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Hot paint colors


How to Choose the Best Interior Paint Color

As any homeowner knows, choosing paint colors can be overwhelming. Use the following guide to help you explore and select interior color schemes you’ll love!

While there is no one-size-fits-all reply to "what’s the best interior paint color," some thoughtful research goes a long way. Go into this exercise with an open mind and a commitment to exploring your creative side as you search for your perfect paint color.

Step #1: Analyze the Room for Interior Paint Ideas

Hardwood floors, countertops, a fireplace surround, area rugs, and of course furniture...the colors in these items will help determine which paint color families will work best in your room, and help narrow your options.

Additionally, the right paint color for any room should reflect the mood you want to create in the room as well as complement its architecture and style.

Paint truly transforms your space–see some of our favorite colors for living room and bedroom if you are selecting color for either of these important spaces in your home.

Step #2: Explore the Best Interior Paint Colors–for You

If you want to cut to the chase, check out our tried and true most popular paint colors, where we highlight homeowner favorite colors including Chantilly Lace OC-65, Revere Pewter HC-172, Hale Navy HC-154 and many more.

For a more deliberate approach, use magazines, online tools like Pinterest and our Inspiration section to find colors and color combinations that inspire you. Is your eye drawn to darker hues, fresh pastels or bold primary colors? Explore how paint and color work together in the Color Handbook and tap into our online color tools.

Tip: Paint on a poster board, not a wall, so you can easily see how colors will appear around the room.

Step #3: Get Color Chips, then Test with Paint Samples

Once you’ve selected the colors you’re drawn to, visit your local Benjamin Moore retailer and pick up color chips and inspirational brochures to bring home.

While you may be tempted to use color swatches only to determine which color to use, the best way to test color in different lighting conditions is to buy paint samples from your local Benjamin Moore retailer. Natural and artificial light can impact the appearance of color, so viewing it at different times of the day in all lighting conditions is crucial. Learn more about paint color samples.

Step #4: Pair Color with Quality Paint

Some painters may tell you that they can easily "match" any Benjamin Moore® color in another paint brand. This is simply not the case.

Engineered specifically by Benjamin Moore, for Benjamin Moore paints, our proprietary Gennex® Color Technology sets us apart by delivering color and durability that is truly unmatchable.

Make sure that the Benjamin Moore interior paint color you ultimately choose is realized to its full potential by using only Benjamin Moore products.

Step #5: Get Started Any Time

When it comes to interior painting, you generally control the environment you’re working in. Weather does not have to be a consideration–so interior painting is a year-round opportunity.

You can get well prepared with our other how-to articles including how to pick sheen, cut paint in a room, prep a wall, and how to paint a wall so that you set yourself up for ultimate painting success.

Have More Questions? Visit or call your local Benjamin Moore store or contact Customer Support.

How to Choose a Paint Finish

Choose an interior paint finish and gloss with this guide.

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10 Best Warm Paint Colors for Your Home

My Simple Simple

Warm tones are categorized as the hues on the color wheel packed with yellow and red undertones. Think everything from sunny yellows to deep shades of rust, golden beiges, and everything in between. Contrary to cool tones, the versatile hues on the warm spectrum evoke an inviting vibe that can skew either happy and energetic or rich and cozy. With an array of shades that prove to be both timeless and trendy, settling on a single hue can feel next to impossible. To make warming up to the right shade easier, we tapped interior designers for the warm-toned paint ideas to implement on your next room redesign. Their picks ahead—you're getting warmer.

Trying to warm things up? Here are 12 warm paint colors that interior designers want you to cozy up to.

01 of 10

Hope Fallin Color Design

"I think of grey as a neutral, like cream or white," Kate Lester of Kate Lester Interiors explains. "So for me, the perfect grey is all about warmth. I love Light French Grey by Sherwin Williams because it's got a depth and warmth that I can't really find in a lot of other grays and doesn't lean too lavender or baby blue. There's nothing worse than the sun going down and your wall turning purple, so make sure to test a few samples and look at them during the day and at night. Trust me on this one."

