Paint Samples Gone Wrong

8 years ago

i have tried all the hottest, trendiest Benjamin Moore colors on my walls, and they are all failing: Revere Pewter, Gray Owl, Chelsea Gray.

My friend is a painter, and when he came over to my house, he was stunned that he didn't like any of them either, since he has painted those very same colors many different times.

I know lighting will affect the paint color. I have a south-facing wall that has a big bay window directly opposite, and the colors all look so drab and washed out: Bennington Gray, Greenbrier Beige, Lenox Tan.

I even switched from the gray palette to the tan and beige palette, thinking I might have better luck, but nothing is reading well in my house at all.

Now I'm just wishing that I stayed with the Ralph Lauren Raffia and Shortgrass Prairie, because they looked so good in my house, but it's been 13 years and I want to change! Please help

Could it be the color of the walls that I am painting the sample on?

For instance, I have I yellow wall, and every color that I put on it looks gray, including Shaker Beige, Bleeker Beige, Hemp Seed, Manchester Tan.

My other wall I am painting samples on is Raffia by Ralph Lauren., and Greenbrier Beige and Bennington Gray are looking purple.

Featured Answer

KD

8 years ago

Generally you want to get white on the wall behind/around your samples otherwise the existing wall color will alter the appearance of the sample. Like we have a room painted a dirty sage green and the tiny sample patches I put up just to check how the paint looked next to the fireplace stone almost all look pink even though they’re all brown/grey/griege tones. The green just pulls out any hint of pink in the paint. For my proper samples I first painted big pieces of white poster board and moved them around the room to see how the light changed the colors, and once I had the list narrowed I primed a big section of the wall white and then painted the samples on there. Much much less pink.

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Comments (8)

Mrs. S
8 years ago
Yes, definitely, paint all or most of the wall pure white (the whitest white you can find), and paint it into a corner (so you can see how the samples will look against the white on the different surfaces). Then get a few posterboards, and cover the board with 2 coats of your favorite sample color. Then you can hold it up against the wall, or tack it up there, and see how it looks as the light changes throughout the day.
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Elle
8 years ago
The problem might be the LRV of the paint when exposed to so much light. A high LRV can look really washed out. Have you tried going down a color on the chip?
I think a greige is in order- maybe balboa mist (cumulus cloud for darker) or grant beige? Or a green color like mountain air? In general a true beige will look very yellow with a full southern exposure.
Elle
8 years ago
What is it you enjoy about the colors you have up now? Can you try to find something “similar but different”? For instance, something that has similar undertones or a similar depth.
User
Original Author
8 years ago
last modified: 8 years ago
thank you all so much for your very helpful and informative replies. Yes, I am definitely looking into the greige colors: Greenbrier Beige, Bleeker Beige, Manchester Tan. At least that's what my eyes perceive as greige. Do you concur?

My painter is coming over today to prime the walls white, and I'm going to put the samples up then. For the south-facing room with the bay window, I like Greenbrier Gray the best. That currently does have a green color on it, and that worked very well.

I think I'm also going to change the trim color to white dove since the current trim color has yellowed over time and looks like cream with a slight yellow undertone.

I will post with my results!
Elle
8 years ago
To me greige is more of a warm gray than it is a dusty beige, with the colors you listed landing much more on the beige side of the fence. I think of Classic Gray as the ultimate greige just for reference.
If you like beige more than gray then you should definitely lean on the beige side of the spectrum, I just worry a little that anything beige will appear yellow when the sun hits it, where anything greige will appear to be a true beige.
Ultimately you need to select a color you’ll like both at night AND during the day, so don’t pick anything hoping it will look different in the sun. Hopefully painting some swatches will give you better clarity!
w0lley32
8 years ago
Other Benjamin Moore colours you could look at are Sag Harbour Grey and Copley Grey.
User
Original Author
8 years ago
I am happy to report I have chosen my color!!

The priming of the walls made a world of difference and it has helped me tremendously! Bleeker beige is such a fantastic color and so is Manchester tan. I really love both of those!