Choosing a paint color is often one of the first steps on someone’s to-do list when designing a room, which makes sense since walls take up so much visual real estate. Some people like to keep it classic with a neutral shade or go bold with a trending hue that makes a major statement.
However, if you ask practically any interior designer where they’d start, paint is rarely the answer. In fact, selecting paint is often one of the last things they do for a design project. Here’s why.
Why You Should a Pick Paint Color Last
Paint often feels like the easiest decision to make for a room, but picking it first ends up forcing you into a box for the rest of the design project. It essentially sets a rule that everything else in the room has to follow, explains Jan Odesanya, founder and principal designer at Mondän & Co Interiors.
The idea is that you have a bounty of paint colors to choose from, while options are much more limited for furniture, fabrication, countertops, and even flooring. “Why let a $70 can of paint dictate a purchase worth thousands?” Odesanya says.
Rudy Arevalo, interior designer at Mackenzie Collier Interiors, agrees. He suggests narrowing down a general color direction, then selecting larger furnishings and finishes.
“Start with the bigger ticket items like wood tones, furniture, rugs, and curtains so you can choose the pieces you truly love without compromise,” Arevalo advises. “From there, you can fine-tune the paint color to work with everything else in the room.”
Following this designerly “order of operations” also ensures that all of your undertones are cohesive. Odesanya reminds us that two things can both be called cream and still look terrible together.
“A cream sofa might lean yellow, pink, or gray. Put a cool greige on the walls behind a yellow-leaning cream sofa and suddenly that sofa looks dingy,” she says. “And now you're questioning the sofa when the paint color is the problem!”
This simple swap can make all the difference in your design projects and save you many headaches, and perhaps even lots of money, once everything’s said, done, and painted.
Wendy Rose Gould is a lifestyle journalist who routinely contributes to Real Simple, Martha Stewart, Women’s Health, and House Beautiful, among others. She covers home and garden, wellness, and travel, focusing on thoughtful storytelling and detailed reporting. When not writing, you can catch her perusing thrift stores, singing, hitting the gym, and petting any cat or dog that'll allow it.
