I'm with you on that Angie. I bought Ellen Kennon color strips and then many actual samples. None of them looked good on my kitchen and breakfast area wall. Then I went to SW and bought many more sample paints before I finally found the perfect color. It really gets expensive.

I love F & B old white and hope to use it in my bedroom when it needs re painted.

Buying paint IS expensive. I just slop on neutral colors and be done. My walls will never be in a magazine.

I'm convinced, Angie, that there is a ward in every mental health institution just for people who've gone crazy trying to pick paint colors.

And these companies don't help one bit. Like Ben Moore. They used to have those very small samples, but they're doing away with them in order to force us to buy pint-size samples for more money, but in fact, who needs a whole pint to do a sample??? It's infuriating.

I found the best way to pick a paint color is to have four or five samples up on the wall, you just can't tell, you're near tears, pulling your hair out, so you go, "#$($@! it! I'm going with (name of color)/

Being at one's wits end has its benefits!

Perhaps you can find a color in your house that you love and have a paint color matched to that?

One of the samples on my wall is dkc-44. I was wanting a trendy silvery blue gray and this seemed to fit the bill. It really does look beautiful, but other times I look at it and it's an ugly, dingy gray. I have told myself a few times to just get it and be done with it, but then the dingy gray shows up.
Now I'm thinking of just buying the f&b pointing, and painting the whole room that one color. Sure would be simple then. But then I stupidly went to the Donald Kaufman website half an hour ago and saw his color of the month. Fog. Looks beautiful on my screen, lol. My fingers keep darting over the buy sample button. I think I need to visit the "paint ward" of the mental hospital. Lol.

Sumac - I hate to admit it, my house is a wreck. It's an old house that we have slowly been working on. The only rooms done belong to my son, a spare bedroom, and at one time, my bedroom. But I am redecorating it to a more modern look now. Half my downstairs has the plaster removed on all walls and ceilings with windows covered in blackout shades so no one can see what a sad state we live in. The other half of the downstairs is waiting for its multiple layers of wallpapered paneling over ruined plaster walls to be removed. There are no colors anywhere to pick from.

It is a big investment in time spent actually painting. A significant cost, if you hire a painter and an upheaval of the household having to remove window treatments/furnishings/art, etc.

Painting is not the easy one afternoon job portrayed on design shows if you prep properly. All reasons why it's stressful to choose right/ do once with paint colors.

The thing is, when you do get it right, you enjoy the results for a good long time.

If we go into a mental ward for choosing wall colors, imagine how horrible we'd feel looking at the institutional wall colors! Bad for those of us here.

Old Fixer, that is now the direction I am headed. Changing everything to neutrals, because then I won't hate them like I hate the colors I chose (poorly).

I love playing with color including paint colors.

I've recently enjoyed BM affinity colors as they all play nicely together...perhaps you should give them a look see....

The problem, especially in the paint industry, is you are set up to fail choosing colors.

Because nobody tells you where color comes from and how it's organized from the very front of the color-making workflow loop. You have not been given the tactical support needed to help you understand how color works and thus how to find the colors you want.

Everything manufactured is colored using a hue/value/chroma based system; without fail color is ordered, somehow, some way by hue/value/chroma.

It's the hue/value/chroma order that defines what a color system *is*.

If a color collection (paint or otherwise) does not obviously spin out from a color order system including notations, the colors can be retrofitted into a color system. Because every single color has the three key dimensions of hue/value/chroma.

Without a hue/value/chroma system, you're left with just your eyeballs and what amounts to nothing more than guessing. Guessing what samples to buy. And then more guessing switching around a bunch of painted color boards.

If you're lucky, you guess quickly mitigating the overall investment of time and money in color samples.

I feel your pain! We just painted our bedroom this past weekend after weeks of looking at paint chips and sampling a few colors. It's a neutral color, but oh man, there are SO many neutrals! I'm not 100% happy with the color, but in the whole scheme of things, it will be fine.

funcolors - how do *we* learn more about how to use the hue/value/chroma system????

