# Paint on walls too dark, help!



## slickshift (Aug 25, 2005)

You could glaze/faux white/light-wash it
But the labor involved and product cost is actually _more_ than re-painting it a lighter shade

I would like to suggest that you might be a little shocked seeing that color as big as it is right now, rather than just a little chip
This happens a lot, especially if the room was white/light before
It can be overwhelming

It's only been a day
Really I'd suggest waiting a week to get used to it
Then make a decision

I'm assuming you spent some time picking out the color
I'd go with it for now...if it after a week, it's still too much, then I'd consider a re-paint


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## mark942 (Feb 2, 2008)

Slicks statement is a good one IMO. Might I add if you are to re-paint,buy a quart of the paint your wanting to re-paint with. Try it out on your wall/walls.They (quarts) run a bit of money,but in the long run it will save you some thing worth much more than a quart of paint.....Your Time.


:thumbsup:


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## ting (May 13, 2008)

simplest solution: if it is too dark, but is the right colour, leave whatever wall was the most difficult wall to paint alone. (you could depending on the room setup, chose to walls).

Use any leftover paint you have to paint the other walls at half strength (go buy a gallon of el cheapo eggshell white and add it to the colour you bought until it is muted to you taste, or vice versa, add the colour to the white paint if you want a lot of punch out of your focal point wall. 

This however will not work if your colour is red/burgundy, as light red (aka pink) sucks. In that case, I recommend to paint the other walls a complimentary muted colour.


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## Sir MixAlot (Apr 4, 2008)

mark942 said:


> Slicks statement is a good one IMO. Might I add if you are to re-paint,buy a quart of the paint your wanting to re-paint with. Try it out on your wall/walls.They (quarts) run a bit of money,but in the long run it will save you some thing worth much more than a quart of paint.....Your Time.
> 
> 
> :thumbsup:


Actually Sherwin Williams has quarts for $5.00, any color.


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## mark942 (Feb 2, 2008)

Sir MixAlot said:


> Actually Sherwin Williams has quarts for $5.00, any color.



Thank you Sir Mixalot, it has been a long long time since I have purchased a quart of paint. :thumbsup:


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## slickshift (Aug 25, 2005)

Five Dollars?!
Wow....I'm guessing it's not Duration Home, but I'm sure it'll work for a sample


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## sirwired (Jun 22, 2007)

slickshift said:


> Five Dollars?!
> Wow....I'm guessing it's not Duration Home, but I'm sure it'll work for a sample


Wow Slick, you definately are a BM guy through and through... I'm surprised you didn't know about those sample quarts. The SWP "Colors To Go" are about my favorite part of being Sherwin user.

The sample paint is really awful stuff, if you tried to use it as an actual finish coat. It has lousy hide, brushes horribly, doesn't level, and who knows how it rolls. It is flatter than flat, and wears so badly, the can explicitly states that it MUST be topcoated.

However, for $5, in almost any color, it can save REALLY expensive mistakes on color selection. When getting ready to do our kitchen, we got a sample quart of a yellow we thought we liked... the result? Let's just say that we learned not to use anything out of the "Bold" section of the color palette. (When they called the color "Daffodil", they were not kidding.)

That $5 saved us who knows how many hundreds in labor costs.

My usual method to use these is to paint up some posterboard, and if it looks good there, put some on the wall... The sample paint then gets scuff sanded, primed, and topcoated just like it was never there to begin with.

SirWired


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## slickshift (Aug 25, 2005)

BM has sample jars, but only in about 350 of about 4500 colors
They don't sell quarts of the cheap paint, and the cheap paint wouldn't show the true color of the good stuff anyway (more gray in the base for hiding in the cheap stuff)

So samples end up being a little over ten bucks a pop (contractor price) if they don't have the two dollar jars

Not a big deal for me professionally, as I charge the same to apply samples regardless, but if someone, even a customer of mine, is DIYing the samples...it could add up quickly if they don't get a winner on the third...or fourth...or sixth try


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