Paint Color Questionnaire
Answer a few questions about each room, tap the colors of what's staying (countertops, cabinets, furniture, rugs, flooring, bedding) and get a coordinated color palette for your home that plays nicely with them, with a suggested finish for each surface. Download it as a PDF, and we will email you a copy. Be bold: paint is one of the easiest things in a home to change.
Kitchen GC painting: we use Sherwin-Williams® paint.
Why bold works
Paint is one of the least permanent decisions in a home. Trends change, and so do you: after a few months you learn how the light really moves through a room and how you use it. Start with the color that makes you feel something. If it stops feeling right, repaint. The questionnaire keeps the open, connected spaces coordinated so you can be adventurous in the rooms that close off.
Open concept and sight lines
What counts as "seen together"
Stand where you spend the most time, such as the kitchen island or the sofa. Any wall you can see from there without walking through a door belongs to one open area. In most homes that is the foyer, living room, dining room and kitchen, plus the hallway that connects them.
One thread color
Rooms in one open area share an undertone and usually one wall color, the "thread" that runs through them. Trim and ceilings usually stay the same white throughout the open area. Variety comes from value: the dining room or a den can go one step deeper on the same color strip, so it reads as a richer version of the same color.
Where a color can stop
Contiguous walls (walls that meet or continue around a corner into the next space) should not change color in the middle of a flat run. Change color only at an inside corner, a cased opening, a door frame or a trim line such as a chair rail. Outside corners are the hardest place to stop a color because both sides are visible at once.
Closed rooms are free
A room behind a door, such as an office, a bedroom or a powder room, is seen on its own. That is where a saturated or dramatic color works best, because it doesn't have to sit next to the kitchen in the same view.
Accent walls: shade or a different color?
Same color, deeper shade
The safest accent. It adds depth and draws the eye without adding a new color to the room. It works especially well in open areas, because it keeps the shared undertone.
A different color
A stronger statement. Pick a color with the same undertone as the other walls (warm with warm, cool with cool), so it looks planned rather than random.
Which wall?
Choose the wall your eye lands on first: the fireplace wall, the wall behind the headboard, the wall behind your desk on video calls, or the wall facing the front door. Pick a wall that ends at inside corners and has no doors or open passages through it.
Which finish goes where
Lower sheens hide surface flaws; higher sheens clean more easily. These are popular picks, based on the paint makers' own sheen guides.
| Surface | Finish | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Ceilings | Flat | Hides imperfections and does not reflect glare. Colored ceilings can go eggshell or satin. |
| Living, dining and bedroom walls | Flat, matte or eggshell | Low traffic; soft, even look. Eggshell is a good everyday wall finish. |
| Hallways, stairs, family rooms, kids' rooms | Satin or eggshell (scrubbable matte for kids) | The most scuffs and fingerprints. |
| Kitchens, laundry and mudrooms | Semi-gloss, or a scrubbable satin | Grease, steam and frequent washing. |
| Bathrooms | Satin or semi-gloss, mildew-resistant | Moisture. Run the exhaust fan. |
| Finished basements | Eggshell or satin | A soft, washable finish for lower-level rooms. |
| Trim, doors and windows | Semi-gloss (gloss for front doors and details) | Durable and easy to wipe. |
| Cabinets | Chosen with your cabinet line | Painted cabinet finishes are specified with the cabinets themselves. |
| Exterior siding | Satin or low-sheen | A popular choice for siding. Have vinyl siding? Ask us about vinyl-safe colors. |
| Exterior trim and front door | Semi-gloss or gloss | Sheds water and highlights detail. |
| Deck floors | Penetrating stain (semi-transparent or tinted clear) is a popular choice | Many homeowners like how stain shows off the wood grain. Railings, trim and porch ceilings are often painted, and porch-and-floor paints are made for porch floors. |
Color psychology: what color can (and can't) do
People have strong, widely shared feelings about color. A survey of 4,598 people in 30 countries found that color-emotion associations are largely shared around the world, with local differences shaped by language and geography. But the research is still young: a major scientific review concluded that color does affect how we feel and act, but that the effects depend heavily on context and that more work is needed before firm rules can be drawn. Treat the ideas below as associations and design tradition, not rules.
Calm and structure
Soft blue-greens, gray-blues and navy. Blue and green are commonly associated with calm. One experiment found blue backgrounds helped creative tasks while red helped detail-oriented ones.
Passionate
Royal purple, plum, berry and deep red, for example a royal purple bedroom. Red is the color most strongly tied to love and passion in surveys, and purple has signaled luxury and royalty since ancient times, when purple dye from sea snails was worth more than silver.
Powerful and serious
Mustard, deep gold, navy and bottle green, for example a mustard workspace. Saturated, mid-to-deep colors read confident and intentional, and a solid mid-tone wall makes a strong, focused video-call backdrop.
Cozy, energizing, fresh
Terracotta and warm clay feel enveloping. Sunny yellow and coral feel cheerful; yellow is tied to joy in many cultures. Sage and celery greens feel natural and restorative.
How light or dark and how saturated a color is often matters more than the hue. Pale, soft colors tend to feel restful; saturated, deep colors feel more intense. That is why the questionnaire asks how bold you want to go.
Colors of the year and current trends
Tap or click a color to see it larger.
2027
2026
For 2027, the paint makers are leaning green, from soft and sunny to classic and confident. Across the industry, the 2026 colors were warm and nature-inspired: earthy neutrals, browns from espresso to redwood, creamy whites and greens. Swatches are approximate screen previews only.
Trends are a great place to find ideas, and a terrible reason to pick a color you don't love.
We follow all applicable federal and Massachusetts lead-safe and mold regulations.
Browse colors
See colors in person before you decide. Swatches on any screen are approximate.
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Sources
- Sherwin-Williams® and Benjamin Moore® sheen and color guides
- Elliot, A. J. & Maier, M. A. (2014). Color Psychology: Effects of Perceiving Color on Psychological Functioning in Humans. Annual Review of Psychology, 65, 95–120.
- Jonauskaite, D. et al. (2020). Universal Patterns in Color-Emotion Associations Are Further Shaped by Linguistic and Geographic Proximity. Psychological Science, 31(10).
- Mehta, R. & Zhu, R. (2009). Blue or Red? Exploring the Effect of Color on Cognitive Task Performances. Science, 323(5918), 1226–1229.
- Smithsonian Institution Libraries, "Making Color" (Tyrian purple and royalty)
- Pantone, Benjamin Moore and Sherwin-Williams Color of the Year announcements; NKBA, "Colors of the Year for 2026"
Kitchen GC uses Sherwin-Williams® paint and is not affiliated with, sponsored by or endorsed by The Sherwin-Williams Company. Sherwin-Williams® and the Sherwin-Williams logo are registered trademarks of The Sherwin-Williams Company. Benjamin Moore® is a registered trademark of Benjamin Moore & Co. PANTONE® is a registered trademark of Pantone LLC. Color names and numbers are used only to identify those colors. On-screen colors are approximate; confirm colors with a physical sample.