Best Color for Garage Walls: 12 Ideas & Paint Schemes
When it comes to painting, the best paint color for garage walls may not be immediately apparent. Like any other room in your home, there are endless options and even the thought of picking a color can seem daunting at first. You start to question yourself, wondering if you should just go with white or spice things up and add some personality by using bold colors. In this article, we explore several different color schemes and why some colors work better than others. If you stick around to the end, we share 12 amazing garage wall painting ideas and examples.
Garage interiors with well-chosen colors can add life to an often-overlooked space that, in our opinion, deserves some attention. Choosing the right colors doesn’t need to be difficult or time-consuming if you follow the tips outlined in our guide below.
Best Paint Color for Garage Walls
Garages are highly functional and see a lot of action. They can quickly become dirty and garage walls are likely to get bumped into often. Choosing light colors will help to brighten up the space and make it easier to clean. Conversely, darker colors on the interior walls can cause the garage to feel cramped and small while lighter colors will make it feel bigger. If you’re looking for ideas, we recommend sticking with neutral tones.
Neutral Colors
Paint colors in the white, beige, and light gray families tend to work well in garage settings. They’re easy to match with other elements easily be updated in the future. Even though white is technically a neutral color, we recommend staying away from pure white paint and adding a little color so the space doesn’t feel too sterile and uninviting.
Garage Wall Color Ideas – Neutral Colors
Bold Colors
If you’re looking to add a pop of color, we recommend one of the brighter shades in the blue or green families. These colors will help to brighten up the space while still providing some contrast. Just make sure that you have plenty of natural light as these can seem like very dark colors if there’s not enough light. Just be aware that a dark color can make your garage space look smaller and less inviting.
Garage Wall Color Ideas – Bold Colors
Best Color to Paint Garage – Your Specifically
Now that you have a general idea of what colors work best on garage walls, it’s time to choose the right one for your space. There’s more to just picking a color that you like. I like red for instance, but of course, I don’t just paint all my walls red. When you’re trying to come up with garage wall paint color ideas, consider the following factors:
Natural Light
A garage interior tends to be darker in general, with less natural light than most other spaces in our homes. If you don’t have windows in your garage, we recommend going with lighter shades of any color you choose. This will help make up for the lack of natural light. If you do have windows, consider paint colors that will match your overall garage theme and design best.
Color Scheme
Painted walls should complement other elements in the space such as garage floor paint and garage cabinets. Pick paint colors that match well with the existing garage floors and other elements and that are not too distracting.
Sometimes a combination of neutral colors and dark colors works well also, but in general, garage wall colors in neutral tones tend to work best as they are easy to match with other design elements.
Garage Door Color
Your garage door color might also influence your decision. This, along with the color of the garage ceiling (we recommend just plain white ceiling matte paint), will affect the overall look of the space.
The ceiling and garage doors are large and noticeable. If your garage door is painted in a darker color, this would be another reason to consider a contrasting neutral color or lighter shade of the same color.
Functionality
When choosing garage wall paint, consider how the space will be used. Darker colors may make more sense if you’re using it primarily for parking or storage and you don’t spend much time there. However, if you plan to use your garage space as a workshop, parties, or a place for the band to practice, lighter, neutral paint colors will be best.
Garage Wall Paint Recommendations
Now that we’ve discussed the best paint colors for garage walls in general and how you can choose the right one for your garage, you might be wondering what type of paint you should use. Do you use interior paint or exterior paint? A garage is kind of an “in-between” space so it might seem a bit complicated.
Interior or Exterior Paint for Garage Walls?
A garage is kind of an “in-between” space, so you might be curious if you should use interior or exterior paint for garage walls. It’s a good question, and luckily, we have the answer for you. Interior latex paint is perfect for the inside walls of your garage and there are several reasons why. Here are a few to help put your mind at ease.
Latex paint:
- Handles high-traffic areas well (and it’s easy to clean!)
- Does a good job to hide wall imperfections
- Dries quickly and has less odor & fumes than oil-based paints
- Comes in a semi-gloss finish, satin finish, and matte paint
- Is the best paint for garage interior walls
It might be tempting to use oil-based paint (for outdoors) in your garage, thinking that it’ll do a better job of protecting your walls against the temperature changes and moisture that might be present. You should fight this urge. Exterior paint is made exclusively for outdoor use and has a very strong odor, releasing chemicals that could build up indoors and be harmful.
Should I Paint My Garage Walls?
Painting your garage walls will help give it the feel of being part of your home, rather than just a space where you park cars. Not only does it add personality and style, but the paint can also help protect your garage walls from the elements.
With the wide range of temperatures and humidity that a typical garage sees, painting the walls will help extend the life and safeguard the drywall from potential damage due to moisture.
