Paint store sample wall taught me something about undertones

I was grabbing paint at the Sherwin-Williams in Boulder and spent 20 minutes looking at their sample wall. I always assumed a gray was gray until I saw three grays next to each other - one had a green undertone, one purple, one blue. That small detail explained why my living room gray always looked weird with my oak trim. Anyone else get blindsided by undertones after thinking you had the color nailed?

2 comments

2 Comments

theabennett1d ago

Three years ago I painted my bathroom a color called "Silver Strand" and it looked perfectly neutral on the chip. On the wall it turned into this weird lavender situation every afternoon. I ended up repainting the whole room. My advice now is to always buy a sample and paint a big piece of cardboard first.

vera_roberts1d ago

learned this the hard way too - seems like half the stuff in life looks totally different once you actually get it home, whether it's paint or clothes or even furniture.