How to Use Paint Sample Pots Properly

So you want to paint your room, and you’ve collected colour charts and paint swatches galore.  Finally you narrow it down do a few choices and head off to buy some paint sample pots, but before you throw that paint on the wall, read our tips for how to use paint sample pots properly.

I was looking for the perfect ‘greige’ colour.  Half way between grey and beige (a bit like a mushroom).  I did the normal thing and went to my local hardware store to see paint swatches but none were quite right.  I heard Resene had a good neutrals range so I went down to see Rachael at Resene’s  Greenslopes store here in Brisbane.  What that girl doesn’t know about paint and colour isn’t worth worrying about.  After 10 minutes sitting on the floor with photos of my room and swatches of fabric, we had narrowed my selection down to two colours – Cloud and Quarter Arrowtown.

Here’s the biggest tip when using sample paint pots – Paint onto cardboard pieces so you can tack them to different parts of your room.  When you buy a Resene sample pot, you receive an A4 sheet of card you can paint.  I put 2 coats of paint on each piece of card and used blu-tak to put them up on my bedroom walls.  The advantage to this over just painting a section of the wall itself, is you can move the samples around and view them in different light.  Some rooms are darker than others, some walls are darker than others.  It’s important to see the paint samples in different locations and different light conditions, at different times of the day and night.

Another tip when viewing paint colours is to isolate your colours when viewing them.  Resene give you a colour chip isolator card which you can place over your selected colour to view your choice on a neutral background without it being affected by surrounding colours.  If your walls are already coloured, try tacking a white A3 sheet of paper under the painted sample card, so you can see the colour more clearly.

So now it was time to live with my paint swatches for a week so I could be sure about which colour to use where.  My wing-back bedhead from Domayne is upholstered in Warwick fabric Linum Slate.  It really is halfway between chocolate brown and grey.  Neither one nor the other. In the end I chose Resene Cloud for the bedroom as it was softer and easier to live with in the bedroom. I also liked the way it worked with my bedside tables and artwork.

There is no door between my ensuite and master bedroom.  I really like the Porter’s Paints blue in the ensuite as it makes the bath really pop out, but I didn’t want to live with blue in the bedroom anymore.  I think I’ll use the darker Quarter Arrowtown in the ensuite as it will help the white bath and mirror pop.  It’s okay to use different paint colours in adjoining rooms so don’t be scared to mix it up. 

SO here are my top tips for using paint sample pots:

• use the paint to cover cardboard pieces that you can tack to the walls and move around, so you can see what the colour looks like in different light conditions.
• don’t just look at the colour on the wall, look at it next to or behind your furniture, artwork, or other elements in the room.
• view the colour from adjoining rooms so you can see how it will look from there, for example, as you walk down the hallway and look into the room.
• remember wet paint looks much lighter.  Wait for the paint to dry to see what it will really look like and do 2 coats of paint.
• Isolate the colour you are looking at so you can see it clearly without being affected by surrounding colours.

So over Easter I painted the bedroom and I still have paint stuck on my fingernails.  Have you got a paint project coming up?

I purchased my sample paint pots from Resene – visit their website here

I'm Kylie, and I love to share practical home decorating and styling tips. I'm a qualified interior designer and self taught crafter and DIY'er. I'm addicted to decorating, and can't walk past a homewares shop without going in for a look. I live in a 1930's Queenslander in Brisbane's inner suburbs which I'm turning into a home one project at a time.