Can you paint bigger samples of the 2 that you waivering between to get a better idea of which you like or did you only mix up little of it?

On my monitor I can defintaley see a difference between 1 & 2 and little between 2 & 3.

#3 look the most neutral from my view.

Thanks always. I only mixed up a little bit but I can probably still paint a bigger splotch. Maybe I'll put one on a different wall, too. I'm just not convinced it will help. It's not easy being a Libra. :P

FWIW, I really liked #3 as soon as it went up, so that might be my deciding factor.

Here's another photo in better light and without my head creating a shadow on 3.

I think it is worth tinkering with, myself.

Before I opened the thread, I thought you were using premixed colors. There, I find it useful to look at the darker version on the card to help me see why one color is different than another. BUt when you mix it yourself, as you have, I think it is very hard to read. Especially so in proximity like youve done...

What about using the color that is on the wall behind your three samples?

I see very little difference between #1 and #2 so if you're looking to tone it back I'd go with #3. I am drawn to colors like these and I know your pain - there is sometimes a thin line between lovely warm and processed cheese. :)

Fun2BHere, I can't remember what concoction that was, but it is too neutral for the rest of the room. The floor is light maple and very warm, so the wall color needs some gold in there. How much is the question. 1 is too much. I think 3 is about the least acceptable amount.

I think it's difficult to get a true reading on a colour when it is on a painted background like you have. I've been most happy with my colour choices when I've painted a sample on a piece of posterboard and put it against a white background - otherwise you judge the new colour based on how it compares to the old colour, and things just get muddy! Is it possible for you to put these colours against a white background?

Good luck. You have lovely wood trim, by the way.

Am I just wasting brain cells on this? I'm wondering if, at some point, the colors can get so close that it really doesn't matter which one I pick.

Oh, but it does matter. (Well, at least to me. ;-)) I've been repainting in my kitchen and the old color and new are so close that when the new paint goes on wet, I actually cannot even see it as I apply it over the old color. (It's driving me crazy trying to get paint on the wall.) Only when it dries can I see the very subtle - but still profound - difference in shades. I have found that a green with a yellowish undertone makes me feel a little bit queasy, but tweak the shade ever-so-slightly towards the bluer side, and I'm in love. I never in a million years would have dreamed that I'd be so obsessed over the slightest little difference in shades, but I am.

I agree with suggestions to paint larger sample boards and place them around the room so you'll see the different shades in various light. Also not quite sure what kind of feel you're after, but I see a huge difference in #1 vs. #3 as far as a restful, soothing-on-the-eyes quality.

I recently tried the beige/golds and they turned orange in the day and sickly green at night. Some I had used in other houses, but they were not working here. I ended up using BM Grant Beige, a greige. I have white trim, but some of the woods (beams)in my house are similar to your trim and the Grant beige looks great against them.

I've mixed my own paint before, but try to avoid doing it ... it just takes things to another OCD decorating level!!

I see. Of course, I don't know the exact color of your floors, but it seems like #2 would pick up on caramel tones and be less orange than #1. Unfortunately, unless someone is standing in your room, it's hard to judge how the paint will look reflecting off of itself and other items in your room under your lighting.

If the difference is so subtle that you can't tell after you've painted a wall, then, I wouldn't worry about it. But just like anything else, when you take a color that looks good to you in small amounts, and then put it on the biggest area in the room...your walls...it will become more intense. I've played and played with color, exchanging one sample for another until I love it on the walls.

That said, you do need to buy some white primer and do your samples over a primered background. It's just madness to do it the way you're doing it. Don't ask how I know this....:(

Red

I never choose a paint color until I see it in all forms of light - natural, artificial, day/night, overhead lighting, ambient lighting....some paints have undertones that are only visable under certain light.

When choosing between several similar colors, the deal breaker for me is which color looks the best when viewed in all forms of light.

Thanks for all the input everyone.

clubcracker-Yes! That fine line between lovely warmth and cheese is what I'm trying to find! It is elusive! :)

As for painting against a white background, I actually NEED to see the colors compared to each other. As I said, I painted the living room with #1, so I now know what that looks like en masse, and I know the gold needs to come down a notch or two, so I need to see the new colors in relation to it.

auntjen - I have been amazed at the difference in these colors as they dry. I mix them up and they look all look the same in the bowl, and I think "this is going to be no different at all", but when it dries on the wall it is different with just the tiniest dollop more or less of the gold color. It's amazing.

I am mixing my own, by the way, because the #1 color is as close as I can find to the color in my head. I also have a sample of a taupe which doesn't seem to have any undertones at all, so I'm using that to neutralize the gold.

chispa, the Grant Beige chip looks kind of greenish in my house. I have a weirdly yellow-green couch which rules out many of the greens, unfortunately. That's why I'm leaning to gold.

I have painted bigger swatches of #2 and #3 (though I've run out of #2 now) and I'll watch them in the different lights of the day and night. So far I like them both and I'm starting to think I could be happy with either, but I will definitely give them some more thought.

Thanks for the help!

based on the picture, #3 looks most neutral... #1 looks the most 'orangey' and #2 looks golder than the other two...
only problem with mixing up your own color is it's hard if you have to touch up later... several years ago i mixed up paint for my fairly large master bedroom closet from paint i had that i knew i'd never use...then a year ago i changed the closet to a pocket door and tried to touch up from the paints i had left over--needless to say, it's not a seamless match!!

busy, I have the samples painted on a scrap piece of wood, and I will go to a paint store to color match whatever I wind up choosing. I probably wouldn't attempt this if today's color matching technology didn't exist!