I'm looking for some neutral shades of paint. I was wondering if anyone can supply me with the paint brand and chip number of some nice neutral shades.
It seems I paint a room over and over again looking for the right color. The color on the chip looks nice, but when I get it on the wall there is too much red or green, etc... Or it's too light or dark.
If you paint for a living, I'd sure appreciate the brand/chip number of the neutral paints you use.
Tough question.
What's your idea of "neutral"?
I mean no offence, but if you have painted "a room over and over again" I don't think YOU are sure what neutral is.......
What I'd like may be nothing what youlike. White is about as neutral as you can et, but I don't like it. Some off whites and tans can be neutral, but still not what I like.
If you want to add some warmth, go to rose colors, but if you like it cooker, blue and green pastels will be what you want.
You can also buy small test sizes at Benjamin Moore stores.
This is a really weird question.
Tape the paint chips to the wall and view them for several days, under as many kinds of light as you expect to have at various times.
It *is* tough to get the neutral you want. Of course it depends on what is desired in a neutral. (more taupey? more beigy - that is more yellow?) But it also depends so much on the other things in the room, esp. flooring, and lighting.
To the O.P. - I've (personally) been really pleased with Benjamin Moore White Dove for a very pretty and long-wearing off-white for trim and ceilings and walls in a room my son wanted white and blue. The Ben Moore Anique White really is a light beige (toward the yellow side) that worked very well with dark stained trim in a finished basement.
Get the smallest portions of paint buyable, paint two or three choices in 3x3 foot squares on a prominent wall. Then wait a week. Look in the morning, in the mid-day, in the evening, and at night with the lighting you most often use. Walk in and try to sense which one draws the eye in a pleasing way. During the course of the week. Then you'll be in a better position to know what "lives" well on the walls.
Banty
Sorry, but that is why them make all those colors. What looks best sort of depends on what each of us like.
I think the suggestion of getting a number of chips you like and leave them in the room for a few days and check them out under all kinds of light. You may also want to check around to see who it is and if anyone one in your area has the option to buy just a small quantity of a color where you can put it on your wall and see what it will look like. You may try several. It would be littler money and little work. I think they were offering the sample sizes for something like a dollar or two.
On Sun, 30 Oct 2005 14:52:38 GMT, "Doug Kanter" scribbled this interesting note:
Or have a quart mixed up. A quart is usually the smallest size you can have mixed if it isn't an in stock, pre-mixed color. After you have the quart, get your brush and paint a significant portion of the wall. This way you get a better idea of what the color will actually look like on your wall under your conditions. Paint chips are too small and, because of the differences in texture, etc., they never have exactly the same appearance after you actually paint.
My favorite color combination probably isn't for you. I like Kelly Moore WS-18 interior flat latex for the walls. The color name is Sand Dollar and it has a good amount of yellow in it and provides a nice, warm feeling room. For the wood work, such as base boards and door and window casing, I like Kelly Moore interior, oil based, semi-gloss white. In my opinion this provides a nice contrast and provides depth while leaving the room open for art work, drapes, and furniture to give you all the color you want. Ceilings are acoustic, or ceiling, white, since, in my opinion, dark colors on ceilings that are only eight feet high tend to make a room feel like a cave.
-- John Willis snipped-for-privacy@airmail.net (Remove the Primes before e-mailing me)
No it's not a weird question.
There are shades that interior painters for upscale new construction, model homes, and homes being 'staged' for sale (by a pro after a death, for example) turn to that are 'safe' in that they don't go too much to one or other side of the color wheel and have wide appeal.
I'm not in those trades, but I know the answer he's looking for exists.
For example, I chose for a bathroom vanity counter a subtly textured neutral formica. Because I wanted it. This was in the showroom of an outfit that proobably does the most contractor supplies in the area. The sales person commented that I had chosen the particular color and pattern used very often by new construction. For its wide appeal and good neutral.
Something like that (in a paint color, of course), is most probably what the O.P. is looking for.
Banty
have been using DeVine Paint by the Miller Paint Company of Portland, Oregon go to
Here is an old painter's trick. Use a full color wheel sample book. Pick out the color you want. Go 2 shades lighter in the book. Paint. I've done this for years with customers and never had anyone say I had the wrong color. Most people cannot envision an entire room painted the color of a small 1" sample.
(top posted for your convenience) ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Keep the whole world singing . . . . DanG (remove the sevens) snipped-for-privacy@7cox.net
I wonder how often it is chosen for aftermarket. Bold colors can have limited appeal and even if I like something today, I may tire of it in a couple of years. Coppertone or Harvest Gold appliances for example. I tend to stay with more neutral colors and designs for long term expensive items, but I'm not afraid to be bold and difference for easily changed things like painting a room. Siding or countertops can cost thousands of $ to change, while a room can be freshened up for $50.
Good Grief...... Some of the things people ask for on here are utterly rediculous..... Go to a frikkin paint store and LOOK at the samples, and bring some home with you.
Or the OP needs new eye glasses.
A nice neutral? That is a challenge, since you say they are too light, too dark, too green, etc. You might ask at a paint store for chips with tints that contain only umber/brown. An experienced paint mixer could probably very easily mix something within your preferences. Or, take a chip you think you like, look at it in daylight and at home under normal lighting. Compare it also to chips of similar darkness that are blue, green, pink. The contrasting tints would brink out the too-whatever in your chip. The tinting colors are very few, so if you want something with no red, or no green, it can be made. Furnishings in the room, along with lighting, can change color appearance by contrast, daylight color (cloudy or sunny) or by reflection.
Good grief. Some of the responses here are utterly ignorant.
Learn to spell. And you either have never painted, or don't care much how it looks once it's on the walls.
Don't you have a 'next thread' or 'next post' option somewhere in your newsreader?? When you find yourself irritated or bored, use that option.
Gosh forbid someone actually come here to ask a question. Sheeesh.
Banty
Yeah, I actually have the ability to look at the wall and know what looks good. I also have the ability to go to a paint store and get samples if I need help. Anyone that can not do these, really needs to hire a professional painter. Anyone that chooses paint colors just to "keep up with the jonses", rather than choose what they like, really ought to move into a rental property that does not allow painting. Let the landlord choose the color.
"Samples" rarely look like the actual paint results unfortunately.
I don't see anything wrong asking for specific brands and/or chip nos. from anyone who has found neutrals they like, or seem to please others. Could certainly save some time to have some advice before you go shopping. bj
I agree with you, but what pleases one person is not going to please the other. When I paint, I choose what I like. It sounds like the OP is the type that will not be satisfied no matter what. Some people are like that. I wish that is all I had to worry about in life was finding the exact "prefect" color. Anyone that is going to keep painting over and over has far too much time on their hands and far too much money.
Thanks to those who responded with the actual paints they like.
I HAVE brought home many paint chips and I HAVE also bought quarts of paint to give them a test run on the walls. I also have taped paint chips to the wall for a few days. But really, it's not until you actually get the paint on the walls that you can see what you actually have. If I don't like it I may go to another shade similar. Either on the same chip or on one next to it. I do have a few rooms in my house that have turned out well using this method. But, I don't want to paint the whole house the same color.
I'm just picky about the color of my walls I guess. And I really don't mind painting.
Thanks again.
-Felder
It's too bad the computer manufacturers dont place a PLONK button on our keyboards. so we can get rid of idiots like this with one single keystroke. Oh well, here goes !!!
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