your final choice, ask how to view a test using the proposed paint product and finish. Follow the sample instructions and review it when dry.

Choose the finish for your final paint sample

Look in daylight and with your usual lights

Check the samples in the morning, afternoon and evening, with the lights you normally use. Daylight changes, and indoor lighting can affect how a color appears. Move the sample between a bright wall and a shaded area. If one color will run through several rooms, test it in each space.

Give extra attention to the times when you use the room most. A dining room used at night needs an evening check, even if it looks good at noon. Note what you like or dislike in each setting. Choose from those observations, rather than expecting a color to look identical in every light.

Use this sample comparison checklist

Keep a short note for each candidate so you can compare the same things. Label samples clearly and use this list before settling on a whole-home color plan.

• Record the color name, color code and paint manufacturer for each sample.
• Note whether it is a chip, painted sample, movable sample or proposed finish product.
• Compare it beside the flooring, cabinets, tile and furnishings you will keep.
• View proposed wall and trim colors together, including any existing trim you will retain.
• Check daylight, shaded areas and your usual evening lighting.
• Test a shared color in each room where you plan to use it.
• Look through connecting doorways and across open areas with the samples in place.
• Record your preferred choice and any room where the result still needs another test.

Write down the color plan before painting

Make a simple color list for each room once you have compared the samples. Name the wall, ceiling, trim and door colors separately. Include the manufacturer and color code, since a color name alone may leave room for confusion. Record the proposed paint product and finish alongside the color.

Mark anything still undecided and share those open choices with your estimate request. Ask when the selections need to be confirmed for the project. Bring the color list to the scope discussion so the agreed choices are clear.

Compare paint choices in written estimates

Sources and further reading

• Benjamin Moore: whole-house color schemes
• Benjamin Moore: white paint and undertones
• Benjamin Moore: using paint color samples
• Sherwin-Williams: choosing paint colors
• Sherwin-Williams: color-sample product limits