Around the House: Create a New Atmosphere in Your Apartment by Adding Fresh Coats of Paint

By Yehudit Garmaise 

Besides deep cleanings, nothing can revive a room better than fresh coats of paint and pops of color. 

While homeowners can paint anything in their homes at any time, renters in New York City can only expect their landlords of buildings with three or more apartments to repaint the walls white every three years: a city rule that often goes unenforced, according to Brick Underground.

Renters who paint their walls any color than white or otherwise damage or change the walls are required to repaint walls white before moving out, or landlords can withhold security deposits.

While white creates a fresh and clean blank slate for art and a minimalistic vibe, paint stores provide infinite choices of inexpensive house paint that will not only cover scratches and scuffs but will create a whole new look.

To determine which hues you might like to create a new atmosphere in your home, consider which colors soothe you and make you feel happy and relaxed. 

Maybe you have always loved the color of one of your couches, pillows, or a part of a piece of art in your home. You can take a photo of the items that feature the colors you like to the paint store and match it to repaint your home in a way that suits you best.

Eliminate what you don’t like: Before even going to a paint or home improvement store, which can be overwhelming, first rule out the colors that don’t spark joy or have negative associations.

While you may love the different blues of the sky and the sea, you make strongly dislike anything red or orange.

Knowing what you like and what you don’t like significantly simplifies your design process.

Although paint stores provide infinite shades of color, the color spectrum includes only seven basic colors: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet.

Look at a variety of shades to determine which are best for you, only after you identify which of the seven basic colors appeal to you and help you to feel calm. 

Your walls, moldings, and floors should also complement your current furniture and décor: unless you want to spark a total remodel.

Make it pop: Then consider which other parts of your home, besides walls, may better “pop” with fresh coats of white or colored paint.

Look around your home: to determine which plaster or wood surfaces would look with coats of white or colored paint.

Ask your children which colors they would like to surround them in their rooms. Their answers will likely surprise you. 

Choosing colors or neutral palettes to repaint crown moldings, window frames, breakfast nooks, bookshelves, built-in cabinets, wooden furniture, and even scratched wooden floors all can provide inexpensive renovations.

Even front doors can be livened up with a tasteful color of paint.

In Tzfas, Israel, for instance, many residents paint their front doors vivid shades of turquoise to match the blue skies where the Arizal made the city a center of Kabbalistic learning.

photo credit: Flickr