Why the chip and the wall disagree
A paint chip is about the size of a business card, printed under store lighting and held at arm's length. Your wall is a big field of the same color, lit by your windows and your bulbs, sitting next to your floors, trim and furniture. The same color looks different in each of those settings.
Color on a large surface reads stronger than it does on a chip. Light colors can wash out almost to white, and deep or saturated colors look darker and more intense. Color also bounces. A green lawn outside a window, a red oak floor or a warm wood ceiling all throw their tint onto the walls around them.
That is how people end up with a gray that looks blue, a beige that turns pink in the evening, or a white that looks yellow next to fresh white trim.
Light and time of day change the color
North-facing rooms get cool, even light all day, which pulls colors toward gray and blue. South-facing rooms get warm, strong light that makes warm colors glow and can wash light colors out. East rooms are bright and warm in the morning and flat in the afternoon, and west rooms are the reverse.
Your bulbs take over after dark. Warm bulbs push walls toward yellow, and cool daylight bulbs push them toward blue. If you spend most of your time in a room at night, choose by how the color looks at night.
This is also why a color that looked perfect in a friend's house can look wrong in yours. It was the right color for their light, not yours.
Sample big, on two walls, and look all day
The fix is to see the color where it will live, at a size that tells the truth. Color samples go on the wall before we commit a full room, and that step is worth taking with any painter. Painted sample boards work too if you would rather not mark the walls. Move them around the room and stand them against the trim.
- Paint each sample at least two feet square, with two coats, so the old color does not show through.
- Put each sample on two walls, one that gets direct light and one that stays in shadow.
- Paint samples next to the trim, cabinets or flooring that are staying, so you see them together.
- Look at the samples in the morning, mid-afternoon and at night with the lights on.
- Leave the samples up for a few days before you decide.
- Compare two or three colors at a time so the choice stays clear.
Going from dark to light takes more coats
Once you pick, think about coverage. A dark wall going light, or a light wall going to a deep red, navy or bright color, often takes more coats than a standard repaint. Some deep colors cover poorly no matter how good the paint is, and a tinted primer may be needed first.
This is one of the most common reasons a paint price changes partway through a job: a room quoted for two coats turns out to need a third. The way to handle it is up front. Your estimate should list the number of coats for each room, and if a room needs more, the extra coat should be priced in writing and approved by you before it goes on, not added to the bill after.
That is how we handle it. Our estimate lists every room, the prep, the products and the coats, and anything that changes is priced in writing and approved by you before it is done.
Matching a faded color
Sometimes the goal is the old color, not a new one. A patch after a drywall repair, one damaged wall, or a touch-up on paint that went up years ago all raise the same problem. The paint on the wall has faded and aged, and the original can, even if you still have it, may not match it anymore.
A paint counter can color-match a chip cut from the wall, and that gets close. Close is not always enough on a wall with light raking across it. The safer approach is to repaint the whole wall from corner to corner, so the eye sees one color instead of a patch. A ceiling repair often calls for a coat on the whole ceiling for the same reason.
If you have leftover paint from the last job, keep the label. The color name, number and sheen save a lot of guessing.
Choosing a sheen by room
Sheen is how shiny the paint is, and it matters almost as much as color. Higher sheens are tougher and wipe clean, but they show every dent, patch and roller mark. Flatter sheens hide flaws but scuff and mark more.
- Ceilings are usually flat, because a flat finish hides seams and texture.
- Living rooms, dining rooms and bedrooms usually get a matte or eggshell finish.
- Kitchens, bathrooms, laundry rooms and kids' rooms do better in eggshell or satin, which stand up to scrubbing and moisture.
- Trim, doors and cabinets usually get a satin or semi-gloss enamel that stands up to hands and bumps.
Sample in the sheen you plan to use
Sheen changes how a color looks. The same color in satin looks a little deeper and richer than it does in flat, so a sample in the wrong sheen can steer you wrong. Make sure your samples are in the finish the room will actually get.
Think about the rooms around it too. If you can see the hallway or the next room through an open doorway, sample the new color next to the colors that are staying, because rooms that sit side by side need to work together.
And take your time. A few days with samples on the wall costs you nothing, and it beats living with a color you second-guess every time you walk past it.
