First, we want to wish a very Happy Thanksgiving to all our friends and neighbors around Belleville, Collinsville, Glen Carbon and surrounding towns.
As a small token of our gratitude, we have another “how to” article for you today! It’s always our intention to give you value-added information to care for your home and bring your family the greatest comfort.
This time, the question we’re answering is, how do you best test paint colors?
What people usually think of when testing colors…
It’s a popular image: there’s a homeowner selecting a wall color between little sheets of paper, or even swaths of paint on sample boards. Those papers are taped to the wall or the boards are hung to compare.
Actually, it kind of looks artistic. Hip, even.
This, however, is not the best way to test paint colors for the interior of your home. Let’s break down the way we should really go about it…
Paint directly on the wall
You will only get a real sense for how a color will look in your home if you paint directly on the wall you intend to paint. The boards and little squares of paper will never have the representative texture of your walls, and the texture can really affect the look.
If you’re still working between several possible color choices, you can paint them onto the wall in strips, one next to the other.
Additional factors to bear in mind
- Do you know yet whether you will need to use a primer? The answer to that question will affect how the color will look in its final application, especially if you’re testing colors over a darker existing paint on your wall.
- Do you know how many coats your painter will apply? Be sure to ask, and then apply that many coats when you test color strips on your wall.
- And finally, think about applying strips of possible to multiple walls of the room(s) you plan to paint. The light will hit each wall differently, so to get a full and realistic picture, you will need to test the colors all around the room.
These details don’t have to be overwhelming. Give us a call today, and we can come out and help you with this testing process.
