Pick The Right Paint Colors, step by step

Two weeks ago when John shared this post about the times that we have made bad painting decision, we received a bunch of requests for a follow up post in the comments:

Q: I guess I simply have a hard time picking colors because I have a hard time telling which swatches have grey or brown undertones. Perhaps you can show some swatches (of say the teal from the built ins). One that has a grey or brown undertone and one that is more saturated? It might be helpful to see them side by side! – Aubrey

Q: Thank you for this! I in fact think pointer #3 (pick a muddier color) surprised me the most because I’d never heard that or thought of that. But it rings so true in my experience! Although colors do not show up perfectly on monitors, I would *ENJOY* to see a post with color samples and explanations like, “We enjoy this peacock blue, but we think it would be too garish on a wall. Instead, we’d try this color, and likely get the effect we are looking for.” -Heyruthie

Sounded like a good time to us. Comparative swatches will likely demonstrate more than words ever could. So let us simply let the swatches do the talking.

First we have the bold and lively color you might be going for on the left, so if you envision a deep teal tone, you might be tempted to use Classic Teal after seeing the swatch. But on the right, we put the swatch for Plumage, which is in fact what we used in our guest room. See how grayed out the swatch looks?

Yet on the walls it is every bit as bold as we hoped!

Colors in general – and especially dark ones – seem to amplify by a TON when they are up on the walls, so we have had luck picking the ones that look a bit faded or grayed out, knowing that once they are up on the walls they’ll look a lot more clear and bold. You can read more on the guest room here.

Next we have a swatch on the left that you might be tempted to pick if you want a bright and glad accent of pink – perhaps for the door of a kids room, like we used on Clara’s closet. But the swatch on the right is in fact the one that we picked. A small square of it looks a lot more muted (sort of faded) compared to the bold and glad color on the left…

… but once it is on a pleasant big area in the room (like the door), you can see how bright and clear that color reads. So even though the swatch on the left might be the pure and unfaded one you are initially drawn to, in a pleasant large chunk it could nearly read as neon. You can read more about Clara’s closet and those raindrops here.

Another coveted color seems to be a cheerful aqua tone, but in our re-painting-riddled experience it can be hard to get right. The color on the left is a peppy Tiffany Box blue… which is in fact a color that seduced us when we moved into our first house… but once we had it on the walls of our dining room, well, it was a little overwhelming. Of course it depends on your room (someone with an remarkable room full o’ light could make it look stunning) but in our experience, that color’s simply not muddy sufficient not to get blindingly bright on the walls. So we’d be drawn to something like the swatch on the right, which should still clearly read as a fairly aqua tone in such a large quantity (here it is in a laundry room makeover).

So my general rule is that for painting smaller items (like a tray, side table, accent chair, or lamp base), those more clear/unfaded/unmuted colors can be strong. But for larger expanses (doors, walls, ceilings), we tend to prefer muddier tones of the same color – like a softer aqua with more of a gray-green undertone – simply so it does not go from chic-tiffany-box blue to punch-you-in-the-face-when-you-walk-in blue.

The same thing seems to ring true for greens for us. Something bold and clear can work truly well on a piece of furniture or a bathroom vanity (but not necessarily all of them, ha!). But when it comes to the walls, the color on the left would likely turn most rooms into Kermit Theee Frog (I enjoy when he says his name that way). Meanwhile, the one on the right might look dull by comparison, but on the walls it could be truly fairly. Sage is consistently vivid with wood trim or cabinetry, so that could be a pleasant choice for a kitchen with wood cabinets or a den with wood trim.

Here is another way I thought I could attempt to illustrate the strange mystery of how a swatch with those muddy/muted undertones can nearly look beige in your hand in some instances… but then when it is on a bigger area, it is quite clearly a color. See how muted and nearly wheat-toned the swatch on the left with the arrow next to it looks below? Yet when it is in a bigger area (that is the exact same color in a larger rectangle on the right) it certainly looks green and not tan or beige anymore.

Update: Someone asked if the muddy version of a color would typically be on the same swatch as the bright one (if you slide up or down) or if it is on a distinct swatch. In our experience, it is nearly consistently on a distinct swatch, so there might be a whole range of clear tones on one swatch (from bright aqua to a light baby blue) but you’d want to go a few swatches over to the one that has a much grayer or muddier top color (like a deep blue-gray) and slide down to find those muddier counterparts.

One last example would be Dune Grass, which we used in our first house’s bathroom. It looks nearly fully cream/beige/tan in a small swatch (with simply a compact hint of green) – especially when it is arranged with other green tones that are a lot less muted…

… but in our bathroom it clearly reads as a soft green color. Once again, when it is up on the walls, there is simply a lot more of it, and it is certainly amplified from the neutral-looking swatch. So if you are looking for a light or subtly colored wall (be it green, blue, pink, yellow, orange, purple, etc) you might want to consider those lighter wheat or gray toned swatches that nearly look like there is simply a drop of that color in them. The result can be a room that is clearly that color, but a soft and subtle version of it. You can read more about that big bathroom reno here.

As Heyruthie mentioned, colors are not consistently strong on monitors, but hopefully simply seeing these comparisons might assist. And when making a final choice, the best method we have found has simply been to bring some swatches home, check them out in our lighting situation throughout the day, and then grab a test pot (or three) of paint if we are still nervous. Those small sample pots are only a few bucks and they can save you a whole lot of re-painting trouble.

It is also remarkable how distinct the same paint color can look in a variety of rooms/lighting situations, so I am sure there are folks who’ve used those bolder colors in the left columns above with strong results – so it truly does depend on your room, how much light it gets, and how you layer stuff in. Like this could-have-been-blinding bright blue paint color, which looks excellent in a lofted and light-filled studio – especially when it is tempered with plenty of tan texture in those pin boards and that over-sized mirror.

Oh and since we are on the subject of buying paint, here are a few pointers we have learned over the years about scoring a discount:

• “Oops paint” can be excellent (it is someone else’s already-mixed paint that has been returned for some reason, but it is typically extremely marked down as low as $1 for a whole gallon, so you can even get a few cans and mix them in the hopes of creating a color you like for a serious discount).
• If you have a go-to paint shop (ours is a local place called Virginia Paint), you might want to pop over to their Facebook page and click the Like button or sign up for their mailing list. By doing that you will frequently be alerted if they are running sales or specials, and sometimes you can save $10 or even score 40% off.
• If you get paint from a big box store like Home Depot, you can hit up their website and check out their Paint Promotions page.
• You can also get 5% off any purchase at Home Depot or Lowe’s if you use your store credit card there (Lowe’s does it automatically, and you simply have to ask for Home Depot to match the 5% off that Lowe’s provides when you are checking out and they will).
• Sherwin Williams tends to run some strong specials. In fact right now they are having their big 40% off sale. And I have heard you can buy untinted gallons (like a whole bunch of them) for 40% off and then bring them back later to get them tinted at no charge (I’d check with your individual store, but that is the rumor). So even if you are not sure what colors you want right now, if you have a bunch of rooms to paint it is a strong way to save serious loot.
• It never hurts to click around on any paint website for promotion info. Right now Behr is having a $5 off promotion and Benjamin Moore is offering a buy-one-get-one-free deal on a quart of paint.

Do you folks have any other paint undertone pointers to share? Or simply some stories about going for the wrong swatch? Any other pointers for getting paint at a discount?