August 30, 2021 9 min read

Choosing a paint color can be a stressful activity for your client. It can cause a painting job to take longer than expected and possibly create unnecessary strain between you and them. Luckily, there are ways to help your client choose the perfect paint color for every room of their home. Many of these ways are easy to do and hardly take any time at all. Once your clients have an idea of what they want, you can direct them to Benjamin Moore's Collection Tool to find the perfect color for their vision. After choosing their color, you'll create the background for the room of their interior design dreams.

With the information below, you’ll learn easy steps to follow when helping your client choose a paint color. These steps include the following:

 

  • Getting started
  • Understanding the role of paint colors
  • Understanding your client's style
  • Narrowing down your color options
  • Showing clients paint samples
  • Providing your expertise
After your client chooses the perfect paint color, be sure to contact Aboff’s to find everything you need for your painting job.

 

Getting Started

It’s likely your client has been bombarded with many outlets for inspiration when it comes to choosing paint colors. However, because of television channels like HGTV, DIY, TLC, and Discovery, your clients may have been considering color ideas for some time and have narrowed down their options.  

If television wasn't enough to provide your client with color inspiration, there are several other sources to help pinpoint their perfect paint color.

Online Inspiration

Look for color inspiration online

TV isn’t the only place to guide your clients to find color inspiration. There are many apps and websites listed below that are great places to start.

 

  • Pinterest: a search engine website and app that works like a Google search. Clients can use Pinterest to see how specific paint colors will look with furniture pieces, rugs and more. Pins, Pinterest’s version of “saved items," can be saved and compared to other inspiration ideas. Pinterest also offers links to aid with shopping for items within the pins, which can help complete a room design. Pinterest is the ultimate virtual mood board for clients to gather ideas.
  • Houzz: an app and website offering millions of interior design photographs for every room of the home and exterior dwellings, interior designers for hire, and a database for contractors to connect. Houzz is also a great place to direct clients to insightful articles about how different design decisions influence areas of the home, including how colors can incite feelings. For example, orange can create feelings of joy when it’s added to a room. In addition, there are endless design ideas available on Houzz that are more detailed than those on Pinterest.
  • Instagram: a photo-sharing app where regular people and professionals share their interior design masterpieces. The best way to search for color inspiration on Instagram is using hashtags. Some hashtags for your clients to search include #interiordesignideas, #interiordesigninspiration, and #interiordesigninspo. More general hashtags like #bluepaint, #yellowpaint, etc., will likely not provide the type of guidance your client will need. However, searching hashtags like  #yellowwalls may provide better sources of inspiration and get your client closer to choosing the perfect paint color. 

Former Client Inspiration

We are sure you have plenty of work for past clients in your portfolio. You can use this portfolio to inspire your clients’ color vision. The final images they see in your portfolio can encourage your client to see the bigger picture of different color choices and how they will play along with their interior design choices. 

Local Paint Store Inspiration

Any one of our 32 Long Island Aboff's Paints storefronts is a great place to direct your clients to find color inspiration. These stores offer hundreds of free color chips for your clients to choose from. These color chips are especially great if your client wants to use them to color match or coordinate with an object they already have at home. For example, if your client uses a piece of fabric for color inspiration, they can easily bring the item to the store or take a chip or sample home to compare it there. 

Design Book Inspiration

Magazines and books offer great color choices

For less tech-savvy clients, design books may be the best route for inspiration. Magazines like Better Homes & GardensInterior DesignArchitectural Digest, and Elle Decor are great places to start picking the perfect paint color. These magazines are available in print versions and most of them are also available online. Please note that some online magazines require subscriptions to access all content.

The Role of a Paint Color

Some clients love simple color schemes. On the other hand, some clients may prefer a more fun, unique color scheme and know what colors they want. For those clients who need a little extra help, it may be helpful for you to point out the importance of paint colors in the overall look of their home.

The role of paint colors is more significant than your client may initially understand. As stated above, paint colors can elicit certain feelings, whether positive or negative. Paint colors can invite more light into the home by containing lighter shades instead of darker ones. If and when your client decides it’s time to sell their beloved home, certain paint colors can affect the home’s resale value. 

Research has shown that homes with more neutral-colored walls sell more quickly than homes with brightly-colored walls. But, of course, your client can always rehire you to paint their walls a more subdued color.

What’s Their Style?

A client may or may not have a signature style. Understanding a client's personal or signature style can provide an excellent basis for helping them choose the perfect paint color. The best way to find out if your client has a preferred style is to have a conversation with them. Some questions you may want to ask your client include:

 

  • What is your goal for this room? Is your goal to create a calming effect? Do you want to create an energizing effect?  
  • Does this room play a specific role in your home? Is it to promote relaxation, as a bathroom may? Is it a game room for children, that may allow for a more creative color scheme?
  • Do you want this room to stand alone in your home, or do you want the rooms in your home to flow together?

 

It’s important to remember what color is capable of doing when recommending colors to your clients. Color is an incredible design tool, but it has its strengths and weaknesses. 

For example, if your client’s goal is to make a smaller room look larger, they should avoid a dark paint color. Darker colors may be better if the client would like to camouflage imperfections on their walls. Darker colors may also be beneficial if children are in the home, as they can hide marks and other stains easier than lighter paint colors.

