Why You Should Sample Paint Before Choosing a Color

Choosing paint from a small chip is a gamble. Colors shift once they're on a full wall in your home's lighting. Sampling costs very little compared with repainting a room, and it's the best way to avoid a color you don't love.

Why Chips Aren't Enough

Paint chips are small, printed under specific conditions, and viewed against a white card. On your wall, the same color is influenced by your natural light, your bulbs, nearby colors, flooring, and the size of the surface. Most colors look darker and more saturated on a full wall than on a chip.

How to Sample the Right Way

Go big. Test an area at least two feet by two feet, or use large peel-and-stick samples. Small dabs are hard to judge.

Use two coats. One coat can look streaky and lighter than the final result.

Test on multiple walls. Put samples on a wall that gets direct light and one that's in shadow. Colors can look very different on different walls in the same room.

Avoid painting samples directly on the existing color edge. Surround a sample with white, or use a white board, so the current wall color doesn't distort how you see it.

Check at different times. Look at samples in the morning, afternoon, evening, and under your lamps at night.

Place samples near fixed elements. Hold samples next to trim, floors, countertops, cabinets, and large furniture.

Compare, Don't Decide in Isolation

Sampling two or three colors side by side makes the differences clear. A color that looked gray on its own may reveal a green or purple undertone next to another option.

Live With It for a Few Days

If you can, leave samples up for a few days. Your first reaction isn't always your lasting one, and you'll get to see the colors in different weather and lighting.

Sampling Exterior Colors

Exterior colors look lighter outside in full sun. Test exterior samples on more than one side of the house and look at them from the street, not just up close.

The STRIPES Takeaway

A few sample pints and a few days of looking at them are a small investment compared with repainting a room. Test large samples, on multiple walls, in all kinds of light, before you commit.

Planning an Interior Painting Project in Atlanta?

STRIPES PAINTING CO. paints interiors throughout the Atlanta area, from single rooms to whole homes and kitchen cabinets. Contact us to schedule a free estimate.

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