My $150 paint sample wall taught me a lesson about lighting

I spent three days last month painting a 4x6 foot patch of my studio wall in five different gray tones, trying to pick the perfect backdrop for client work. The winner looked fantastic in that north-facing room, but when I brought a piece of my own artwork home to my south-facing living room, the same gray turned a muddy blue. Has anyone else had a color decision that was absolutely perfect in one light and totally wrong in another, and how do you test for that before committing?

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zarak189d ago

Oh man, that "perfect in one light and totally wrong in another" thing hit me right in the gut. I had almost the exact same thing happen with a warm beige I picked for my hallway. It looked so soft and cozy under the hallway bulb, like a nice cream color, but then I put a small test board near my kitchen window and it turned this flat, dead yellow that made me feel sick every time I walked past it. I ended up having to repaint that hallway twice before I just gave up and went with a plain greige that doesn't really do anything, but at least it stays the same everywhere. The lighting thing is so sneaky because you think you're being smart by testing on the actual wall, but you're only testing one wall in one room at one time of day. I don't have a perfect answer, but I've started painting little poster board swatches and physically moving them around the house at different hours, and even that doesn't fully capture it. You have my total sympathy, that's a rough lesson to learn with a $150 wall.