Best Paint Colors for Apartments & Condos in 2022

As the years' pass, styles change, and so do you! Your preferences for everything from clothing to decorating change as you and your needs grow. Painting your apartment or condo walls is a fantastic way to update your decor. In a new home, our minds immediately begin to wander to how to make it our own. With so many new apartment painting ideas, it’s essential to choose the right one, and it can be incredibly tricky.

The right color of walls can make your small spaces feel cozy, elegant, or bright rather than cramped, boring, or uncomfortable. Condos and apartments are some of the most coveted places to live, but in a smaller space, the details become increasingly important. To help you pick the right color for your space, we’ve put together a list of not just the best paint colors for apartments, but also tips and tricks to make your apartment look its best with the space available.

What Are The Top Apartment Paint Colors in 2022

It’s no surprise that the trending apartment building color schemes have changed from year to year. With color trends frequently evolving, from turquoise in the 1950s to light blue and gray in the 2010s, preferences are sure to change. So, what color paint is used in apartments in 2022?

There are a number of trendy colors to paint an apartment, and we’ve created a list of beautiful colors to choose from, whether innovative and creative, updated classic, or simple

Aqua/Teal

What was once old is new again, and the same is true when it comes to condo living room inspiration. Turquoise and teal were big colors in the 1950s, and they are back again to offer a reinvented modern feel. This shade is great because it has calming and soothing benefits like other blue and green paint colors while adding a bit more of a pop to a space. It’s perfect for apartment paint schemes focused on beachy vibes.

Blush Rose

Rose is an exciting, radiant way to make your apartment stand out, without hurting your eyes. Soothing pink can make your apartment feel like springtime; it absorbs and reflects light to give a dynamic look as the tones of the room change throughout the day.

Just like the changing light of the day makes the pink look different, so too does artificial lighting at night. Under artificial light, rose walls can look almost silver or even deeper, almost purple-hued.

Don’t settle for simple white walls, boring beige, or any of the colors you usually see. Make your apartment shine with blush rose walls.

Coffee

Of all of the new, innovative apartment paint ideas, the perfect choice for your apartment or condo walls is a soft coffee color. Creating a warm but not overwhelming feeling, coffee walls can be paired with a number of other colors of furniture and fixtures.

Coffee is an understated shade of brown that is so versatile it can be traditional or modern, depending on what it’s paired with. A great outside of the box pairing is a turquoise color scheme. More classic options to try pairing coffee walls with include:

• Copper
• Orange
• White
• Yellow

Chocolate

Chocolate brown is an incredibly popular color choice right now and one that adds a beautiful depth to studio apartment color schemes. One of the lesser-known neutral apartment paint colors, chocolate brown adds a rich, dark pop to rooms. This color makes a statement in apartments and condos that’s sure to draw compliments.

Cream

Cream is the best choice of apartment color ideas for someone who doesn’t want to make a bold statement with their apartment walls, but also doesn’t want to settle for a boring white. Just a few shades darker than white, cream’s warmer appearance is sure to make your apartment feel cozy and comfortable.

Not to mention, there is no better way to please an interior designer than choosing cream walls. Every interior designer knows that cream is the universal color, almost any furniture or fixture combination will match your cream walls.

Sage

Another of 2022’s top small apartment wall color ideas is sage. This relaxing shade creates a calming space, making it a great hue to use in areas like the bedroom where you want to find your most relaxed state. Additionally, this light shade matches well with a number of other colors and furniture items, giving it the benefit of a neutral shade while still adding a bit more color to the space.

Dark Blue

Dark colors mean depth! You might think a dark apartment would look smaller, but in reality, the depth created enhances the overall look of the space and makes it look larger than it really is. Dark blue is a modern take on a classic dark look for an apartment or condo.

Dark blue is not overpowering, but it is moody and intense, and is a great way to express a strong personality in a small space. Dark blue is actually a great choice if you want to emphasize the architecture of the space and bring out the beauty of the fixture and decor.

Sky Blue

Looking for cool apartment painting ideas for a poorly-lit space? Consider sky blue. This light blue shade is an excellent choice for painting walls in apartment units that feel small and closed in or lack natural light. Light blue is touted for its ability to open spaces with a light, bright hue. This is ideal for those looking to avoid a stark white paint but still want the light-catching benefits of lighter hues.

There are two ways to go when painting the walls sky blue:

1. Warmer: Create a warmer vibe for your apartment by matching sky blue walls with gold, yellow, and cream colored fixtures and accents.
2. Cooler: For a cooler ambiance, try pairing it with gray furniture and accents.

