Paint Sample Nightmare…

Please don’t get me wrong.  Sampling paint colors is worth it if you try these suggestions.  It can save you a ton of money when you don’t buy and apply the wrong color.

1. Instead of painting the walls directly, try painting your color on a piece of poster board*.
2. Use a small roller to help simulate the texture you will see on your wall.
3. After applying 2 coats, let it dry.  Stick a few pieces of painters tape on the back and move it around the room at different times of the day.
4. Look at it in daylight, at night, on cloudy and sunny days.
5. Do the same for the other colors sample you have picked up.

*Another benefit to painting poster board– you don’t have to sand over your patchwork quilt of colors before you  paint with the chosen one.

Upgrade your sample size to Benjamin Moore’s new sample pints.  Seven’s can make them in any Benjamin Moore color and you have enough in the pint to paint about 20 square feet.  You can paint an entire wall and then judge the color.  For $6.49 they are worth it!!

Or ask Seven’s for their DRY paint samples.  They range in size from 5″ x 8″ to 8″ x 8″.   Most of the stores have them organized on the sales floor by color number so you can take them with you.  They have taken all the work out color testing.  No mess, no fuss, just put a piece of painters tape on the back and stick it to the wall.

Why test a color in the first place?  The light in your home can change how the color looks. The fancy term for it is Metamerism.  That’s when colors look different when viewed under different light sources.  So while you may just love the color in the paint store it could fall out of favor once you get it home.

I was recently at a client’s house and held up a sample of THE perfect paint color.  We were both convinced it was THE one until I moved it to another wall.  Yikes!  Where did that muted yellow go?  Where was its buttery glow?  In its place was a much bolder gold.

What Happened??  Light happened.   The first wall was closer to the window.  Cleaner brighter light. The second was farther from the window, where the lighting was not great.  We lightened up one shade and it worked beautifully.

If we had not been able to move the sample around,  we may have picked too strong of a color for the space.  (Check out the pictures below for how drastically light can change a color.)

If you find sampling paint a challenge or even inconvenient for you, give Seven’s a call to schedule an appointment with their design consultant.  For a fee she can come out and help make the color decisions for you.  (Coincidentally she writes this blog :)

Hopefully with these suggestions, the next time you paint a room you won’t have any more nightmares about the color.  Here’s some color inspiration for you…

Paint Sample Nightmare Part 1

It all starts so innocently.

You only want to repaint the bedroom.

You optimistically narrow down your color choice.  You hold teeny, tiny paint squares up to the walls in the room.  Yes, that’s the one, you say triumphantly.

You head to Seven‘s, grab a sample jar of the winning color.  You can hardly contain your excitement on the drive home.  Ignoring the dog who obviously needs to go out, you race into the bedroom and crack open the jar.

With your little sponge brush, you put on the paint.  Hmm… not quite right.  Maybe it just needs to dry.  You patiently wait.  Hoping for the color to magically morph into the color of your dreams.  It doesn’t.  You feel your confidence waning.

In desperation you head back to the paint store for some more jars of paint.  You can’t make eye contact with the nice person at the paint store who helped you with the first color.

Three more colors, three more patches.  None of them are right.

Never mind that your walls are looking like a half-hearted patchwork quilt.  Or worse, like a rainbow crashed into them.  You feel defeated.  You feel scared.  You make decisions easily in life, really you do.  Why can’t you make one about paint?

In bed that night you have nightmares.   Probably because your sleeping on the pull out sofa in the basement.  (You have already moved the furniture out of the bedroom so you can paint.)  Cue the scary music…

Every time you walk into that room the samples taunt you.  Pick me.  No pick me!  I am your favorite, pick me….  A shiver courses down your spine from staring at the blotchy reminders of your failure.

AHHH!!!

What’s a person to do?  Should you give up?  Or worse live with patchy walls for the next two years, paralyzed by indecision?

Will you wake up from this nightmare???