apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

I'm kinda obsessive about getting exactly the right shade of a particular color. I've found that the colors on your screen almost never look accurate. The appearance of colors is so dependent on the surroundings, daylight, and bulb type so the only way I've found is to get some samples to paint on the wall and live with them for a week or so.

I am planning to paint for the first time (what can I say, I've always been a lazy renter)--and color is the least of my concerns. I am more worried about doing it right--all the prep work and taping, etc. Picking the right types of paints for trim, on and on. I'll be asking a lot of questions at the paint store.
I am going with Benjamin Moore because of their reputation, color selection, and the Natura line (supposed to be coming out in March).
For color, first I focused on colors I like looking at every day, then I considered the palette for the whole (very small) house. Finally, I considered light. I really want a blue green for my bedroom, even though it is a dark room. I went with a really light color and hopefully other elements will keep the room from feeling dark. In the super sunny rooms, I went with cool colors. I could just imagine a glowing room, and went with a pale olive green. We'll see how it works out soon.

My snarky comment for the day:
The picture for this post was frighteningly 90s and UGLY.

*Whew* Glad I got that out of my system.

I hem and haw and hem some more. I'll paint and repaint until I get it right. I've learned that a neutral wall with a tint of color is best for my style/taste in furnishings. I love color so much, but putting all that color on the walls doesn't work with all the color in the my furnishings and art. Better to use the walls as a canvas and keep them simple.

I always swear by picking a color and painting a good sized (3'x4'?) piece of foamcore and taping it up on the wall. I move the painted foamcore around to different areas of the room at different times of day to see how the light affects the color; usually leave it up for a few days to a week. With this you are not stuck with painted patches on the walls, or seeing how the color reacts to light in only one area of the room.

I find picking paint colours a pretty natural and simple process for me. I guess I'm one of the lucky few. I just tend to know what I like and what I don't like. I'll pick up paint chips from the hardware store and bring them home and tape them all over the wall then begin to eliminate as the days go on and I can see what each colour looks like in certain lights.
I hate the act of painting but wouldn't be able to live somewhere that didn't have my mark on it. It's either the hatred of the process that keeps any regret at bay, or I can just make a good decision right off the bat... who knows.

I'm painting my living room at the moment; a sort of pale earthy green. It was looking a little minty last night in the bright lamp light but in the natural light and in our normal evening light, it looks wonderful!

I've used the online tools from Benjamin Moore and Behr. They're helpful for randomly trying different combinations and for eliminating ones that just won't work. You still have to put the paint chips or swatches in the room to see how they'll work, though.

Both tools would be more helpful if they'd let you change the color of the furnishings in the sample rooms.

I'm considering using Yolo paints for my next projects. My local "green goods" store has large, prepainted swatches of Yolo paints you can bring home.

I use the online tools but I find that the colors online look different on my walls. The paint swatches also look different once the color is on the walls. I think some companies like Benjamin Moore and Behr offer small paint samples. I don't know if all of their colors are available in these samples. I haven't tried them yet, but I might when I get ready to paint again.

my entry way went from aqua to grey and now I'm putting it back to white. I'm an experimenter.

shockthebourgeois: That's because it probably IS from the '90s, and I don't think it's someone's actual bedroom: it's one of the bedrooms you can "re-paint" on Benjamin Moore's Personal Color Viewer. If you haven't tried it yet, check it out, it's fun . . . but habit-forming, :)
http://www.benjaminmoore.com/bmpsweb/portals/bmps.portal?_nfpb=true&_pageLabel=fh_home&indexPage=true

Currently, I'm in the process of purchasing a condo, so for weeks, all I could think about is what colors to paint my walls. I've used online tools to look at different combinations, but the problem I face is choosing a color when I love them all.

Honestly, I don't think there is a such thing as a bad color or bad color combination. Rather it's the ratio in which colors are combined and showcased that creates a gestalt. There are so many fun possibilities!

I play best when there are rules and restrictions. I've always wanted one of my walls to be a paint by number mural. Having decided that, I will paint the other walls using the palette of the mural.

I recreated pretty much my whole apartment in CorelDraw -- walls, dimensions, doors, floors, furniture, everything. Makes it ridiculously easy to try out new pieces of furniture in the room, new wall colors, anything.

I used to pick colors, repaint, try to get it right... and then I finally learned to give in. Now I grab a few of my favorite things that stay in the room to-be-painted, and take them to the Lowe's in North Austin, and turn them over to the paint section manager there. Some people have an eye for color, and she does.

My living room, dining room, hallway, kitchen, pantry, library, and guest bath? Her suggestions, and wow, I love all of them and I don't think I would've had the nerve without her encouragement.

Plus, she also turned me onto the Valspar flat-scrubbable paint for hallways. A true flat, and I went at it with Comet and a scrubbie and it didn't come off. The stuff is awesome. A bit more expensive, but worth it for the high-traffic areas.

So I guess it's kinda like: in any place you live, you need a doctor, a stylist... and a Wise Paint Person. Or at least I do.

That bedroom is the ugliest use of color I've ever seen.

that picture is so ugly. it makes my eyes sad.

(I hate to admit it, but I kinda like the colors in that sample room!)

I have never had any trouble picking colors *I* like, it's more about picking colors my partner ALSO likes. Both of us have pretty clear color senses, so we "just know" when we will like a color. The only time we repainted a color was the brilliant yellow of our old finished basement, and that was only to neutralize it for resale. He didn't like it at first, but it grew on him so that now HE is the one who wants bright colors.

For our new house, I envisioned some colors and just found the best match to what I had in mind and am very pleased with the results. I let him pick the colors for his media room and adjacent areas, and he knew exactly what he wanted and it worked fine. One choice for each area, no complaints for any space, no repainting, no gnashing of teeth -- it's so much easier for us! (Sorry!)

Trying out a whole room of color on a computer program like that can make choosing your basic color scheme less intimidating. You can make daring temporary decisions and see how much apple green or mimosa or moody gray you can stand to look at- when it's all over the wall of a photo, you can get that out of your system if need be, without hating it for a week and running back to the paint store for white because you scared yourself of strong color. Maybe you will love it instead, but you didn't have to just dive in and paint to find out. You can try out all the variations, a little paler, a little bluer, kind of grayer, whatever, and even consider colors you wouldn't normally if you think that's fun or helpful. See how it would look in pink, you might like it.

Just like the others, I would say the ultimate paint choice is probably not going to be what you saw on the mockup, it's just inaccurate but close enough for a starting point. You still want to find your chips and samples around that color and narrow it down to the one that works with your lighting and furnishings.