Ochre

Nothing says cozy like an ochre painted room! There is a range of ochre shades to choose from, all giving a warm earthy feel to the room, whether closer to yellow, orange, or brown. It’s a more exciting choice over beige or tan and a more complex look than a simple yellow or brown.

Pair it with warm tones like copper, rusts, and sage green to create a cohesive design for your apartment or condo. Try adding bronze and copper metal fixtures to the room to add an extra pop of color that will match well with the walls.

Greige

Another staple when it comes to small apartment paint color schemes is greige. A combination of gray and beige, this hue is the best color to paint apartment units when looking for a neutral hue everyone will love. With the warmth of beige and the cool tones of gray, greige is a neutral hybrid that allows every furniture and decor piece in your collection to shine.

Silver

Nothing says sleek and sophisticated quite like silver. Of all of the apartment paint colors to choose from, silver is the best way to enhance a small space and add an extra touch of sophistication.

Give a room a casual, cool elegance by pairing silver with black, metal, or dark blue accents. To warm up a silver room, try pairing it with light gold, rose, or understated orange decorations. No matter how you dress it up or dress it down, silver is a chic color for any room.

Light Gray

When it comes to chic apartment living room color schemes, light gray is it. This cool-toned shade is a go-to neutral for a reason, giving rooms a bit more interesting depth than that of a white while still offering a classic, modern, and universally loved shade to your walls. When paired with white trim, light gray is a paint choice that never goes out of style.

Soft Yellow

A great hue to paint walls throughout a home, soft yellow veers away from plain white walls to add more warmth to the apartment colors ideas discussion. Perfectly complemented by white ceilings and trim, this color instantly brightens a space while offering a happy ambiance, making your small condo or apartment feel welcoming and open. With its vibrant, happy hue, it’s a wonderful shade to add to your list when considering studio apartment paint colors.

White

White is a classic for a reason! White is great because it can be used to evoke many different feelings and images from snow to fresh linens to just cleanliness. White walls don’t have to be impersonal, when you choose the right white shade for your apartment, it can be a great way to brighten the room and highlight architectural and design details.

White walls are light enough to make a space look larger and they are a great way to make a room feel peaceful and clean. A true blank canvas, white walls are great for hanging decorations, paintings, and other fixtures, and can be matched with almost anything.

Best Color Schemes for Your Apartment Rooms

When choosing paint colors for apartment buildings, it’s important to take into consideration the rooms you’re painting and what shades are best for them. While you may want to add a dark, rich shade to your living room, it may not be as well suited for a dimly lit hallway or bedroom.

To help guide you through the process of selecting paint colors for your apartment or condo, here are some go-to color themes for each room in your space.

Whole Interiors

If you’re looking for apartment paint color ideas to use throughout the entire apartment, it’s best to go with a light, neutral shade that will compliment every room, no matter the size or amount of light it gets. With this in mind, we recommend opting for white, light gray, beige, or greige - all of which are shades that will never get old, and will match all your decor, no matter the room.

Hallways

Looking for apartment building ? There is a lot to choose from, but the right choice depends mainly on the width of the hallway and how much light it gets.

If you have a wider hallway, or one that gets a lot of light, choosing a deeper hue, like dark blue or chocolate, can add an interesting element to this space that connects one room to the next. However, if your hallway is narrow or doesn't get a lot of light, you’re best off with lighter, brighter condo paint ideas. From white to sage, there are still a lot of light colors you can use!

Bedrooms

When it comes to condo bedroom ideas, calming, soothing paint colors are always best. In a space that’s meant for unwinding and getting a good night’s rest, you don’t want to choose a hue that is too dark or harsh. Instead, go for neutral shades or tones of blue and green for a calming effect that’s sure to help you catch some extra z’s.

Living Rooms

The condo living room paint ideas are truly endless, it just depends on your style and the space you’re working with. As expected, if the space is small and lacks natural light, you’re likely best off choosing from the list of light, neutral shades when it comes to apartment and condo living room ideas.

However, if your living room gets plenty of light and otherwise lacks interesting architectural elements, choose from the deeper, darker apartment living room paint ideas, like navy blue, to give your space some personality.

Kitchens

Kitchen spaces tend to have personalities of their own. From the flooring to the hardware and cabinet colors, your space may already have a modern, rustic, or traditional feel to it, and your paint color can do a lot to accentuate it. So, when it comes to condo paint ideas for kitchens, you can really choose from anything, but we love to highlight the natural light kitchens often have with soft yellow shades and sky blues.

