Awwww gee, I'm sorry it didn't turn out like you wanted. Sometimes the color looks so wrong because all the other things are not around it. I'm attaching a site that has some nice neutrals. I find Sherwin Williams colors to have some good ones but check this site out. Just click on the tan paint splotch. Good luck.

Here is a link that might be useful: favorite colors

I'm wondering if it will look better if I finish the room. The walls that surround it have a definite yellow undertone and someone told me that taupe colors look terrible next to yellow. Maybe that's the problem? I guess I could finish painting. I'm already out the $150 on 3 gallons of this color!

The purple undertone will be emphasized by the yellow as they are opposites.

I so feel your pain! I have so many samples, it seems I could paint a house! And when I painted my whole kitchen a color I thought I would love based on a 1 foot square patch, it turned out so awful I sat down and cried.

Don't live with a color you don't like - you've already got everything prepped so now is the time to repaint with a color that makes you happy.

I redid my kitchen the next weekend and I'm so glad I didn't try to "live with it."

Some lightbulbs emphasize or bring out certain colors. Is the purple under lights or can you detect it with natural sunlight?

Don't beat yourself up. When a color doesn't turn out to be what you thought it would be, don't be in a hurry to label it a failure: think of it as an experiment.

Pretend you're a scientist conducting experiments--which you are. Pretend you're in the chemistry lab, not the art studio. There's no "success" or "failure" when a ten-year old future scientist puts vinegar & baking soda together, or puts a glass upside down over a lit candle, or puts salt on one of a pair of ice cubes, or sticks a raw egg in the microwave. There's no "right" or "wrong"--there are only results. Of course, some of those results may be messier & more exciting than others, but even so, they're still just results. Your job is simply to observe them. As Seven of Nine would say "Disappointment is irrelvant."

OK, so back to your paint. Here's the thing: there are true neutrals--black, white & the absolute grays--and then there are colors, which include everything else: not only reds & blues & greens, but also browns & tans & beiges & taupes & khakis & the rest. In other words, taupe--no matter what they try to tell you at the paint store--is NOT a neutral but a COLOR and if there's any red at all in it (and there is, otherwise it would be some sort of khaki or tan, which derive from yellow) then that red will eventually make itself known as an undertone. That's just how it is. So if you really didn't want any pink or purple undertones, you shouldn't have chosen a taupe--even one that's got the word Tan in the name.

But you did, and now you're stuck with pinkish undertones. Sorry. Stuff happens. But, as was already suggested, getting rid of the yellow-based walls around the new paint will help. A lot. And next time--and for everyone else still in the process of choosing a new color--get yourself a set of kids' poster paints and spent a few hours playing around. Remember, there are only results. Your job is simply to keep track of those results.

If you want what you think is a "Taupe" but you don't want the pink cast that comes with it, find a color you like in a paint swatch, then try to mix it up without using red, or any other color that contains red. If you can do it, then what you wanted wasn't really a taupe in the first place. If you can't--and you've got to add some red to get the color you want--then you'll have to learn to live with the undertones. You can't have it both ways. Mixing up colors from scratch is just about the only way to really learn about how color works. At least, it's the only was that won't cost you hundreds of dollars of pre-mixed samples that turn out to be "wrong". Good luck.

And while you're at it, have fun, too. But keep lots of paper towels handy, just in case. Especially with the egg. Paper towels & Band-Aids.

Regards,
Magnaverde.

I have a taupe color on my wall now that is Benjamin Moore "grant beige".

Sometimes it looks tan and sometimes it looks gray. But there are no purple, pink or yellow undertones in it all.

If it is not looking like you hoped, I'd consider it to be a fresh coat of "primer" and do another color on top. If you are going with a similar color over it, you may not need to do as many coats. Maybe you can doctor up what you have left in the cans to make it work. I have done that myself (added white or black paint) and a friend did that back at the paint store with a helpful employee to guide her. Maybe you can tweak the color enough to have it work for you....

MAGNAVERDE!!!!!

One of my favorite posters! Where on earth have you been?!

Such excellent advice, magnaverde! I, too, want to find a tan/beige/taupe without any red, blue or yellow in it. It sounds like I want a combination of brown and white -- but brown has red and green in it.... ACK!

I'm having a similar problem and I just don't know in which direction to go. I've painted my cabinets Duron 'Rugged Road' which I absolutely, absolutely love. However, in incandescent light it's the lovely gray/green mostly gray color that mesmerizes me. In sunlight, it's teal. Ironically, the base cabinets get the sun looking teal, and at the VERY SAME TIME the uppers not in the sunlight look the color I love.

The accent color, Duron 'Gristmill' looks more avocado than dark gray/green. In the sunlight, it is the right color.

I will repaint, although I have 175 linear feet of cabinetry now. (I'm counting uppers and lowers, if I'm calculating that correctly.)

I just don't know which way to go to get the gray/greens at all times. Is it even possible?

SOrry if I hijacked. Didn't mean to, since I think I have the same problem!

I have Desert Fortress, a Valspar tan, in LR joining a soft yellow dining room and it looks pink at certain times of the day, so I feel your pain. Been dragging my heels for 3 years trying to find just the right color. You say the surrounding walls have a yellow undertone - exactly what color are they? It is difficult to blend two taupes or tans sometimes.

I am currently looking at a tan that takes on green undertones. I don't want to use a green - just want it to look green sometimes if that makes any sense. I am going to try sampling SW Rice Grain. Have found several inspirations where they say it takes on a green undertone. Would that work for you?

