apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

I love the glossiness of the paint, too--the way it reflects light/creates shadow really adds to the noirish effect.

This color looks great on the wall in the photo, but on the colorcharts site (the provided link) it looks much more muted and washed out. This illustrates a problem Im having right now in trying to choose colors for the walls in our home. I have a feeling that the paint will always look much brighter and more vivid than the paint swatches. The color seems to be amplified when it covers an entire wall. Are there any rules to follow, or tips anyone can give me to help with this?

david - i've had the experience of liking a color on a paint chip and then painting and having it be too bright (much brighter/bolder than it looked on the chip) more times than i can count. then when i hold the chip up to what i have painted it is an exact match. so the paint actually matches the chip, the problem is with me being able to envision what that color will look like on a whole wall or in a whole room. it seems like when you are looking at a whole wall or room with the color on your chip that the color is amplified.
what i did last time - found the color i thought i wanted then picked the shade two higher up on the paint card. i ended up with the results i wanted. i'm certainly not an expert, but that is what worked for me.

Gorgeous red wall!

I don't find Colorcharts to be very accurate--I have held actual paint chips up to the computer screen and seem very drastic differences.

That said, Melissa is totally right that looking at a tiny paint chip against a white wall gives you very little clue as to what the color will look like on four whole walls. I find that the Ultimate Paint Chips from C2, which consist of real paint on a piece of paper maybe 1 or 2 square feet big, help with being able to see the undertones of the colors better, but they still probably can't show how the color will look when it is reflecting against itself.

Sometimes I buy a whole quart and paint a large section and sometimes I just "eye" it and it often works. Here's a nice color that I have in my dining room. It looks every bit as good as Ralph Lauren, but is Olympic from Lowe's. The name is fragrant cloves B24-6. I used the satin and in St. Louis it is just $20 bucks a gallon. I guess it is considered budget paint, but I change colors every 3 years.

i had my first true experience picking paint colors a few months ago, and found that it really is a good idea to buy those sample sizes. i did 3 colors, and in my naive enthusiasm went ahead and bought gallons. only one of them was what i wanted on the first try. so now i have a couple random cans of paint in my crawlspace. so samples i think are the way to go.
also, i found that all the colors i ended up with appeared at lease a couple shades lighter on the card than once they got on the walls.

Hi, David,

Just some quick info:

Use only Ben Moore paint.(or Sherwin Williams.)

The opacity(ability to cover), ease of use and durabilty is unmatched in the industry.

Your actual wall color will match the chip perfectly but your new wall color will look lighter in value and the color will be more intense than what appears on the chip. It's kind of an optical illusion thing.

Choose your paint chip accordingly. Good Luck!