How To Nail Down The Right Paint Color!

   

Some people can grab a paint color, and go for it, and live with the consequences. 

These are probably the same people that can go to the hairdresser, and make major changes because they know it is only hair and it will grow back.

Personally I am NOT that girl! When I get my hair cut differently, even slightly different I feel as if I am in the dentist chair.

When it comes to paint on the walls the paint sets the mood, or feeling in the room. It is what wraps around me every single day. It is NOT just paint in a can to me.

I want it to have all the qualities I have grown to love in my home for the last 37 years….

Warm, inviting, fresh, clean, and it needs to give a glow, and life to the room.

Whenever I choose a new paint color I will try to narrow it down to the top two colors that I think will work. I will live with it for an entire day before taking the plunge. I need to see it in all of the different qualities of lighting that changes in a room throughout the day.

This time I started with four different samplings of warm whites. I narrowed it down to three.

Then I narrowed it down to two, and not one of those was the perfect color.

Oh my, what is a girl to do?…..

....Study Why They Did Not Work

What I will look for:

1. Undertones that showed up that I don’t like………… I saw a pink undertone coming through first thing in themorning.

2. How the color reflects or absorbs light…… both colors absorbed light making my room look dead and flat, instead of the nice warm glow it has always had.

3. Do I need to go lighter, darker, or even brighter…….all of the colors I tried were in the right value. They all were  on the lighter side.

4. What was the feeling the color made me have……. none of the colors made me smile or feel like I could take a deep breath with a sigh of calmness. They did not have enough life to them. They just went flat in my room.

5. How the color marries to its surrounding

colors……..every color I sampled married well to all

of my surrounding colors.

After going through this process I realized the color I needed was right under my nose. It was my living room color.

It is like French Vanilla icecream.

Simple? Not so much!!

WHY?

As with most of the colors in my home I tweak, or make my own formulas by adding a touch of this, and a drop of that. 

I work with the tinter’s at the paint stores, and they help me concoct my formulas.

The color in my living room, and hallway are a special brew that was made over 12 years ago. Since that time the actual paint bases have changed. 

If the base is different, and they will vary from paint company to paint company, the color will be different if you try to use the same formula in a different base.

This is where modern day technology has been very helpful with the onset of computer matching. It is not an exact science, but it at least gets you in the right ball park.

Keep in mind a good tinter is worth their weight in gold. Once you find a good tinter that really knows paint and pigments, and how they work, be sure to maintain a good relationship with them, they are invaluable.

Most computers will pull up 4 different formulas, and it will tell the tinter which one is the closest match. It is up to the tinter to make a decision based on their knowledge of how pigments will mix together.

Since I am an active participant I looked at the formulas, and made the decision which one I felt would work based on my experience with color in my home. The tinter concurred so we moved forward.

Let me bring up another point here…..

If you are using a flat paint it will tint up more quickly and could possibly tint darker if you are using an old formula of an eggshell, satin, or semi-gloss, so keep that in mind and adjust the formula accordingly.

My original formula was an eggshell finish so we adjusted and made the formula slightly lighter. After the first try the hue was correct but the shade was too light so we added more pigment, and Voila it was almost spot-on!!

Close enough for even me, and I know I am way beyond picky.

So that my friends is the paint saga, and how you should analyze, and have your paint formula’s mixed up.

Kathysue now has a new paint formula on file for any upcoming touch-ups that might be needed.

I have named my color: VANILLA!!

Let the painting games commence!!!