I would agree that you should finish painting the room. I recently was trying to select a white paint and tried to use one I'd had success with in another room. As soon as I got it up on one wall, I started panicking thinking it looked beige. Once I finished painting the room I completely changed my mind and now I love the color. The problem was that seeing it against the white primer, I could see some of the warmer undertones in the paint. Now that the primer is covered, it looks like the exact white I wanted. I hope things turn out the same for you and you end up loving your color.

So sorry for your trouble. I'll give you a couple of tan/beiges that worked well next to yellows in my last house - Stone House (looks gray on the chip) and Powell Buff. One of these I had next to Popcorn Kernel (yellow) and the other was in a foyer/hall that adjoined rooms done in Straw and Golden Honey - they never looked purple or pink in my light.

I also had good luck with Hot Spring Stones (also looks gray on a chip) in a house where EVERYTHING looked purple.

Good luck!

Mary

Have you put on two coats? I don't even think about if I like the color until I've got the second coat on. I've not found a paint I think is OK with only one coat. I think it has more to do with sheen than color.

I have had many rooms that didn't look quite right until after I put on the second coat.

I pay a lot of attention to the colors that get mixed into the paint. I really did not want any red or blue undertones and found four swatches that looked almost identical. Then I looked at the forumla and was able to pick the exact one based on that - one had a hint of blue, one had a hint of red, one a hint of green and one a hint of black. I went with the one with black. It's a blond/beige color. Though the chips looked very similar, I expect each one would have a slightly different undertone once on the walls.

I also found looking at the other colors in the "family" helped tell if the color was right - or if the darker colors move to a shade I don't like.

What colors are going to be in the room? Please don't get mad, but maybe, just maybe a purple undertone would work wonderfully with your furniture, flooring, accessories.
Personally, I love purple and greens, yet my new home has none to be found. Purple is still a big decorating color..

Have you looked at SW Kilim Beige? I don't see red or yellow in it personally, but I'm not the decorating guru Magnaverde is. We also could paint our whole house probably with the samples we've paid for. And we've already bought gallons of replacement paint for one of our rooms we painted a year ago (after having 11 samples on the walls) and still don't like).

Good luck, and I hope your story has a happy ending.

Testing paint samples against a wall color will never give you the true color just as comparing colors against each other doesn't. You have to test samples against white. I can understand your pain and frustration - I went crazy with samples and quarts of paint choosing a house color. Yellow next to Ashen Tan isn't helping. Did you use a primer coat? If not then finish painting the 1st coat to completely cover the yellow. Then see how you feel. Here's the matches from Colorcharts.org - I think you can see where the purple undertones are coming from.

Here is a link that might be useful: Colorcharts.org for BM Ashen Tan

Ohhhh misery loves company! I completely empathize with you, as can so many who post on here! I have SO many sample paint cans that I think if I mixed them all together, I could paint a whole street of houses. LOL I know it is so painful to put time and money into a paint color and have that sinking feeling that it is all wrong. But magnaverde is right, that it is all an experiment and trial and error. I can say with total honesty that every single decorating mistake that I have made (and trust me I have made PLENTY), every mistake I have made has led me to eventually to the RIGHT color. You learn from your "mistakes" and the end result will be all the more better for it. If decorating and choosing paint colors were easy, let's face it, everyone's house would be featured on the cover of Better Homes and Gardens magazine. But it isn't easy...it is really challenging and you won't always have the right answer the first try...it might take a few times to "get it right."

Okay so I am not sure if you mentioned this yet or not, but why are you wanting taupe? Is there taupe color elsewhere in your rooms (like in fabrics or furniture)? Maybe it isn't realy taupe that you are after...maybe you want a neutral earthy type color? Or maybe a gray? It might be helpful to do some internet or magazine searches to find pictures of rooms with the color combinations that you like, and then work from there. First things first, determine what you want "the look" to be, and then people here can help you determine what color that truly is.

HUGS!!!

I too feel your pain, except after painting more than a dozen sample jars or quarts, *I* still don't have one where I even like the square foot on the wall! I've been looking off and on for years, but I have to do my renovation NOW.

Realize that any colors near your new color greatly affect how it reads. I painted 3 colors onto 4 quadrants of a sample board, one color getting 2 quadrants. Well, the 2 quadrants of the SAME color look DIFFERENT on the board, which can only be because of the different colors adjacent. And these aren't THAT different -- they are all considered shades of white! (Indian white, Lancaster whitewash, elephant tusk from BM)

I'm sorry your dissapointed. Did you put 2 coats up yet, at least on part of the wall? If not I would try two coats, let it dry, if your still not happy, change it, there is nothing worse than living with a paint color you hate!
ilene

How did it turn out? I'm guessing once you finished the room, the purple tones went away? My sons room was yellow at one time, and I also chose a taupe color. Got one wall done and almost FREAKED out...it looked lavendar!! I finished the room though, and once all the yellow was covered it no longer had the purplish look to it.

Hi Mags - so good to see you here giving your excellent advice!

Hi Aggierose! We are getting ready to paint our house Ashen Tan and I came across this blog. I'd really love to know if you ended up changing the color? If you continued to paint with this color how did it turn out?? I hope to hear from you!! Thank you.

@ Aggierose & Amy: You probably both have completed your painting project and hopefully you were pleased. That said; I feel that Ashen Tan is a wonderful colour but one that is influenced greatly by light and a bit of a Chameleon so to speak. For example, I used it in one of our bathrooms and paired it with a variety of warm whites but depending upon the use of natural (a skylight in my case) or artificial (white frosted bulb) lighting; in said order it sometimes appears beige while other times a beautiful gray.

I ha Ashen Tan at 50% on the walls of my salon and get compliments all the time.