Second Coat Required

Ever ask a sales person at your favorite paint store if the paint is darker on the wall than the color chip?

Did they answer what you expected?  

As a color consultant that helps customers a few days a week at Benjamin Moore retailer North Cromwell Paint I have been asked this question many times.  

'Take home' chips are usually 1x2" on a strip of eight colors up to 3x4" individual chips unless the store has some larger chips on hand, so in the store it can be difficult to decipher if a color is going to be dark enough or too dark for a certain room.  

Here's what you need to know:

• When you open the can of paint the paint will look lighter than the paint chip.  It could even look too 'something'...pink, yellow, blue....

• When you first paint the wall the paint will look lighter than the paint chip.

• Once you cut in [a nice wide & feathered cut in so you don't get a 'picture frame' effect] the paint will darken as it dries.  You may not notice it at first, but as you roll on the first coat of paint you will see how the two parts look different.

Cut in line dried to paint color; first coat wet

First coat of paint with old color poking through

• While you are covering up an old color, presuming you did not have to prime, the old color could make the new color look terrible to the point you'll wonder if you are putting the correct new color on the wall.

• So you'd like to get away with one coat eh? Best of luck because even the self primed paints cannot account for normal, typical walls that manage to avoid the roller releasing paint.  It's really just the old color putting up a good fight to stick around.  A second rolled coat should go on rather quickly as your cut in took care of the wall/ ceiling/ trim board meeting spots.

The answer to the question if the paint color looks darker on the wall than on the color chip is no.   

It may be surprising that even a deep color will look like the color chip when you hold it up to the wall, but overall the color will look a little lighter and brighter in the space because it is on a larger surface than 2x2" and has more light to reflect on it.  

Benjamin Moore's Surf Blue

Deep color: a little lighter and brighter

Hope this post sheds some light on the question of how the paint looks on the wall compared to the tiny color chip you can start with from the store.

Don't let the large paint color selection make you frustrated with your project.  Hire a #color consultant for their experience of how certain colors may or may not display your ideal color in your room.  Your lighting and room characteristics are not the same as a retail store. 

 ~Make Your Color Personal~ (click this link for more information about my consulting services)

Best,
Jill

What's In a Name?

Congratulations,

You have searched and compared many off-white paint colors for your walls, ceiling or trim.  Of the 150+ off-whites to choose from you have narrowed it down to Navajo White, or maybe antique white.  But who's Navajo White?

  

Navajo White chips in Sherwin Williams, Pittsburgh Paint and Benjamin Moore

The same color name does not mean the paint color will be the same!

You may have stopped into a couple of stores to get paint chips, but your painter has told you about the benefits of the specialty paints and / or you always use a particular paint, like Benjamin Moore products.   Based on the color you chose, it could be another company's color that you want mixed in your preferred paint.  For example you stopped into Lowe's and picked up an off-white paint chip that just really works in your room compared to the other off-white chips.  There's just something about the color you like it best.  From your research you know you want to buy paint from your local Benjamin Moore owner instead of using the products offered at a big box or commercial store.

You know you want to use Pittsburgh's Antique White in a Benjamin Moore Matte (washable flat) paint, but did you relay the details to the painter or to the store employee taking your order?  While it should be a question poised, "Benjamin Moore's or someone else's?" from someone some where along the order process, it doesn't always happen. 

I strongly recommend to have the paint chip with the person placing the paint order and to clarify the details as to the brand and sheen of paint being used on the space.  Ideally you want to get a paint color made by the company you are getting the paint mixed in, but it isn't a perfect world and sometimes you just really like a certain color for a certain reason.  All is good.  If you go with the cross over of color and product, just have the store open the can and make sure the color is close.  If it is a non-company color it will never be 'exact', but it shouldn't be noticeably different either.

Happy Painting! 

The Neutral Trap

I've noticed it happening, variations of 'current', safe warm/stone grays are taking front stage when I'm analyzing color ideas for a client.  This past week I worked with two different clients that weren't afraid of color and I found myself having to turn off the neutral button in my brain. What a nice pick me up!

Gray is still the 'new beige' but you can fall into neutral land just as easily with this update and have one color staring back at you in every room.  The trick to update a space without ending up just shifting from all beige or 'builder white' walls to all taupe or gray takes a little faith to think outside the conservative box.

                

   

Won't the Color Look Darker on the Wall?

Benjamin Moore's Surf Blue

A re-occurring question I am asked as a Color Consultant is if the color will look darker on the wall than on the 2"x2" paint chip available at the local paint store.