Best Paint for Garage Walls
Our pick for the best garage paint is Glidden’s Interior Paint + Primer: One Coat Semi-Gloss Paint. Ideal for a garage interior, it has low VOCs (volatile organic compounds), meaning less odor and chemicals. This high-quality paint is also perfect for your garage walls and includes a primer, so you can paint directly onto drywall and is supposed to cover wall imperfections in fewer coats. We still recommend two coats, maybe 3 thin coats on rare occasions, with a paint roller to ensure optimal coverage.
Even just one coat of garage paint can quickly transform a dark, dingy garage interior into a whole new space that you’ll be proud of. A fresh coat of paint always makes you feel rejuvenated. Not only does it make the space look new and clean, but it can also help protect the walls from the elements. With a fresh coat of paint, your garage will be brighter and more inviting – perfect for when you need to use it for storage, parking, or even as a workspace.
12 Amazing Garage Color Schemes & Wall Paint Ideas
Before you leave, we wanted to provide you with a bit of inspiration with these garage paint ideas. Whether you’re just looking to cover a few nail holes or building your dream garage, we’re hoping these images help you channel the motivation you need to transform your garage interior. With the range of paint colors and styles shown, you’re sure to find one that’s right for your space too.
1. The Everyday Garage
Photo Source: Adobe Stock
When compared to some of the other garage paint colors in these images, this garage might seem a bit basic, but this is a great everyday garage. When compared to one with unfinished walls, it’s beautiful. Besides this a great color and perfect for a garage.
2. Lots of Natural Light
Photo Source: Instagram
What can we say, grays are in style right now. Having tons of natural light makes a huge difference in a garage. If you peek around the garage doors, you’ll see that this is actually a fairly small 2-car garage, however, the interior appears to be plenty big due to the light colors and lighting that floods the room. We love the speckled flooring (epoxy we presume).
3, Dark Colors w/ White Doors & Trim
Photo Source: HGTV
Dark colors can work well if paired with lots of light and plenty of white trim. Here you can see the doors, trim, floors, and garage ceiling are all either painted white or a very light color, brightening up the room, even with darker walls.
4. Harley Davidson Color Combination
Photo Source: HD Forums
Themes are more popular than ever before. Supporting your favorite brand is a great way to build some personality into your space. Bright colors combined with pure white works well in this case.
5. Checkerboard Garage Floor
Photo Source: Instagram
The racing-themed checkered flooring gives a fun vibe and all the extra storage space makes this garage functional too. They’re making great use of space with the bike hooks and skateboard racks on the garage walls.
6. Bold Color Palette
Photo Source: Impressive Interior Design
The bold colors on this garage interior make a statement. Combined with the stained concrete garage floor, the paint on these garage walls is unique, but we like it.
7. Neutral, Bold & Dark Combo
Photo Source: Prime Coat Painting
Sometimes a combination of garage paint colors ranging from neutral to bold and dark can work if you have the right lighting. Having windows, great lighting, and a vaulted garage ceilng really helps to open up the space.
8. The Clean Look
Photo Source: Canva
The paint on these neutral garage walls is just dark enough not to appear white but light enough to provide a clean and simple look that we just love! Sometimes less is more, and this is one of those cases.
9. Two-Tone Garage Paint Colors
Photo Source: Pinterest
As far as garage color schemes go, this one is pretty dark. It appears this garage lacks natural light and combined with the dark paint colors, it appears shadowy and crowded.
10. Porsche Garage Paint Scheme
Photo Source: All Garage Floors
These garage paint colors aren’t commonly used, but they really work in this configuration. This garage gives of a high-end vibe with the cool Porsche logo setting off the eye-catching, bright red wall that’s the focal point of the garage.
11. Good Lighting w/ Neutral Colors
Photo Source: Garage Journal
Great lighting can make a big difference in a garage that has no natural light. Without it, light shades are a must and with it, you have lots of options to do what you want and make the space your own.
12. Windows Galore
Photo Source: Adobe Stock
You don’t see the browns as much as you did a few years back. This is a light shade, almost in the yellow family. It’s nice, light, and airy. It feels very open with all the natural light coming through at least three windows.
Time to Wrap it Up
As it turns out the best color for garage walls is one that takes into consideration the amount of lighting (both natural and artificial) in your space, the other elements nearby, and your personal style. It’s not an actual color, but rather a combination of the things listed above. Don’t forget that it’s important to only use high-quality interior latex paint (we prefer a semi-gloss finish). Painting garage walls will make your home seem more inviting and potentially protect the walls from the elements. We also hope the paint ideas and combinations we listed above inspired and motivated you to find the best color for your garage walls.
Our final advice is to use a variety of sample colors (at least four) and apply them to your garage walls. Then observe how the paint looks when it’s dry and in different lighting conditions at different times of the day. You can’t go wrong with this approach, but if you’re still stumped, you could always shell out the big bucks and see out the help of a professional color consultant.