Don’t be too Hasty…

I’ve just come back from holiday where the sun shone every day and the skies were bright blue. All around me the buildings and landscapes had so much vibrant colour, almost shining like the sun. Even the dullest colours appeared bright.
That holiday was a reminder of how colours are affected by light.

So why is it when we’re choosing room colours we buy a bunch of testers, paint a small area of a room with several of them all next to each other, stand back and almost make an instant decision as to whether we like it or not?…we’ve all done it!
In our haste to choose a colour we almost forget how the amount of light, direction of it, and surroundings greatly affect how a colour appears to us.

Tester pots are nothing new, and although the colour may be true, how you use them can change how they look.
So my tip is not to paint them on a wall, but to paint two coats onto several large pieces of stiff paper or card and to then pin these to various walls in the room, looking at them over a period of time in different lights, at different times of the day, and also seeing how they contrast with your furnishings.

This will give you a much better view of how a colour and finish will look in your room and probably avoid any disappointments after you’ve gone ahead and decorated the entire room.