How To Pick The Right Paint Color Part 2

You walk into the hardware store.

You walk up to the paint samples, not the least bit intimidated, because you know exactly what color you want your room to be. So you look through a few similar swatches, and you make your choice.

You pick up the prettiest shade of grey, walk it up to the counter, and ask for 3 non-refundable gallons to cover your entire room.

You get home and start painting. And the paint. Is. Green.

HOW!? You saw it in the store it was the perfect shade, exactly what you envisioned!

The key to picking the perfect paint color is LIGHTING! 

The light in the store is much different than the light in your living room. Heck, the light in your living room is going to be much different than the light in your bedroom! 

Why does lighting matter so much? And how can you avoid this problem? Today I'm sharing a few tips to help you pick the right shade every time.

You know how you look at all of those shades of grey at the store and they're like all the exact same? Well that's what I thought until I watched an Instagram story from @coppercorners.

She held out several grey paint samples that all looked the exact same color. She then laid them down on the table to reveal just how different they all look in the light. 

Girl I was shook!

This Instagram story came at a great time for me because I was getting ready to repaint my whole house to put on the market. I decided to dive a little bit further into why these colors act strangely in certain lighting.

LRV is the paints light reflective value. Simply put, this measures the amount of light that is reflected, or absorbed, by a color. Even simpler, how light or dark a color is. These values range from 0% at absolute black to 100% at pure white.

Generally speaking, if you want a room to feel big and bright, you will want to pick a color that has a high LRV. A great example of this is my living room. I originally painted it a dark hunter green with an LRV of 30%. Once I got ready to put the house on the market I had to repaint. I chose a blue with an LRV of 90% and the room feels so much bigger!

One thing to remember, though, is that if you don't have much light in a room, natural or artificial, it doesn't matter how high the reflective value of a paint is. You cannot make a room feel lighter if there is no light, and that is just a sad fact.

It is so so so important to get samples of a few different paints before you commit to a color. 

The best place to test your paint samples is right next to your trim. Your trim and floor can have a big impact on the way your color reflects so testing the color here will give you a much better example of how the color will look vs test painting it in a random spot in the middle of the wall. 

These tests are very important when it comes to seeing what the true color of your room will be. Once you compare your paint sample to the room's lighting, trim, and floor color you will know for sure that you have found your perfect color.

I hope the advice from this two part series has helped ease your mind when it comes to the brain power it takes to pick out a paint color. This part of the job doesn't have to be stressful. Just take your time and don't rush the process. A little bit of trial and error can save you a lot of heartache, and leave you with a room you'll love for years!