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So... I was going for a light sage green for the walls, got 3 gallons of paint called "wild asparagus." Now that I am starting to put the paint onto the wall it seems much much too yellow. I have 3 gallons of this paint for my LR, LR ceiling and stairwell - does anyone have any suggestions for a sponge technique or other painting technique for going over top this color? I have only got about 10% of my walls and ceiling done with this paint (the trim and spots too small for a roller) - I really want to cry about it but that won't do any good. Will it perhaps look better when it's all painted? What color would be a good one to use over top of this one in a sponge technique, if any? I sure wouldn't want to completely repaint but am definitely considering putting something over top of it such as sponging etc. I was so excited to do this, spent forever putting 2 layers of KILZ on the entire LR, stairwell & ceiling... now I am having a heart attack. The store didn't have any smaller containers of paint to try a small sample painted on the wall - now I know it's worth it to buy one gallon and try that first before going head first and getting 3 gallons of a color I am realizing that I dont really care for.
I have been lurking in this forum and admiring the great painting techniques and enjoying the expertise here. I hope someone can help - I am about to have a nervous breakdown over this... (how did it get to be so yellow .. when it was on a green paint chip.. UGH!!). Yellow is absolutely my least favorite color. :) Thanks ahead of time for any & all suggestions! :)
Paint chips unfortunately never really translate to the wall, you really need to buy a small container of paint and test it first. Given how much it sounds like you hate the color now, I doubt it's going to become something you love by the time you paint the other 90% of the area. Since you've painted so little of the area, if it were my walls I'd just chalk it up as a learning experience and go find a paint color that I liked, rather than painting all the rest of it and then hoping I could sponge over it and make something I liked (not to mention the huge amount of time/effort to do a sponge treatment on all those walls!) If you do go for sponging, make sure you find a green that's on the blue side rather than the yellow side, that'll tone down the yellow.
Many places even if they don't offer paint samples in the store you can go online and order them--I normally use Behr paint from Home Depot and they don't have samples there, but you can go to Behr's website and order them. Or just buy some quarts of a couple colors you like if you're in a hurry and don't want to wait for them to deliver your samples. I definitely recommend doing that, you are much less likely to choose a color you don't like when you can paint a big square of it on the wall to look at (and make sure you look at it at various times of the day--paint can often look a completely different color in daylight vs in the evening under artificial light.
EC thanks so much for the suggestions. I agree, I should have gotten a smaller amount of paint - even if I had just gotten 1 gallon instead of 3 to start. Chalk it up to a blonde moment - I will live and learn.
You are right about the paint looking different in different lights. Now I am looking at it thinking it isn't so bad in the daytime... (trying to convince myself here). I wonder if I should go ahead and paint the whole thing then try to find a blue-r green for the trim to help balance it out? Guess it depends how expensive replacing the paint would be.. I think it was about $50 for 3 gallons. Hmmm...
Personally I don't think that bluish-green trim is going to solve the problem, although to be honest I'm one of those people who likes white/off-white trim not colored so the thought of bluish green trim just isn't at all appealing to me in the first place so maybe I'm not giving it a chance.
If the paint had cost thousands of dollars, or even if you had already finished the entire paint job then I could see going to extra lengths to try and salvage it rather than just starting over, but since you're not very far into the project personally I'd just go spend another $50 and get a color I really liked. Remember that you're going to have to live with this paint job for a number of years so you really want to make sure it's something you like, not just something that you managed to salvage to the point where you can tolerate it.
Yes EC - I have been kicking your suggestion around, - go get a new paint color or suck it up. I just can't decide.
My darlin Darren says he can't see the yellow that i am seeing - it looks green to him. I painted a whole wall and it does look better.. but if I am not happy with it, like you said - why continue painting, hoping it will grow on me? Right now I just can't decide. They are coming to rip out my kitchen tomorrow so perhaps I will put this project on hold til we get the new kitchen completed. New cabinets, new floor, new stove & dishwasher - I wont know what to do with myself!! :)
paint one wall. Colors are always seen "in context" - they are affected tremendously by the light at different times of day, and by the colors light bounces off objects nearby. For example, in the fall look at the wall of a house near a tree that has red fall foliage. The wall will look orange! If you have only a stripe of color around edges of the room, trim you can't tell how it will look when other colors in the room affect it. A dark wood floor will neutralize the yellow by throwing reddish browns onto the wall, whereas a white rug would enhance it by not changing it at all.
If you still find it too "yellow", add a touch of reddish purple (the opposite on the color wheel to greenish yellow) and that will keep the hue the same, but will make it less strident. Buy a small 2 oz tester of an intense red and one of an intense purple, and mix a drop of each into a half cup of your paint (use an old cottage cheese container). You should see the color change so it is less bright. Add more purple, and you'll see less green. Paint it on the wall. A half cup should cover a 5x5 area. Experiment till you get what you can live with. Write down what you added to each half cup experiment or you'll want to shoot yourself when you cannot match the color later - did you add more blue or red? what percentage of each? 10 drops blue to 2 drops red?
When you get a color you like, modify a gallon, then the next, then the next. Then pour all e into a bucket, mix together, (this is called "boxing") and return to the individual cans for storage. Remember to never paint directly from the can.
PS, I am an artist and art teacher, so know something about color. I've corrected lots of color errors for people. In the future, always buy a quart, paint it on a wall opposite a window, and live with it for a week before proceeding
Good luck - oh, and your husband MAY be colorblind - many men are to at least a small degree and can't make FINE color discriminations.
NO amount of blue trim around it will help - do NOT do that. Two wrongs don't make a right, they make an ugly!
