When the time of painting a room or update the decor comes, you face the challenge of keep it true to your style or try to combine it with all the design trends you find. That’s an impossible quest that can leave you with a ruined job with loads of money spent. If you are right in that place, take a look at our list of 5 painting mistakes to avoid at all costs.

1 - Making your room flat and boring

Don’t go all matchy-matchy just to be safe and end with a room that looks as the inside of an egg. White can be bright, trendy and perfect for a small space but you need to create accents to avoid the exact opposite effect. Paint the ceiling with a darker neutral shade or add an accent wall of color to match with linen and furniture.

If you are not entirely sure about the colors that match pick within the collections already put together by paint manufacturers.

2 - Going wild and unsettling

The other side of the first painting mistake is trying to make a statement with a color and fail miserably. You might fall in love with a color scheme you find on Pinterest that’s completely inappropriate for your space and go with it to then find that your room looks like a fair.

Work with your designer and paint contractor to find the best solution for your own space, and take advantage of apps like Color Smart by Behr or other web services from Dulux, Benjamin Moore or Sherwin Williams that let you upload a pic of your room and virtually paint it.

3 - Forgetting about the feeling

Creating an atmosphere is the best quality of the decor and painting has a lot to do with it. Calming, joyful, luxurious, playful, romantic, rustic, peaceful are not only adjectives for chai blends so put them to work to describe your desired spaces. Think about the feeling you want to achieve and find the color palette that best address it.

Remember that those colors may outlive the current trends, so choose only colors that you love and that you are sure to love in the immediate future too.

4 - Disconnecting from the rest of the house

That’s right, you need to create the right ambiance in every room but remember that they are all in the same house or you will end having a themed B&B ready for Disneyland.

Each room is not a compartment and you will mostly see others while the doors and windows are open, so try to be coherent with colors. You won’t use the same palette for every space, ok, but try to find some common color to blend them together, like doors or flooring and play within a sensible range. And pay special attention to coating and textures -like wood panels and beams, stones and bricks- because covering them with paint can seem a good idea but can cripple the architectural spirit of the building.

If you are going to be radical with a large very connected space, you might consider changing the color scheme of the whole interiors.

5 - Having a lousy paint job

If you think that picking the right color is the end of the trouble, think twice. The most carefully picked shades can be completely ruined with a defective paint job or unprofessional finish.

Every surface need a specific pre-treatment and type of paint, and some shades cannot be applied over other colors or textures. And some paints vary a lot with different lighting -natural, incandescent, warm or cold hues- and without a proper color sampling of the actual color on the actual wall you can be fooled with the job already finished.

If you are not a heavy DIYer, forget about the movies with the happy couple painting and hire a paint contractor. With professional help you will be sure to buy the correct materials, have the desired style, cleaner and in the expected time, which tends to be most cost-effective than the alternative.

Most painting mistakes come from being over enthusiastic about the job, but can be easily avoided with some common sense. A good paint job can upgrade your spaces with a lower cost of a remodel, so follow these recommendations and go for it!