ᐅ Help with Choosing Interior Paint Colors

Created on: 1 Sep 2020 21:52
K
kati1337
Hello everyone!
I’m facing a tough choice when it comes to interior paint colors.
Pinterest offers lots of beautiful color palettes that I like. Unfortunately, most of them come from an American supplier. Their website also has a nice online tool where you can simulate how the colors look in different rooms, in both artificial and natural light. Of course, it’s just a simulation, but for me, it’s much more helpful than the paint swatches from the hardware store.
Is there a reliable way to communicate the colors from this American brand to my painter so they can accurately mix them? The website provides RGB and Hex values as well as LRV, but I don’t think these are precise enough to define the color properly.

The usual RAL color fan decks commonly available here are all too bright for me. I’m looking for colors with a very high white content, finely toned. I’m not really making progress. Does anyone have any advice?
11ant3 Sep 2020 14:11
kati1337 schrieb:

Simply lighten a solid color? Or what is meant by that?

I suspect a causal connection between your lack of success in finding the desired pastel shade and searching for something that doesn’t exist. For paints with a gloss finish, the pigments need to be mixed directly to achieve the target color, and then color charts show the available factory-mixed shades. However, for wall paints, the approach is different, precisely because of people like you, who want a pastel that isn’t soft enough: in this case, white is added to the base color. There are color charts for this as well, though they are rarer: these show how the tint — for example, shade number XYZ — appears when mixed with 2, 3, 4, or more parts white to 1 part color in a “tabular” format. On a PC, you can simulate this — but be careful to consider calibration effects! — by copying a solid color patch (there are various “translation tables” from RAL to RGB available online) into a graphics program (e.g., OpenOffice Draw) and then overlaying a white layer. Adjust the opacity of the white layer to see the effect of adding white. This way, you should be able to find a suitable solid color that you can then have your painter mix with the appropriate, multiple amounts of white paint. You will hardly find a ready-made pastel wall paint because, due to different personal preferences, it is much more economical to always mix pastels from white and the base color.
https://www.instagram.com/11antgmxde/
https://www.linkedin.com/company/bauen-jetzt/
Pinky03013 Sep 2020 14:15
We have also found a color that we basically like, but it is too dark on the wall. I have considered lightening it by mixing it with white. The problem, in my opinion, is that you can’t reproduce this mix a second time. So if I need to touch up, repaint, or in the worst case, if the paint runs out, I would have to repaint everything. That’s why we are trying a paint swatch from a hardware store first, because these colors can be bought again.
11ant3 Sep 2020 14:31
Pinky0301 schrieb:

The problem, in my opinion, is that you can’t replicate this exact mix a second time.

That’s why you don’t mix "randomly," but use a ratio that you can remember, usually a whole number to one. The tinting method is clearly best suited for pastel shades, where the tint color has the larger "weight" in the mixing ratio; it generally doesn’t work convincingly the other way around. But the original poster is looking for a shade within the range suitable for the tinting method.
https://www.instagram.com/11antgmxde/
https://www.linkedin.com/company/bauen-jetzt/
kati13373 Sep 2020 18:21
Update on this topic: I now have a color fan deck from the painter or his wholesaler. It definitely includes the desired shades, because, just as 11ant said, there is a base color followed by a range of progressively lighter tones, all clearly labeled. My painter uses Caparol.

I can now add the Caparol colors I’m interested in to our Sweet Home 3D model on the computer, see how everything looks together, and also view the color samples in real life (under different lighting conditions) on the fan deck. I think this is the right approach.

Thank you for your help!
P
pagoni2020
3 Sep 2020 20:59
With Caparol, you have a good product, top quality, not a mediocre product. We have purchased and used it several times before through our painter.
hausnrplus2530 Sep 2020 15:02
Golfi90 schrieb:

We just discussed this with our painter yesterday...
He said that nowadays nobody makes frames anymore?!?
And he works for a painting company that has already worked on the "more modern" buildings in the city (restaurants, department stores, architect-designed houses, etc.)...

I really dislike it when service providers or tradespeople say, "That's not done anymore." It’s MY house, and I don’t care if something is trendy or not... I wouldn’t be convinced otherwise unless they give me clear reasons why it’s no longer done, based on pros and cons that actually convince me.
Pinky0301 schrieb:

We also found a paint color that we basically like, but it’s too dark on the wall. I’ve considered lightening it with white. The issue, in my opinion, is that you can’t reproduce that exact mix later. So if I need to do touch-ups, repaint, or, in the worst case, if there isn’t enough paint, I’d have to repaint everything. That’s why we’re trying paint samples from a home improvement store first, because those colors can be reordered.

If the paint is mixed according to a formula, you can always reorder it. But if you mix it yourself “by hand/roughly,” then it really won’t work.