A Trio of Experts Talk Trends in Paint

By: Megan Martin

When it comes to home de­sign and decor, few things have as strong a vis­ual im­pact as paint colour. Ask any pro­fes­sion­als and they’ll likely all agree that paint colour can change the over­all look and mood of any space. Experts Talk Trends in Paint

In fact, whether you’re look­ing to cre­ate a warm dra­matic ef­fect or a cool calm­ing ap­peal, the paint you choose makes all the dif­fer­ence. That’s why it’s cru­cial to think through the colours you select for your home by ex­plor­ing cur­rent trends, pay­ing at­ten­tion to what’s go­ing to work best with your ex­ist­ing home ac­cents, and con­sult­ing an ex­pert or two.

“Paint colours can breathe life and change the mood in any room and help your fur­ni­ture, art and be­long­ings stand out and look bet­ter,” said An­dre Zylin­ski, owner and pres­i­dent of Pain­tol­o­gists. “Paint­ing your home is like the ic­ing on the cake; a good qual­ity job shows and puts more value into your home. And with the right colour match­ing your taste, you’ll feel good and more com­fort­able in your space.”

A paint job can truly bring your ex­ist­ing be­long­ings back to life from a de­sign per­spec­tive. That’s why, when choos­ing your per­fect hue, you should con­sider ex­ist­ing el­e­ments in your room such as floor colour­ing and any dec­o­ra­tive items you’d like to keep in that space — rugs, cur­tains, ac­cents, and so on.

“Light­ing also plays a fac­tor when choos­ing the right paint colour,” said Car­men Roy, in­te­rior de­sign spe­cial­ist. “Some paint colours ab­sorb a lot of light, oth­ers re­flect it, and many peo­ple don’t re­al­ize that paint colours have un­der­tones to them as well.”

A grey paint, for ex­am­ple, may have a pur­ple or green un­der­tone to it that will be en­hanced once it’s on the wall or paired with cer­tain hues in your space.

“So be­fore in­vest­ing and pur­chas­ing your paint and hir­ing a painter, I highly rec­om­mend con­sult­ing with a pro­fes­sional dec­o­ra­tor or de­signer who has stud­ied colour,” she said.

More and more, home­own­ers are re­al­iz­ing just how im­por­tant paint colour is to the over­all look and feel of their home.

“With so many dec­o­rat­ing shows and dec­o­rat­ing apps avail­able, peo­ple are ex­plor­ing pos­si­bil­i­ties and get­ting ideas for their space,” Roy said. “It’s a good way for me to be guided on what their pref­er­ences are. My job is then to find the right tone with the right un­der­tones, which can be a tricky process for some­one who hasn’t stud­ied colour.”

With a ton of in­spi­ra­tion avail­able, peo­ple are be­com­ing more in­volved in the over­all de­sign and dec­o­rat­ing process.

“I think sites like Pin­ter­est and Houzz re­ally open peo­ple up to what’s pos­si­ble,” said Derek Ste­fanuk, owner of Ate­lier Chroma. “Not only are peo­ple pay­ing more at­ten­tion, we’re also see­ing peo­ple mak­ing bolder de­ci­sions and tak­ing more risks with their de­ci­sions.

“A decade ago, most peo­ple would just paint their house taupe and that would be that. Nowa­days, we see a lot of in­ter­est­ing de­signs, tex­tures, colours and sur­faces.”

In terms of cur­rent trends, the range of what’s pop­u­lar is quite broad, mean­ing there’s some­thing go­ing on right now for ev­ery­one’s taste.

“Nat­u­ral, earthy tones are on the top of the list for 2019 and it’s all about bring­ing the outdoors in,” Roy said. “These hues are calm­ing and quite wel­com­ing.”

Colours such as mushroom, hazel­nut, dark greens, mus­tard and, of course, pewter are a few ex­am­ples. If you’re into deep sat­u­rated colours, think char­coal and navy blues — and if you’re look­ing for some­thing softer then you’ll be happy to know muted pas­tels in pinks, blues and greens are trendy.

Ac­cent colours against a neu­tral back­drop are quite pop­u­lar as well.

“I would say the big­gest trends in paint colours are to add very rich and deep ac­cent colours — like blacks and for­est greens, for ex­am­ple,” Ste­fanuk said.

“I would say, over­all, it’s more of a strik­ing look that we’re see­ing, where there are a lot of pale tones or even just all whites and then some re­ally rich dark tones that make a state­ment.”

When it comes to se­lect­ing paint experts for your home project, you’d be ad­vised to choose care­fully. In fact, there are sev­eral fac­tors to con­sider when hir­ing painters.

“Do the re­search be­fore­hand and re­ally have a clear idea of what you want be­fore you pick up the phone and call a painter,” Ste­fanuk said. “The best painters are al­ways busy, so you will want to book them at least one to two months in ad­vance.”

It’s im­por­tant to in­quire about the team size they’ll be us­ing, as well as any li­cens­ing they have.

“You should seek out a pro­fes­sional paint­ing con­trac­tor with a team of ex­pe­ri­enced painters who do this full-time for a liv­ing,” Zylin­ski said.

“If it’s a small job, a one-man team is OK, but larger in­te­rior jobs re­quire two to three men — and it can take two to three weeks to paint a full house prop­erly, with the base­ment.” Experts Talk Trends in Paint

A lot of that time is spent on prepa­ra­tion work, which is crit­i­cal to any proper paint job, he added.

“The most im­por­tant part of a qual­ity job is proper prepa­ra­tion with re­pair­ing cracks and mi­nor de­fects, caulk­ing cracks, pole sand­ing all sur­faces — sand­ing trim, doors and even be­tween coats if you have the bud­get,” Zylin­ski said. “Be care­ful of low prices, too; many painters cut out a lot of the prep work and have cheap in­ex­pe­ri­enced painters to paint your home. It will look OK but shows in the long run and may need to be re­painted in a few years.” Experts Talk Trends in Paint

The same can be said of qual­ity paints and sup­plies. “A pro will know the best ones to use,” Zylin­ski said. “The am­a­teurs don’t re­ally know and will use what you want. That can be OK, but it’s usu­ally a sign that they lack the ex­pe­ri­ence and knowl­edge in the trade.”

And as with any home im­prove­ment job, en­sur­ing your pro­fes­sion­als are li­censed is im­per­a­tive.

“It’s al­ways best to hire a paint­ing com­pany that has an RBQ li­cence and is fully in­sured and bonded,” Zylin­ski said. “You are pro­tected in case of ac­ci­dents and have le­gal re­course if any­thing goes wrong.”

All that said, de­cid­ing to paint your home is a won­der­ful and cost-ef­fec­tive way to up­date your space.

“I think that de­sign is re­ally a fun way for peo­ple to express who they are and cre­ate an en­vi­ron­ment that com­mu­ni­cates cer­tain moods or life­styles,” Ste­fanuk said. “I think that de­sign used to re­ally in­tim­i­date a lot of peo­ple, so it’s nice to see so many home­own­ers be­com­ing more in­ter­ested in it.”