The baffled father posted a simple question online. “Any idea what color would be great” for the bedroom of his guitar-playing 13-year-old son?

Kate Smith’s answer, posted on her blog at www.colorforyourhome.com, pulled no punches. Many teenage boy rockers “tend to want black, white, gray with maybe some red, and while this may work for album covers and stage costumes, it can be unattractive and certainly unimaginative for a bedroom.”

A color trend forecaster working on her own paint line, Smith suggested a deep blue-gray, such as Valspar Paint’s Dark Night. “If the room is small,” she wrote on the blog, “I’d use this same hue but go a few shades lighter.”

There are hundreds of blogs about furniture, design, decorating trends and must-haves for the home, with new ones launching nearly every day. They are written by experts and amateurs alike who happily dispense their opinions with varying degrees of authority.

In the past year, a few design blogs that focus heavily on paint and color have been started. Paint is universally considered one of the easiest, quickest and cheapest ways to transform a room. But it can also be the most difficult, with consumers overwhelmed by choices and hungry for advice. This is where the Internet comes in.

Blogs are “such an easy way for people to get hold of information. They don’t have to have stacks of magazines and books. I really thought there was a gap that needed to be filled,” says Rachel Perls, 33, of Baltimore.

A former pet portraitist who attended seminars at the International Association of Color Consultants and now advises residential and commercial clients, Perls started her blog, at www.hueconsulting.blogspot.com, more than a year ago.

“Mostly people are asking about color courage and color confidence,” says Smith, 51, who lives in Lorton, Va., and began writing her blog last fall. People “come to my blog with an idea and ask, ‘What do you think?’ … They don’t have the time or energy to make a mistake.”

Both blogs offer a highly accessible, personal dialogue on color, with conversation peppered with news from the fashion, art, entertainment, architecture and marketing worlds.

When a reader of Smith’s blog asked for ideas about painting an accent wall blue, she posted Behr’s Mexican palette, complete with photos of vivid interiors and exteriors and a link to Behr distributors.

“I’ll get a product, use it and talk about it,” she says. “I recently used Valspar’s Brushed Pearl paint and thought it was the most forgiving faux finish I’ve ever used. I am so over faux finish, but it was perfect for the guest bathroom.” She got 13 responses to her upbeat assessment of this paint.

Perls says her blog queries cover the spectrum from where to find a “yellow that doesn’t look strange” to “‘Do these colors go together with these fabrics?’ They want a right-and-wrong answer. There is no right-and-wrong answer. It’s a reflection of their personal taste.”

PREFERENCES

When “reader Christine” asked Perls for her most frequently recommended paints, Perls cited two “high-quality” brands: Benjamin Moore (for its color choices and “beautiful, long-lasting surface”) and Sherwin-Williams. She also gave Pratt & Lambert a shout-out as “awesome for deep base colors like navy and deep, rich reds. BM reds tend to be pinky. And SW has a significant problem with their deep base, and reds tend to run and streak.”

She and Smith know well the limits of the Internet, including imprecise color and misinformation.

“It’s hard to discern the professional from others who have cut-and-pasted,” Perls says. Blogging “has turned everyone into an expert because there’s no way to prove and disprove.”

Each mentions the same old wives’ tale that appears on design blogs advising against painting a nursery yellow because the color will make a baby cry. Nonsense, they say.

COLOR VARIATIONS

If credibility is one problem, color variation is another. This is why cyber-surfing for paint is only step one, warns Smith, a recent speaker at House Beautiful magazine’s Color Institute at the Washington (D.C.) Design Center. Given the way computer monitors can distort color, she sees no substitute for painting directly on a large piece of poster board or a Tru-Hue color test board, which mimics a wall surface, then studying it in natural and artificial light.

“A computer can do a lot of things better than humans,” Smith says, “but matching color is not one of them.”

Washington Post staff writer Terri Sapienza contributed to this report.

Fresh paint

The Freshaire Choice Paint has no volatile organic compounds in the paint or the colorant, eliminating chemical odors and their harmful effects. Made with a premeasured color delivery tinting system, the line has 66 colors in four collections: Waterscape, with water and weathered-glass shades; Botanical, with woodland shadows and blooms; Atmosphere, with sky and cloud colors; and Earth, with grounded tones.

Available at The Home Depot, in flat, eggshell and semigloss finishes and includes drywall interior primer and ceiling paint. Cost is $35 to $38 for 1-gallon containers; Thefreshairechoicepaint.com or 1-866-880-0304.

Painting pointers

“Do-It-Yourself Painting for Dummies” (Wiley Publishing; $16.99; paperback) is written in language anyone can understand.

Co-written by interior decorator and former magazine editor Patricia Hart McMillan and her daughter, Katharine Kaye McMillan, design consultant and expert on the psychology of design, the book is the McMillans’ second Dummies Series contribution.

The book’s five sections are organized to help readers take on a range of painting projects using the tools, techniques and finishes the pros use. A cheat sheet along with a detailed table of contents make it easy for readers to find the project they’re looking for and get started. Prime it

It’s tempting to paint walls without putting down an undercoat of primer, but experts know better. That’s because primer adheres strongly to surfaces, covers the old color better and helps the final-finish coats slide on smoothly and evenly.

Those qualities are particularly important when covering new drywall, when existing paint is in bad shape or when you’re making a dramatic color change, according to Gustavo Elias, manager of the Potomac Paint and Decorating Center in Chantilly, Va. If you have your paint store tint less-expensive primer to match the final, costlier wall color, the job will cost less because fewer coats will be required.

And for a professional-looking job, Elias urges careful prep work before you pick up a brush, especially for older walls scarred by nail holes or numerous coats of paint: Fill holes with spackle and let it dry. Use fine sandpaper on all surfaces to even them out. Wipe dust from walls with a damp cloth, and let dry. Then prime.

then Paint it

You’ve found a color, but what about a finish? Here’s a guide:

Flat will not reflect light. It’s not washable, and it absorbs stains; good for ceilings and imperfect walls.

Matte is the lowest sheen that’s washable, scrubbable and stain-resistant; good for any room but a kitchen or a bath.

Eggshell gives extra glow or richness. It’s washable and resists stains and moisture; good in many rooms, including bathrooms not used often.

Satin has quiet shimmer. It can be washed often and is very resistant to stains and moisture; good for kitchens, bathrooms, homes with kids.

Semigloss is highly reflective and very washable; good for doors and trim.

High-gloss is mirror-like and shows all flaws. Consider having a pro paint this finish; good for molding, doors, window frames and accent walls.

Annie Groer, The Washington Post