If you want a high-end design on a budget, try faux finishes on your walls. In addition to giving your home an updated style, faux finishes add color and depth to rooms. Although each faux finish project you tackle will be different, choosing the right colors should always be one of your first design choices. Whichever room you are redecorating, your choice of colors will need to take into account a wide variety of criteria.

For example, are you looking for a bold modern statement of primary colors or a dark muddy earthy Victorian look? Are you trying to blend the wall into your existing decor, or are you looking to create an accent wall that brings your own texture and drama to the room? Are you trying to hide the flaws of a room or is your ultimate goal to make the wall work within the existing strengths of the room? Will you try to make the room appear bigger or smaller? All of these questions will need to be addressed even before starting your faux finish project. In fact, choosing colors is really the first step in the process.

I know it may seem intimidating, but it is not something that cannot be successfully addressed with a little consideration and research. One of the easiest ways to do this is to visit your local library and buy some decorating magazines and books. Go through them and find rooms that have the kind of look you hope to achieve, paying particular attention to color combinations that might work in your own room. You are trying to create a particular look or atmosphere, and color will be an important part of creating the effect you are looking for. Does the room need a dynamic kinetic feel or do you want a sense of relaxation and comfort?

There are no hard and fast rules and your own color choices will ultimately depend on your unique personal taste and style. You’ll also want to take your existing furniture into account when making your color choices, that is, unless you also plan to buy all new furniture to match your new color scheme. Is there a particular color in your curtains or window upholstery that you would like to enhance? That might be a good place to start.

One of the basic things to understand is that darker colors will make a room appear small, while lighter pastel colors will reflect more light, giving the room a larger appearance. If you really want to make an eye-catching color statement in a smaller room, consider making an accent wall only, meant to serve as a piece of art once you’ve done your faux finish job. That way you can leave the rest of the walls a lighter color to give the room a bigger feel and still add some drama. However, a darker faux finish over a lighter color could have the opposite effect, but sometimes an entire room needs to be done to see this phenomenon. And a word of warning: if you only make one wall of a room as an accent, the room could feel unbalanced.

In a Habitat for Humanity project house featured in Flip That House, the office was painted a wheat-gold color because the room looked like a cave. Homeowners became concerned when decorative painter Kari Barron wanted to add old-world color to the walls with a brown powder. After wetting the sponge and applying the mixture all over the walls and ceiling, the room felt bigger! This happened because the walls gained the illusion of depth.

Above all, don’t be afraid to experiment. The worst that could happen is that you will end up having to paint over your experiment. That should take some of the pressure off if you’re having trouble deciding.