Painting your interior walls is a simple way to refresh and update your Corinth home. But choosing the right interior paint color can be tricky.

You may see a swatch in the store and think it will look one way, but on the wall, it turns out looking completely different. Lighting, surrounding decor, and the underlying tones of the paint color can all affect how it eventually looks on your wall.

These five, easy steps will help you narrow down your options and choose the perfect color, with no unwanted surprises.

Color swatch book with warm interior paint color options.

Map out the color themes in your home

Before you start looking for inspiration online, map out the existing color themes in your home. This will help you to choose a color that complements your decor, furniture, and the overall design atmosphere.

Note the wall colors that you like in other rooms and the colors that you’ve chosen for linens, wall art, and furniture. Think about the types of colors that you see consistently, and where they fall in the below color categories:

There are endless different ways to categorize colors – these are just a few to get you thinking.

Once you have a few characteristics of your color themes, you can use them to help you use the right search terms for complementary colors.

Create an inspiration board

Now that you have your theme in mind, it’s time to look for inspiration. Pinterest and Houzz are great places to start looking for interior colors that will fit your style.

You can create a digital inspiration board using these sites, or for larger projects, start building a physical inspiration board. Print out some inspiration pictures, grab a few paint swatches from your local Sherwin Williams store, and even include fabric swatches, flooring samples, etc. if you are working on a larger remodel.

Taking the time to pick out these items and arrange them on a board (a simple poster board will do), will help you wrap your mind around how your new color will look in the final room.

Flower Mound home with modern leather couch, dark mud cloth throw pillows, fiddle leaf fig plant, and a subtle gray green wall paint color.

Change out your wall decor

If you aren’t completely in love with your existing wall decor, or you are in a new house and have not hung anything yet, go ahead and bring in new decor that you would like in the space more permanently.

Choosing your paint color before you make major design changes like this might mean that you miss out on an opportunity to pull in colors from your future art and decor.

When building your inspiration board, make sure you include any new decor that you may be considering for the space you are painting.

Make paint samples using poster board

Once you’ve narrowed down your color options with the steps above, it’s time to paint some samples. Your local paint and hardware store can mix a relatively small paint sample for you to test it out in your home.

Make sure that you don’t paint swatches directly on the wall. This is a common practice for visualizing paint colors in a room, but the extra paint layers can create a texture that can be seen after the whole room is painted.

Instead, paint your color samples onto a piece of white poster board. This is a simple alternative that will save the integrity of your walls.

Once you have your sample boards, see how they look in the lighting of your room. In fact, it’s a good idea to take a look at the samples during different levels of daylight. A cream color, for example, may look white in bright light and yellow in dimmer light.

Consult with your painting contractor

The last step before committing to a paint color is to talk with your painting contractor. At Carnival Custom Painting, we have more than 20 years of experience working on interior painting in the Flower Mound area. We know the colors that work, the trending colors for homes in the area, the grays that won’t turn blue on your walls.

We’ll use our expertise working with a breadth of paint colors to help guide you to the right color for your space.

Ready to start your project?


Click on the image below to download our free, printable checklist:

At Carnival Custom Painting in Flower Mound, we are experts in providing top-quality cabinetry paint jobs. Hire a professional to see an immediate transformation to your home. There’s a reason we are the go-to company for painting services in Corinth.

Our service areas include Argyle, Bartonville, Bella Lago, Bridlewood, Canyon Falls, Copper Canyon, Corinth, Denton, Double Oak, Flower Mound, Hickory Creek, Highland Village, Lake Dallas, Lantana, Lewisville, Montalcino, Point Noble, Robson Ranch, The Landing, Tour 18, Wellington, Justin, Harvest, and Pecan Square.