Why It's Important to Sample Paint Colors

Posted by Cate Griffing on January 26th, 2023

Sampling your paint colors is an extremely important step in the painting process. Not only for the homeowner but the painting contractor as well. When paint sampling is skipped it tends to cause an expensive headache for both of the parties involved.

Painting contractors deal with this sampling issue all the time. The way the situation usually plays out is a homeowner finds a green paint color that is extremely popular on Pinterest. They decide it is the paint color for them without considering any other factors. They tell their painting contractor the paint color they want and they are 100% sure of it. The painting contractor then goes and purchases the paint color requested. Once the paint color is mixed it’s as good as yours and is not refundable. That paint color is then applied to all the walls. When the homeowner finally sees the chosen “perfect” paint color on the walls, they question why the color looks so different, and if the contractor purchased the right paint color. 

This can all have been avoided if the paint color had been sampled beforehand.

Why is it necessary to sample paint colors?

Paint colors look different than the paint chip you get from the stores. You cannot get a good sense of the paint’s true colors from the small chip. Why? Well first of all the color chip is way too small. Second, the color on the swatch is dyed to match the paint color, not the actual paint itself. Finally, paint colors will look different depending on certain elements and lighting in a home.

So when you see the perfect blue paint color on the sample chip, that may not be the case once it's on your walls.

How should you sample your paint colors?

• Choose no more than 3 paint colors. The more options you have the harder it is to narrow down the choices. 

• Paint large swatches in multiple areas in the room you are painting. 

• Let the samples dry completely and live with the color swatches for a few days.  Observe the swatches throughout the day to see how the color looks at different points of the day in different lighting.

• An alternative to painting the swatches directly on the wall is to paint them on white poster boards. This will allow you to easily move the swatches around.

Sampling your paint colors will save you time, money, and most importantly aggravation. And it will make your painting experience a great one from the start.