Hot Trends in Interior Paint Colors from Behr for 2009

Since most of us are not buying new houses this year, we might do a little painting to spruce up and give our existing home a new feel. So if you're going to go to the expense and time to paint, you want to choose paint colors that you can live with and that will give your home a new feel. Gone are the days where we go out and buy 3 gallons of paint, paint a room and decide by the end of the weekend that we hate the color. Behr paints will let you order 8 oz samples so you can paint a swatch of wall and live with it for a week or two to make sure you like the color. Alternately, Behr's paint chip samples at Home Depot are nice and large. I tape them up to a wall and do the same thing. But how do you decide what color to paint? Where do you begin?

When deciding to paint a room, find the objects in that room that you either cannot afford to replace, or you love too much to replace. Let that be a starting point for you. Living rooms should have rich colors, kitchens are best in bright clean colors and bedrooms and baths should be in relaxing colors. Only you know if your opinion of rich is a very dark eggplant or an opulent gold. Is white bright or boring to you, does bright mean green or blue, and is calming pink, blue, or beige. Once you have that figured out, then we can look at Behr's great colors for 2009.

If you are looking for colors that will make you feel as though you have stepped into the greatest design home for 2009, stay away from bright yellows, oranges, lavenders and true purple. But, gasp, my 2 year old sofa is lavender. Don't despair, pick a new paint color like a silver gray to update your look, and accessorize with eggplant and you will have a rich elegant look without having to replace your sofa.

Hot colors from Behr paints are plentiful for 2009.

For Living Rooms pick:

Champagne Gold (ICC-93), no way is this considered yellow, but it is a good basic color that will leave your decorating options wide open. The same thing goes with Brown Bread (ICC-60). If you have a large room that can handle dark colors, select Cinnamon Spice (ICC-80), Library Red (ICC-82), Vintage Merlot (ICC-110) or Rosemary Sprig (ICC-87). If you really like dark colors but your room is not the size of a banquet hall, use the dark colors on one wall or for accents around fireplaces etc. It will give you the color you like without reducing the size of your room to a closet. Use Haze (ICC-22) with Cinnamon Spice, Powdered Allspice (ICC-97) with Library Red, Silver Tradition (ICC-23) with Vintage Merlot and Lime Juice (ICC-38) with Rosemary Sprig. Trim all of these with Elegant White (ICC-20) for a clean yet rich look.

For Kitchens pick:

Crisp Celery (ICC-58), accent with Herbal Scent (ICC-76). Alluring Blue (ICC-99) accented with Serene ( ICC-36). Brown Bread (ICC-60) accented with Spicy Cayenne (ICC-106). Brioche (ICC-94) accented with Brandied Apple (ICC-108)

For Bedrooms and Baths pick:

Silver Tradition ( ICC-23) and accent with any number of colors in the light, medium, or dark ranges such as Soothing Celadon, Green Tea, Quiet Moment, Iris Petal, Heirloom Quilt or Soft Feather. For a more neutral, soothing combination, start with Comforting (ICC-42) and combine with Swiss Coffee, Sweet Marzipan, Florentine Clay or Quiet Moment.

Sources: www.behr.com, www.hgtv.com