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[The chameleon] is incredibly able to change itself to the surrounding colors. Although we humans do not have this talent, we are able to easily change our surrounding colors with a new coat of paint...but which color? It isn't easy to find the "right color" but this page may help you through the color selection process.
In 1995 Belcaro Paint & Decorating Center pionereed in North America, the concept of packaging small tester bottles of paint in many colors for the purpose of allowing our customers to test colors before they made a more committed expense . Large paint manufacturers would visit us, puzzled how we could possibly make all these colors. It is very gratifying to us to see that we have made an impact on the paint industry as many of them have seen the value to our customers and the value in reducing the quantity of waste generated by buying any amount of the wrong color.
THE COLOR PROBLEM
SO WHAT'S THE COLOR PROBLEM?
In our paint store we find that our customer’s first few paint color choices for a given project, turn out to be mistakes. The reasons for this are:
1. The lighting conditions in a paint store are very different from the "right" light, which is the light in the place where the paint is to be applied. The perceived color of a surface will vary with the light source which is illuminating that surface.
2. Surrounding objects with color, such as carpet, fabric, furniture upholstery, effect how another color appears. Until all the color elements are placed together the true impression of the paint color is impossible to observe.
3. It is impossible to accurately anticipate how the color of a small paper swatch will look on a much larger area where your entire field of vision is flooded with that color.
4. The little paper color chips, provided by the paint manufacturers, do not always accurately represent the color of paint they are supposed to represent.
Since you should anticipate a few color selection mistakes in the beginning, it makes sense to start out slowly and buy the smallest amount of paint possible for testing. Your stack of unusable paint in the basement or garage AND our country’s hazardous waste landfills do not need to grow at your unfortunate expense. In the past, in our store, and at the present in many other paint store, a customer’s only option for testing a color was/is to purchase and apply a quart of paint, tinted to the color under consideration. We found that our customers would frequently return to the store, frustrated that they had used no more than an ounce of paint before they realized the color was wrong.
The constant disappointment of our customer’s wasted dollars and time, inspired us, in 1995, to come up with a better idea; a SOLUTION to the color selection problem.
THE COLOR SOLUTION
SO WHAT'S THE COLOR SOLUTION?
Our solution to the paint color selection problem was the development, in 1995, of testers samples, smaller than and much less costly than quart samples of paint. We call these testers or samplers "Wet Paint" Color Swatches. They are 1-1/2 fluid ounce bottles of actual paint (usually interior latex eggshell paint), cost $2.99 per sample for Benjamin Moore colors, $3.29 per sample for Pratt & Lambert colors, and $3.79 per sample for C2 colors.
Benjamin Moore (Classic and Preview systems)----Pratt & Lambert--C2 Premium Paints
With over 5,000 different colors available for testing, our customer’s color selection process becomes quicker and more economical with less frustration and without generating additional waste for our environment to absorb from unwanted quarts.The paint contained in the bottles is as accurate to the paper color swatches as a quart would be. Although the product is mostly interior latex paint, the samples will serve, from a color point of view, for evaluating the acceptability of a color when used either inside our outside. The 1-1/2 fluid ounce quantity is enough paint to apply to approximately four square feet, however, since it is frequently necessary to apply more than one coat to completely cover a different color, we recommend you apply the samples to a smaller area so you have enough paint for more coats.
The "Wet Paint" Color Swatches will also give you some idea of how many coats of paint will be required for your project. Some colors, such as deep reds, yellows, and oranges may require as many as five coats of paint, depending on the color you are covering. With this knowledge you may see that you should buy and apply a tinted primer before painting. Read on for a Step by Step method of rapidly and economically selecting the "right color". Recognition from the EPA
STEP BY STEP SELECTING COLOR
STEP BY STEP TO QUICKLY SELECT THE "RIGHT" COLOR
If you will follow these simple steps you have a much greater chance of quickly and economically arriving at the paint color you want:
1. Go to your local Benjamin Moore, C2 or Pratt & Lambert paint store (ours we hope) and look through all of the color swatches available from these manufacturers. Select a group of those colors you think may be good options, including some swatches a little lighter and some a little darker than you think will be perfect.
2. At your home, at the time of day when you will be most critical of the final coat of paint, examine the color swatches, narrowing down your selection to fewer colors swatches.
3. If we are close enough to visit, call us to order "Wet Paint" Color Swatches of those colors you want to test in actual paint, 303-757-5435. We will have them in the mail to you the next working day.
4. Apply the "Wet Paint" Color Swatches with an inexpensive 1" foam brush:
5. Inside testing: Apply the sample to a well lighted wall, preferably with the window to your back for good illumination. If applied in a corner you can see how the tester looks on two walls. Applied next to trim helps show how two colors look together. Another option is to apply the paint from the testers to a piece of poster board so you may move the dried sample to various parts of the room or house. If your walls are textured and you don't want to test on the walls, we also have textured paint out boards.
6. Outside testing: Try to physically group the various test colors you are evaluating next to any other colors planned in the final color scheme, including roof, brick, down spout, trim and body of house.
7. When you are 90% sure of the color you want, go back to your favorite paint store and buy a quart of paint of that color in the final product you plan to use. Applying this quart to a larger area will help confirm you have made the proper color choice. If the color of the quart still looks good, you should be safe buying the quantity of paint necessary to complete your job.
8. If your favorite paint store is good at matching colors, and you want to use a different brand of paint than the sample, save some of the paint in the bottle for the paint store to match.
Click here to view NICE COMMENTS our customers have made to us about "Wet Paint" Color Swatches (paint color tester bottles)
GENERAL COMMENTS THAT WILL HELP WITH COLOR SELECTION
I have been working with paint in one way or another since 1971. That is a long time to be helping with paint and color without picking up a few ideas that I can share to help you not make some mistakes. There is quite a bit of info here so I have put these GENERAL COMMENTS THAT WILL HELP WITH COLOR SELECTION on its own page.
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