Bathrooms

Bathrooms are a great place to be bold. This small space does well with a wide range of colors and allows you to experiment with new hues without affecting the design of your overall house. We love teals and aqua colors for the bathroom as they bring in more sea-like elements, but you can never go wrong with light blue or sage.

Five Techniques to Make an Apartment Look Bigger

Alright, let’s face it, condos and apartments are often much smaller than the average house. So, how do we make these cozy spaces look bigger? Your apartment color schemes can make a world of difference here, and we are breaking down just how it’s done.

Use Single Paint Color Themes

To help your small or studio apartment paint colors make your space look bigger, go for one shade throughout the whole area. This will help open up your apartment or condo, tricking the mind into believing the space is larger than it is.

By not breaking up rooms by the color that can create an obviously smaller space, removing borders by painting all one shade will seamlessly connect rooms with ease. We recommend using a lighter neutral shade that will work in every room.

Go With Bold Shades

To help breathe a little extra life into a small space, go for bold colors. Big, rich, bold shades help add vibrancy to small apartments, livening up the space, and subsequently, making it feel more open.

This helps the mind focus more on the apartment colors, and less on the actual size of the room, making the colors the focal point. We recommend sticking to one bold color not to create a mismatched, disjointed feel in your small space.

Solid Hues

To help make walls feel less two-dimensional, use solid colors to paint your apartment. Solid shades will add depth to your space, making it feel larger. Not sure what we mean? Let’s explain.

When thinking about solid colors, we are almost getting into color blocking. So, if you paint your walls a beautiful yellow, a deep orange opening in the space will help add depth, using the two solid colors to open the space and create emphasis that makes it feel larger.

Disguising Low Ceilings

Low ceilings are one of the primary reasons apartments can feel small. Creating an almost claustrophobic space, even the largest apartments will feel smaller if the ceilings are low, so how do we mitigate this?

To disguise low ceilings, it’s essential to move beyond the walls and consider condo paint ideas for the ceiling. White, light blue, yellow, and beige ceilings can help open the space and make it feel larger. As part of this, you want to make sure the color you choose for the ceiling is always lighter than the walls, making them feel lifted and the space more open.

Add a Pop

When it comes to home decor, you always need an element of surprise. To add decor pops, you want them to be cohesive with your paint colors, but you can also work with the existing structural components of your space.

Take a radiator, for example. Sure, it isn’t the most beautiful thing in the world, but how about painting it a bright color, surprising guests by using it as an accent piece? Or, paint an accent wall that compliments your furniture, making your space feel vibrant and alive. There’s no reason you can’t use apartment paint ideas to show off your creativity, right?

Tips on Choosing the Right Color for Your Apartment

Are you in need of a few tips for condo or apartment color schemes? We’ve listed a few expert tips for you.

Use Clear Colors

Always go for clear colors! Using easily identifiable colors, shades, and hues for your condo or apartment wall color will help to visually expand the rooms, giving the overall appearance of a larger space. Concise colors are said to “travel” across walls of an interior space, serving to extend the length and width of the room of the apartment.

Add Strips of Color

Many condos and apartments have frustratingly low ceilings. One of the best ways to combat this is by adding strips of color. These strips will extend the height of the room, not unlike wearing vertically striped clothing to appear taller. Adding strips of varying widths or colors will serve the same purpose but will add an extra something to the apartment colors and decor.

Pick a Focal Wall

Focal walls are all the rage! Not only can they make a small room seem larger, but they are also a fun and simple way of expressing individuality and creativity. One exciting color that differs from the other paint colors of the room creates a beautiful display and is a great opportunity to draw the eye to artwork or another decor.

Unite Spaces with Different Shades

Choosing to various shades of color is a wonderful way of joining spaces. Unifying adjoining rooms creates an overall cohesive effect for the apartment. This can also be done with room decor; try using items of decor in different shades or tones of the same color across two or more rooms. This design choice provides unity, continuity, and a pleasing appearance.

Reinvent the Look of Your Apartment with Oahu Pro Painters!

From neutral, light colors you can use throughout your entire condo or apartment to apartment colors with a bit more depth and an element of surprise, there’s no shortage of colors to choose from when designing your new space. Sure, choosing paint colors for apartment units and condos can feel stressful, but with this guide, you’re one step closer to finding the shade that will best suit your space.

If you’re in need of a color consultation to further explore the best hue for your apartment or need an expert team to paint your walls for a flawless finish, our team at Oahu Pro Painters is here to help. To get started, schedule an estimate to explore pricing, or contact us today to get started reinventing your space now.