By Jeff and Connie Cutler, Colts Simple Stuff Services.
“But it looks blue.” “Well, it was grey in the store, and you picked it out first.” “Now we cannot even take it back, because it just had to be a custom color.” As you can figure this back and forth between spouses, partners, long -time friends, or roommates will continue to devolve to some stalemate of color. From there, we see a wall or room painted that one party cringes looking at every day and hold as an argument talking point for years to come. Or there is a full paint can, no walls painted, a reminder that $50 or so was invested into an idea that just did not work out. So, what on earth happened?
You picked out colors at the store on the little cards. You liked how it looked. You even took the little card home and taped it to the wall, backed up a few feet and said “yes!”. There is no judgement in how you went through the process, however, let us add a few additional steps to see if it can help.
Yes, those color chips are great ways to get an “idea” of what you like. Taking them home is a great idea as well. However, you are looking at how a little two-inch square looks on a ten foot wall. Once the wall is covered in that same color, the look may become totally different. This is why some stores have 8×10 sample sheets of the colors that self-stick so you can get a better feel for the color. If they don’t have that consider buying a little sample of the color you are thinking, then paint it on a piece of paper or even white cardboard and use it like the self-stick ones.
You also want to make a final decision after you have had it up there a few days. Why??? Well different light can change how the paint looks, different times of day can change how it looks as well. When you are in the store, you are only seeing those chips and samples under one type of light, and that light is rarely the same lighting that would be in your home.
Lastly, all paint chips have different shades used a base color. However, you often cannot really tell from the chip card what the true base color is. If you take a piece of bright white paper and put it behind the chip card, you will see the true base color in the paint. This is where what seemed like a shade of grey, now you can see it has a blue base they are making grey, therefore when on the wall in natural sunlight what you thought was a grey came out with a blue tint. The white paper idea will show almost every base color and may prevent many disappointing results.
Which brings us to the angle. If we don’t take the time to look at the base of our relationships with people, hence clearing out all the background issues and challenges to see the pure base of the love and character they have, will the relationship with them truly be the colorful one you look forward to seeing every day?