02 of 10

Basic Blue House

"Hailed as 'the most flattering paint color ever,' Tissue Pink by Benjamin Moore is the versatile backdrop for both modern and traditional spaces," Campbell Minister of Decorated Interiors says. "This gorgeous color reads a bit coral, which means it does not need to be reserved for only, say, a little girl's bedroom. "

03 of 10

Terra Nelson

"Pashmina by Benjamin Moore is dramatic and sexy," Minister gushes. "I have used it on walls in an open kitchen as a complement to a tile backsplash and a small men's office space. The color changes in the light but predominantly reads brown and pairs well with creamy beiges and tans."

He recommends using it in a small enclosed space "to envelop your guests from the moment they walk in the door."

04 of 10

Suzanne Falk Interior Design

"This neutral hue has a warm undertone and goes with almost any color scheme out there," Minister says of Sea Salt by Benjamin Moore. "Blacks, warm taupes, and creamy neutrals pop against this gorgeous color. It has a tad of brown mixed in, but the lighting in the room can change the way it reads in each space."

05 of 10

Design: Highboy LA; Photo: Bethany Nauert Photography

Eilyn Jimenez, creative director and founder of Sire Design, says she likes incorporating warm tones like Behr's Canyon Dusk into her designs with small accent touches.

"If not used carefully, the color can give off an aged aesthetic, often making a space feel too dark," she explains, "So, it is important to use it in subtle ways. Additionally, blending brown-toned accents with more modern materials like marble can create beautiful juxtapositions of color and texture."

06 of 10

Sarah G Tucker

"I love Benjamin Moore's Revere Pewter for a warm taupe," says Cara Fox, owner and lead designer at The Fox Group. "This perfect neutral looks great when applied to trim and paired with white walls. Use it on baseboards, cased openings, crown molding, and window trim for a timeless, Scandinavian look."

07 of 10

My Simply Simple

"We love to use Faded Gray by Dunn Edwards when we are looking for a warm neutral color," Mary Maydan, founder and principal of Maydan Architects, says. "This color provides a great background for almost everything and helps us to create a timeless space. It's calm, soothing, and adds warmth and character. We can easily add a trendy accent color next to it for drama and boldness, or we can keep the room quiet and luxurious by using it on its own."

08 of 10

DeVOL Kitchens

"Charleston Gray by Farrow & Ball is a beautiful, chic way of using a shade of brown," Cara Woodhouse of Cara Woodhouse Interiors says. "It's a new twist on the traditional chocolate brown color."

09 of 10

Patrice Stephens Interiors

"Sherwin Williams' 7017 Dorian Gray is a true warm gray," Stephanie Lindsey at Etch Design Group explains. "Used as an overall exterior color and interior color, it's versatile for any setting."

She notes that her firm has used this numerous times when a homeowner is looking for a warmer neutral color as it creates the perfect backdrop for living rooms, dining rooms, and bedrooms alike.

10 of 10

Courtesy of Benjamin Moore

Bob Bakes, cofounder and head of design at Bakes & Kropp tells us, "I love Sharkskin by Benjamin Moore—there is a beautiful subtlety to this gray color. It's not too bright or too dark and can easily blend into the background or serve as a highlight color."

Finally, he adds this warm gray tone "contrasts particularly well with the walnut stains we've been seeing over the last few years."

The 11 Paint Trends You Need to Know This Fall, According to Experts

Color theory. Warm and cold colors. Tone and semitone.

As mentioned earlier, colors have three characteristics - one of the pair.
Warm -cold
Soft - bright
Light - saturated

Today we will dwell on the distinction of warm and Cold Flowers

First we will figure it out with Chromatic Flowers

for clarity again for clarification circle:

As you remember, all chromatic colors can be made up of three primary colors - red , yellow and blue .

Red and yellow are psychologically perceived by us as warm colors, because they are associated with fire and the sun.

Blue is psychologically perceived by us as a cold color, because it is associated with water and ice.

Accordingly, those colors in which red and yellow predominate are considered warm ( orange , red , yellow ), the same in which blue color predominates ( 4 blue , lilac ), are considered cold .

