Advice On Having Custom Paint Colours Mixed
I often get asked for information on colours used in various interior design pics, but that's not the way to go about choosing custom colours.
22/01/2021
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Being affected by natural light, paint colours applied to walls will change throughout the day. In the morning (north-facing), they are lighter than that of later in the day.
I have had plenty of custom paint colours mixed over the years, most have been perfect and a few have been anything but. You would think that by now I would know better, but over the past few months I have slowly been painting my house from top to bottom and once again made the mistake of choosing the wrong colour by picking this online.
Most of the rooms in the house are painted a light warm grey colour, which I really do love. This paint I selected on a paint swatch, went to my local Builders and had it mixed. It's just one of those colours that seem to work well in any type of light. The last room to be painted was the main bedroom and I wanted to choose a different colour for this room. Going against my own advice, I went onto the Builders website to select the colour I wanted. I was looking for a cool grey with just a hint of blue since the bedroom is decorated in navy and white.
Paint colours are affected by natural and artificial light as well as light and shadow.
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I found the perfect colour online, placed my order and had it delivered with other items I needed. When the paint container arrived, the colour swatch on the front of the container looked nothing like the colour swatch seen online. The colour was more blue than grey and not really what I wanted but the thing is when having paint custom tinted - you can't take it back. So I decided to go ahead and paint the room. Once painted, I was surprised that the colour looked great and when the light was just right, I could pick up the colour swatch on the tin, but only at a certain time during the day and then it was gone and hence the reason for this article.
Paint colour on walls changes throughout the day as the intensity and angle of sunlight entering a room change.
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NEVER CHOOSE PAINT COLOURS ONLINE
When I have readers get in touch regarding specific colours in room settings seen on Home-Dzine.co.za, I always tell them that what they see and what they get is never the same. Monitors and displays on PCs, Laptops, tablets and your phone differ greatly in the colours that you see. What could be a grey-blue on my laptop will be a grey-green on my phone, and so on.
What is a better idea is to print out or save the image on your phone and take this in with you when you go to look at colour swatches to take home. And take home you must.
To show how paint colours can differ when viewed online, minimal manipulation has been done to achieve this effect on the colour swatches above and below.
LIGHT DRASTICALLY AFFECTS PAINT COLOURS
Natural light affects paint colours applied to walls depending on the direction of the sunlight entering a room at different times of the day. Artificial light also affects how paint colours appear in a room depending on the wattage of the light source, the type of light source and the placement of light sources. For example, LED lighting in a cool white will make wall paint colours brighter and cooler, while a warm light will darker and affect how the colours look.
Both natural and artificial light should be taken into consideration when choosing paint colours for walls.
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TAKE HOME COLOUR SWATCHES
I think it is especially important to take home several colour swatches, especially when you are picky about how the colour of your walls will turn out. With a few colour swatches in hand, you can tape these to walls and view them at certain times of the day under both natural and artificial lighting conditions. By doing this, you will be guaranteed to choose the perfect paint colour for walls in a specific room.
Always stir paint well before application.
HAVE ENOUGH PAINT MIXED TO FINISH THE JOB
It might work out more expensive to finish the job but whether you are having custom paint colours mixed or not it is always better to make sure you have enough paint to complete the painting task. When paint colours are mixed, they are done in batches for pre-mixed colour or a single can for custom colours, but if you don't buy enough you could end up with slight differences in colour when applying paint to the walls. That's fine if you finish one wall and are ready to move to the next, but if you are in the middle of the wall that could be a problem, and one that is obvious once the paint dries.
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