 Lighter paint colors will allow more light to enter the room and create the illusion of a larger space; however, no amount of light paint will make a small room seem massive. 

Flow is another crucial factor to consider when helping your client choose the perfect paint color. Creating a flow using color doesn’t mean using the same color on the walls in every room. It can be as simple as picking a color and incorporating a pillow, accent wall, furniture piece or more in that shade. The rooms will feel connected without being identical.

Lastly, the best way to find out a client’s style is by examining what they already have in their home. What objects do they love? Are those objects antique or modern? Do they have a group of strong colors throughout them, or are they monotone? Utilizing what your clients love may save time on final design choices and make them excited that their special items are getting a place in their new room.

Narrow Down Color Options

Benjamin Moore Color Viewer

After discussing your color recommendations and deciding on your client’s ideas for their perfect paint color, it’s time to narrow down the color options. Narrowing down can be a difficult task depending on the number of colors your client has fallen in love with. Luckily, there is a handy tool that can aid you in helping your client choosing their perfect paint color.

The Benjamin Moore Personal Color Viewer is a crucial tool for any contractor or painting professional. With this tool's advanced technology, you can help your client envision how colors will look in their space.

The tool has two viewing options: upload a photo of the space or use a photo from the Benjamin Moore library. Once you have chosen your photo option, you can begin testing colors on the walls. This part will be enjoyable because you can see how the completed project will look!

The Color Viewer can help your client see the “big picture” and become more educated about what colors will look the best in their home. The color becomes “real” because of the way the Color Viewer works its magic, which allows your client to see how the color looks against their current room furnishings. The Color Viewer can also help your client realize that a color they may have dreamed about as their “perfect” color really wouldn’t work well. 

Lastly, the Color Viewer allows you, the contractor or professional house painter, to make a list of preferred Benjamin Moore paint colors and color families. A ready-made list is beneficial when the time comes to show your clients the paint samples in their homes.

Show Clients the Samples

After you and your clients have used the Benjamin Moore Personal Color Viewer, create a physical visual of the chosen colors. There is no better way to do this than order a paint sample and paint it right onto the walls. When you order your Benjamin Moore paint, whether it’s gallons or samples, from Aboff’s, you receive 20% off all orders with the code SAVE20. 

Sampling the color on surfaces is an essential step in the process of choosing the perfect paint color because it gives the clients the opportunity to see the color throughout the day in various levels of natural and artificial light and to live with the color for a few days. If your client wakes up and feels disgusted when they see the color on the wall, then you can easily cross that color from the list.

Provide Your Expertise

Remember that you are the expert in the color field. Your client may have a vision of what they would like in their homes, but you know how the pieces will fit together. Don’t hesitate to provide your expertise to your client when they need it. After all, they did hire you for a reason. Here are some ways to display your professional expertise:

 

  • Listen to your client: This may be a no-brainer, but listening to your client’s wants and desires can help fuel your design ideas. 
  • Encourage questions: This is an excellent way to show your clients how knowledgeable you are about painting, contracting, and designing. If and when they ask for your opinion, don’t be afraid to give it. 
  • Use your client’s style to inspire you: Your client will undoubtedly have their own unique style. You can use their style to eliminate paint colors immediately. If your client loves neutrals, save yourself the trouble of recommending a bright pink wall.
  • Advise your client: Have clients look at paint color strips starting from the bottom: If they can live with the darkest color on the bottom, they can also live with the middle and top (lightest) colors. If they start by looking at the lightest colors, the rest of the colors will begin to all look the same.
  • Help them choose the best finish: Would eggshell, matte, satin, or something else look best on the chosen wall(s)?
  • Incorporate architectural features: If your client’s home has wainscoting or a molded ceiling, take advantage of that! Utilizing a contrasting color can create an elaborate visual experience.
  • Create a focal point using an accent wall or ceiling: Painting one wall or the ceiling a different color adds another design aspect
  • Assist them in choosing final finishes: Final finishes include furniture, textiles, lighting, and accessories, to complete their desired look

 

Contact Aboff’s for All of Your Painting Needs

You don’t have to do whatever painting job you're working on alone. Aboff’s has been a leading paint supplier on Long Island for over 90 years. Our team has years of experience to provide you and your team with the best color options available. 

Contact our painting pros to have a field representative assist you with your painting needs. Ask us about our job site option, which includes us going to your job site to provide a quote for paint. In addition, we have a design team available to help your clients make the best design decisions for their unique visions. 

Feel free to stop by any of our 32 locations around Long Island to shop our selection of paint and painting supplies. Our friendly team will be there waiting to help you complete your painting job.

 

Linked Sources:

 

  1. https://www.bhg.com/better-homes-and-garden-magazine/
  2. https://www.qcdesignschool.com/2019/06/a-color-consultant-answers-8-questions-design-clients-always-ask/
  3. https://www.thisoldhouse.com/painting/21015206/how-to-choose-the-right-colors-for-your-rooms
  4. https://www.sherwin-williams.com/architects-specifiers-designers/inspiration/styles-and-techniques/sw-article-pro-tipshelpingclnt
  5. https://ecospaints.net/the-importance-of-paint-color
  6. https://www.elledecor.com/
  7. https://www.architecturaldigest.com/
  8. https://www.houzz.com/
  9. https://interiordesign.net/
  10. https://www.pinterest.com/
  11. https://www.instagram.com/