About PaintPaletteHub
PaintPaletteHub is a quiet, free reference library for interior paint color palettes. The site exists to make it faster to choose paint by browsing palettes the way you would actually use them — by room, by mood, and by undertone — instead of scrolling through unrelated swatches in a fan deck.
The library currently contains 1,200 palettes made up of 5,178 distinct colors, all categorized into 10 rooms and 10 moods. Every palette is cross-linked: from any palette you can move sideways into the rooms and moods it belongs to, into individual colors it uses, or into related palettes that share its character.
What this site is for
If you are repainting a room and feel paralyzed in front of a paint-store wall, this library is for you. The intent is to let you decide on the feel of the room before committing to a specific paint, and then narrow toward the palettes that produce that feel. Once you have a palette you like, every swatch is presented with a hex code, RGB and HSL values, and finish guidance — enough to walk into a paint store and ask for a custom mix or a near-match from a manufacturer's deck.
What this site is not
This is not a paint manufacturer's catalog. PaintPaletteHub is not affiliated with Sherwin-Williams, Benjamin Moore, Farrow & Ball, or any other paint brand. The palettes here are reference compositions, not specific product SKUs. When you find a color you love, take the hex code to your local paint store and ask for a custom match — most full-service paint counters can color-match within a half-step in under a minute.
How palettes are categorized
Categorization is automated. Each palette is processed against three measurable properties — average lightness, average saturation, and the contrast between its lightest and darkest swatch — plus its dominant hue. Those numbers, not subjective tagging, decide which rooms and moods a palette belongs to. The thresholds were tuned against historical interior design conventions: bedrooms favor higher lightness and lower saturation, home offices favor stronger contrast, bathrooms skew cyan-blue, and so on. Read the full methodology for the specific rules.
How to use a palette
The simplest rule is the 60/30/10 split. The lightest swatch in a palette goes on roughly 60% of the visible surface (the four walls, typically). A mid-tone takes 30% (built-ins, trim, or an adjacent surface). The deepest swatch is reserved for 10% — a single feature wall, an interior door, the back of a bookcase, or the inside of a cased opening. Done well, this proportion produces a room that reads as deliberate from across the floor without being overwhelming.
Sample, sample, sample
The single most useful piece of paint advice anyone can give: never commit to gallons based on a chip in your hand or a swatch on a screen. Buy the smallest possible sample pot, paint a 24×24 inch poster board, tape it to the actual wall in the actual room, and live with it for a full day. The same color can swing two perceptual steps between morning daylight, midday daylight, and lamp-lit evening — and that swing is what determines whether you love the room or quietly resent it.
Contact & corrections
If you spot a categorization that feels wrong, or if you have a palette suggestion, the site is intentionally simple — there is no contact form yet. Future versions may add submission and editing tools.