Choosing interior paint colors can often be quite daunting and time consuming, especially for large jobs where several colors need to complement one another both within a given space and from room to room. Color selection is a design skill that grows with experience, but here are a few tips for clients and designers alike that can help make the color selection process more enjoyable and rewarding:
- Pictures say more than words - use photos from magazines or websites to help define preferred colors. Photos can spark ideas and can help you quickly zero in on likes and dislikes. Also, most shelter magazines often list the actual colors used in featured interiors, so you can easily identify colors that appeal to you.
- Use your surroundings as a reference point – tie your interior colors to the colors of your outdoor surroundings (blues and greens for an ocean-side vacation home, for instance).
- Create a "color family" – choose colors that relate to well to one another and that create a unified package. To help create these color families, select colors from fabrics, wallpapers or rugs that appeal to you. For example: earth tones, neutrals, sunny citrus colors, and cool blues and greens.
- After colors have been previewed on a color fan and choices have been narrowed down, large color samples from paint companies such as Benjamin Moore can be very helpful when making final color selections.
- Visualize the colors you've selected in their respective areas – posting large paint color samples on the walls can help with this. See if you like the way colors flow and relate to one another from room to room.
- Purchase small cups of selected paint colors and actually try them out. Lighting plays a huge role in the actual finished results and perceptions, so make sure you evaluate your color tests under different lighting (evening, daylight, dimmed lights, etc.)
To Illustrate the concept of "color families", I've provided some fabric sample photos from the Greenhouse Fabrics website. From left to right, we have earth tones, neutrals, sunny citrusy colors, and cool blues and greens. 
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