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What intensity of paint color did you choose (and why)?

10 years ago

I know the colour shade that I want to repaint my house. I am deciding about 2 versions of the colour (different intensities): (i) one is a bit deeper/more intense (ii) one still has colour (not a cream) but less intense. I've done test patches of both. Have "tested" a few walls of the more intense colour and will test the lighter colour over the same walls this week. The darker one is quite good during the day, while at night it does get rather "intense" for lack of a better word - very saturated in feel (bit more than I prefer).

(The deeper paint could be compared to something like Wheatfield or Straw in Benjamin Moore. The light version would be like taking a 65-70% percentage of those colours.)

QUESTION:I know daylight brightens and can at times of day even wash out the colour, or late afternoon light can really warm up colours. And artificial light can intensify things. What decision did you make in your house about what intensity of paint colour to use and why? For anyone with intensified colours at night - do you find it gets overwhelming or looks cozy? For anyone with a light-to-mid colour, does it wash out too much during the daylight hours?

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Comments (4)

LuAnn_in_PA
10 years ago
I must be looking at the wrong thing...
BM Straw and BM Wheatfield are not dark or deep or intense....
Vertise
10 years ago
Do you like being enveloped by your rooms or something more light and airy?

If you don't really care for it at night, it doesn't sound like the right selection for you. Maybe try cutting the formula slightly.

Do you have a room you spend a good bit of time in that you'd like to be cozy, so you could paint the more intense color there, live with it for a while, before committing to the house?
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Karenseb
10 years ago
Color is very hard to describe. When I think of intensity I think of a color's saturation which means a yellow paint has more yellow and less gray in it.
The shade or tint could be a saturated paint with lots of white or black. For example a red and white tint looking pink, and a red and black shade looking maroon or very dark red.
If you take a saturated pink color and add gray, you will subdue the color. I've used a lot of creams in my homes and a lot a lot of color in other homes. In all cases, I usually am happiest with grayed colors. They are toned down enough to make my accessories pop.
My last house had clay colored and subdued green walls in the living room. I added different shades of rust, orange and green to the room. I really liked it.
The green wall was dark, but not an intense in color in my mind. Very earthy as was the clay/rust color.
Try painting a large piece of foam board and placing it in different areas of the room at different times of the day. I find that a small area on the wall tends to look more intense or dark or colorful as compared as to a whole room painted.
Scarlett001
Original Author
10 years ago
Thank you for thoughts. I wish that I did not have vaulted ceilings all over the main part of house - tough to test out paint colours and costs more to paint as cannot do myself.

I should clarify. There are way more intense colours on the paint chips than those such as BM Straw etc. The colours in this range in my house are relatively airy/light during the day - but there is enough punch in them, that in artificial lighting at night they look "vivid" - the orange comes out quite intense (not really dark, but very vivid).

Snookums, I don't really have a smaller room that is suitable to test in - main house is pretty much open, the smaller rooms are more dingy in terms of lighting so comparison not great. I will test lighter colours on walls of main room this week before committing. Painters not coming for 2 more weeks so time to do that. I live in a northern climate with long dark winter evenings, so the night-time lighting is rather important to get quite. Thinking about your question, I may prefer a more open look in the evenings than the darker version of the colour offers.

This post was edited by Scarlett001 on Sun, Nov 17, 13 at 19:19

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