Those colors that contain equal amounts of warm and cool colors ( green = yellow+blue, violet = blue+red) are usually considered neutral. nine0012

Now back to the fact that all secondary and tertiary colors consist of two chromatic colors in different proportions (when adding a third, a gray tint appears, but we will not go into that for now). The color that prevails usually determines the color, tone (overtone).
However, in coloring, another color is also important, which is part of the shade. This color is called undertone . Midtones make colors within the same shade "warm" and "cool" . For example, warm red and cold red. Cold semitones - blue. Warm undertones - yellow and red. Orange does not have cold undertones - it is the only absolutely warm color.

Here are examples of warm and cold shades of the same color:

The first column is warm undertones, the second is cold undertones

Usually, when talking about color combinations, they combine colors with the same halftone. nine0006 In the theory of color types, cold and warm colors mean just colors with cold and warm undertones.

General rules for combining colors depending on halftone:
Colors with the same halftone blend well. Colors with different tones do not blend well, however, in clothes they can sometimes be combined in small quantities to create accents.

Compare:
1 picture - cool purple (halftone blue) + cold green (halftone blue) - harmonious
2 picture - cold purple (halftone blue) + warm green (halftone yellow) - disharmony

with one halftone

Cool halftones : cold blue, light blue, cool bright red, burgundy, cool green, light grey.

Warm midtones : warm yellow, yellow-orange, red clay, warm green, olive, marsh

Now, as for , ahromatic flowers :

Clean and Sery gray are counted cold colors - they harmonize well with them.

Medium gray can sometimes act as a neutral color due to the fact that it is a combination of two opposite colors. nine0012

Warm and cool colors chart

Contents

and color transitions. Experts say that a person can distinguish about two percent of the shades of what is available to the eyes of birds and some insects. Instead of the outdated and imperfect system of decomposing white light into seven basic color bands, artists, designers and makeup artists have developed their own table of warm and cold colors, because for painting and coloring, the energy of perception, tone and shades have long become more important than the color itself. nine0012

Why do we need a color chart

To be precise, the seven basic, fundamental colors in nature exist only in our perception for our vision. Coloristics really proved that for the human eye there are only three basic color components - yellow, red and blue, plus an additional white. Any color or shade can be obtained from these three components, and the addition of more or less hot than the background color can make it warm or cold. nine0012

In the colorist there is a clear division of colors into three groups:

A person does not have additional sense organs with which one could try the shade “on the tooth”, only the receptor sensation of heat and cold remains, which we are trying to use when classifying into cold and hot bases. nine0012

Using the cold and warm color chart

The practical application of gradation into cold and warm colors is based partly on human psychology based on several rules of mutual influence:

  1. The definition of "cold" or "warm" occurs only on the basis of one's own psychological experience and human stereotype. So, for example, white and blue are associated with ice and snow, so their combination can be considered cold; nine0179
  2. Contact on the same color field of two zones of pronounced warm and cold colors, mutual equilibrium influence. For example, when blue and red colors come into contact, the first becomes softer, warmer, the second becomes emotionally piercing and tougher;
  3. Mixing color bases with the addition of white allows you to control the visual color temperature.

The same combination of white and blue in different people can cause completely different associations. For some it's cold blue ice and snow, for others it's hot blue skies around a white sun. Therefore, we switched from psychology to the temperature of the color matrix. nine0012

How to change color temperature

The easiest way to illustrate the effect of changing color temperature is with the three most important colors for us, yellow, green and red.

For warm yellows, the only way to increase the temperature is to add shades with a lower energy, such as red, as in the table.

Warmer than basic yellows include, for example, honey yellow, dandelion or sunflower.

Green or blue is added to transition to colder tones.

Red color is energetically warmer than yellow, so it is more difficult to control its temperature. The gradation of the energy of different shades of red is the most difficult to perceive.

To make the red color cooler, you have to shift its background towards purple with the addition of blue and gray.

Warming red is much easier with the addition of yellow.

Learn more