Room Painting Tricks and Tips?

[kap]

We are repainting the guest bedroom. S/O has gotten some painting samples (those paper types). isn't it true that the actual color is a shade darker? We want the color to be warm and cozy. This is a 100+ Victorian home. We don't want the color to reflect the true Victorian time. That'd be depressing dark. We don't want flat either. Semi-gloss look too shiny? We are striving for low to no maintenance. And environment friendly. What would you recommend? TiA

[AlphaDog]

My personal painting tip is "Don't!"

I've been painting several rooms in my house over the last few months. I'm not sure how to best describe my experience, but the colors I chose for the walls turned out to be a tinge darker, but they were also more vibrant than they appeared on the sample pieces.

I bought quarts of the colors I thought would look good and painted a good sized sample on the walls. One color was fine, but the other one wasn't, so I had to look for something else. The problem, for me, wasn't so much that the color looked so much different on the wall than on the sample, but, rather, a much larger amount of that particular color wound up not looking good as a background for some fabric I'd chosen to use for window coverings. When I was using the small paint sample, it looked wonderful. I'd strongly recommend testing with quarts; yes, it's more expensive, but it isn't as much more expensive than buying a gallon and learning within three brushloads that the color is wrong.

As I moved through the projects, I wound up buying three different brands of paint. One was Valspar by Lowe's and called interior satin, one off brand that I think is actually a Dutch Boy paint is called eggshell finish, and the third (a Northwest brand) was called satin enamel. They're all a touch harder finish than straight flat wall paint, but they have no gloss and are washable.

Interestingly, the one that was actually the easiest to use and really did cover in one coat was the store brand called "HD Design" that I bought at Fred Meyer, and it was only $14.99 a gallon compared to the $25 per gallon (plus or minus) that I paid for the name brands. It turned out to be my favorite of the three to work with. Go figure.

I strongly recommend the quart sized sample, even if you do gag on the price. It turned out to be worth it when I was choosing specific colors.

Edit: I suppose I should have added that the Valspar from Lowe's was fine, too. It didn't cover in one coat, but the color I chose was also quite dark in comparison to what was being covered.

[kap]

Yes, S/O just called to say that she has picked a $15 eggshell finish quart from Home Depot to try! I am hoping she's bringing home the light shade. That way we can always paint over if we decide to make the color darker. The room we're painting gets lots of direct south sunlight. So even the color is a bit dark it should be fine. As long as it brings the calmness and warmth to the room at night is all we want

[Buzz]

hire or borrow an artsy, decorator type to pick for you if you have real concerns. some people are just more visual by nature than others, and poor color pickers shouldn't be unreasonably penalized. some of the big stores will provide you w/ a color picker, just bring in the measurements and a few photos and you're good to go... best of luck.

[kap]

My S/O is pretty decent when it comes to picking out color but having a color picker will not hurt Thanks for the suggestion Buzz.

[mikebw]

Here's a great website to help you pick out colors-
http://wellstyled.com/tools/colorscheme2/index-en.html


Another one-
http://www.colorschemer.com/online.html