After I had finally finished my year of getting rid of all the unnecessary belongings we had accumulated during the twenty years we have lived in this house, I began a project to repaint all the walls. I had painted and/or wallpapered every room when we moved in, but nothing had changed since then. Well, actually my stamina had changed between 54 and 74! I hired someone to pull down the old paper and paint the walls.
The second floor with its three bedrooms, a long hall, and one bathroom was our first project, one room at a time. I kept to a theme of yellow, blue and white. But that hardly narrowed it down. Each room gets different light and required me to choose just the right color. I found a light yellow fairly quickly for the hall. But then I had to deal with the blues.
The names of blues are very seductive, but they rarely give any real help in knowing what the paint tone actually is. For that I brought home both color cards,seen above, and about 40 individual color sample cards. I ended up with five different blue colors including Hollyhock, Bluebird, and Permafrost. None look remotely like their names.
Now on to the first floor. There the predominant color will be yellow, with blue and white accents. But after looking at the “warm colors” paint chart I seem to be confronted with another challenge to pick a variety of yellows. No wonder so many people have just surrendered to greige.
Saved By Words 
Over the years we soon discovered that paints of the same name, by the same manufacturer, are quite often different colours when they have different batch numbers!
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That is true in knitting yarn,but I didn’t know it about paint.
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Do you have ‘match pots’ over there, Elizabeth? They are small sample paints, sold cheaply. You can buy a small selection and paint them on small areas of the wall to see which you prefer. More accurate than paint charts or cards. They look like his.
https://www.shpock.com/en-gb/i/YM9w3VA2WBAgbiwJ/free-5-dulux-match-pots
Best wishes, Pete.
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I don’t know and will look when I start downstairs. Thanks.
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I love the word greige.
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I used to paint houses in the summertime to bring in extra income. I know you’re referring to the names not reflecting anything about the actual color, but the paint chips often don’t look like the actual color. As you pointed out, the light changes everything.
Sometimes I wondered why people chose such hideous colors, but they obviously had a different opinion than me. One time I painted the entire house while the people were gone. The owners picked an awful shade, but I applied whatever they told me to. When they got home, the husband said his wife hated the color, and they hired me again to repaint the house with another shade. Fortunately, they were happier the second time around. Imagine having your house be a color for one week before changing it. You never saw so many curious neighbors.
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At least they acknowledged that it was their mistake! I painted my own house in my 30’s and couldn’t believe how much work it took. Now I look to college painters such as you were.
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Blue, yellow and white sounds nice but but not as nice as bluebird, canary and dove. 😊
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I do get entranced and sidetracked by the names.
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After retiring I painted each roon upstairs. I did them with a variety of bold colors. Now I am hoping to sell in a year or so to downsize. I might just hire soneone when i finally decide to sell.
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I suppose you will have to go all greige to attract the right young buyers!
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Maybe.
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something that looks fine in a brochure,or on a paint tin will look entirely different on a whole wall.
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Definitely true, but I have learned to expect that.
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I loved that encounter when Mrs. Blandings picks out paint colors in Mr. Blandings Builds his Dreamhouse: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s33ScN4D-HU
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The clip sounds exactly like me. The house even looks like our house. Thanks for sending me the link.
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Good luck picking colors, one of the hardest jobs known to man and woman. By the way, i like Benjamin Moore paints. Navajo White is a nice trim color. It’s not a bright white. For a bright white , I like Whisper White or Cottonball, in a gloss, of course. Have fun and show us your results. 👍
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Thanks for your recommendations. I wonder why Navajo was chosen as a name.
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No idea. Paint names are all over the board.
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I am taken back to the Cary Grant movie, ‘Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House’ and the scene where Myrna Loy is describing to the painter the right shade of blue.
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Two of you have mentioned that movie. I will make a point of watching it. It has been too many years!
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You will love the movie, and that blue paint scene is classic.
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