Off colour: avoiding paint choice regrets

Making the right home colour choices that won't leave you seeing red or feeling blue

Subtle by Colourtrend has warm brown undertones that work in cold Irish light, seen here in the hallway of Jen Sheahan's home in Rathmines. Picture: Moya Nolan

“The only certainty in life is death and taxes,” said somebody who never painted their whole house magnolia.

If there's one thing I've learned from years of poking my nose in other peoples’ homes, it's that paint regret is almost universal. Colours look so great in showrooms, don’t they? Then you get home and somehow it looks completely different on your walls.