Usually when we’ve wanted to figure out the right color to paint a room, we’ve bought samples and painted swatches right on the wall. This method works pretty well if you are only choosing ONE color. But what if you want to use several or many colors in a room or throughout the house? We love this strategy that location agent Andrea Reisfeld and photographer William Abranowicz posted on their blog A +B See, after they consulted with color-genius Eve Ashcraft, whose advised the likes of Martha Stewart on paint colors:

“We bought sample sizes of all 17 options, and painted them on sheets of mason board which had been primed with white.

Now, we can place the colors in their proper rooms throughout the house, and see how they work against the floor color choices and against rooms within the same sightlines. We’ll be able to see how the colors look in the light of our house, bright days, dark days and night time.”

It is SUCH a good idea, allowing you to move colors around at will.

Read more about Andrea and Bill’s big color changes here. You’ll find lots of color and other inspiration at Ashcraft’s blog Studio Horn.

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color-painted panels as decorative element
d-i-y reverse painted glass as wall covering and…
our lesson in pink (paint)

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2 replies on “figuring out paint colors (from a master)

  1. This illuminating comment came as an email from Mary Anderson Griffin:

    “We recently remodeled our 120 year old Queen Anne Victorian in Maine and it is fair to say I took this idea to the extreme. I used poster board instead of mason board and (I kid you not) painted at least 150 different colors. Who knew that there are so many variations of beige! The real brilliance of this method is that you can move the color around the room and see what the changing light does to the shade you have chosen. What seems the perfect taupe in the store or your best friend’s house may muddy or look purple on your walls. I ended up very happy with my colors but now my problem is that I think I may want wallpaper in some rooms. The saga continues.”

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