So, I did get colors that I love in the kitchen. Warm greige and a grayed green. And I also have a color that I love in the adjacent dining room/living room, stairs, upper hall and one bedroom -- a pale warm yellow-tan.

I thought they would play nicely together when I picked the new kitchen colors-- I held the chip and sample board up against the DR wall. Reality? They don't. Really don't.

Technology has advanced to the point that color devices and other tools that were once exclusive to bona fide color professionals, like graphic designers, color managers for photography and print, color labs, etc. are affordable and available to everyone. Hand-held colorimeters the size of a pack of Life Savers that are ridic accurate and cost under $300 is a prime example

As we progress toward a more sophisticated approach to color that includes new advances, the market at large will have no choice but to start incorporating more information about color systems. The evidence of their existence will literally be everywhere because the three-dimensions hue/value/chroma is how everything color works and it is no coincidence that the human vision system is also three dimensional.

We are on the precipice of new era in color. And before you know it, color systems information will grow more and more accessible. Not just for communicating about color, but also used as tactics for applying color.

I just googled hue/value/chroma and found this. This is fascinating! I would like to spend more time learning about this so I can make a more educated color selection the next time I'm choosing a paint color.

Yep. Munsell is the premiere color system. Sherwin Williams, Pratt & Lambert, Kelly Moore, Dunn-Edwards - all of them have ties to Munsell.

Here's a blog post I wrote about the color system that Glidden uses. It's called ACC. Easily found at (drumroll) the very sophisticated Home Depot paint department.

This stuff is hidden in plain sight.

In my 20+ years working in color I can count on one hand the number of paint industry folks, paint store employees and interior designers that I have come across that understood proper color theories and systems.

One hand.

Which is why I often say the paint industry in general and the realms of interior design/decor is the last place on earth anyone should ever look for color information let alone expertise. (painting contractors are a close second)

Here is a link that might be useful: Learn How to Use a Paint Color System Now

When going from a sample to a room, I have generally found that...

A light color will generally look darker on the wall, or maybe more accurately, it becomes easier to see the color (or differentiate it from white) over a large area. My living room is a gray-blue and the little dot of paint they put on top of the can is indistinguishable from white. But on the wall, it's really quite blue.

To my eye, dark colors generally look lighter on the wall than they do in a small sample.

Grayed out out colors look more colorful on the wall than in the sample. Undertones that eluded me on a 2"x2" card become obvious on a 10'x10' wall.

My tactic for choosing paint is to start with lots and lots of little 2x2 squares is colors that I think are in the ballpark taped to the wall. I look at them at different times of day, and every time I do I remove the ones I like the least. Then maybe I move what's left to a different wall and repeat the process. When I've winnowed it down, then it's time to actually apply samples to the wall.

In my dining room, I got down to 4 or 5 browns that I thought would all be fine, and randomly picked one. In other rooms I had a clear favorite.

Angie I feel your pain! I paid a "color specialist" to pick my colors in my new home. I had it painted and hated every room. I have most room repainted in colors I like. It's been torture and costly but I am finally getting colors that make me feel good.

When you are doing your samples are you putting two coats on the wall or sample board? Do you move it around the room? Look at it at different times of day?

Is your trim painted in the color of white or cream that you like?

I hope you find what works in your home, maybe take a break , them start looking again, you just may be too overwhelmed to make a decision.

I'm glad to know I'm not alone.
I had been painting the samples on the wall. I thought about doing boards but I live in a small town and don't even know where to get something big I could paint on. Plus I was too impatient when the samples came in the mail. I wanted to see what they looked like on the walls immediately.
I like light cool colors. I always prefer the pale blues, greens, and grays for paint on the walls. But I might have to go with a warmer cream white if I can't find a cool shade to work with. My room had two widows facing north and two windows facing west. It's not a dark room at all but the grays and the grayish blues just aren't looking good. So far.
Bu I'm taking a break right now from it like Jeannie suggested. Having to drive into town, or do mail order, for every paint card or sample gets to be a drag.