Paint Colors: In Photos vs ‘Real Life’

The paint swatches look very different when compared next to one another in person, but the wall colors in the photos of the rooms look really similar.  Photography, lighting, time of day, etc. all come into play when selecting a paint color and that’s one of the reasons exact paint colors aren’t very important to me when trying to duplicate the look of a room.  Knowing paint colors is useful for points of reference, but in the end, the color chosen on a wall needs to be specifically chosen for that room.    (I.e., knowing a paint color will get you close/ in the ballpark, but in the end go with what works best in your space.)  I can take a photo in a room of my house- morning, noon and night – and the color will look different in each photo.

I never mind getting questions about colors so of course keep them coming but if I don’t answer you, please know that I’ve put it on my list of colors to check!!  Hope you had a great weekend & yay for summer!!!

Update-  Just to clarify:  I should mention that I don’t do “trial & error” painting & you can train yourself to properly visualize the colors before they go up on the walls.  (Clearly trial and error would not work for clients, and it’s years of experience and knowing how colors will look once they are actually painted on a wall as opposed to how they look on a sample that will get you the right color choices…  Because I knew how the Blue Seafoam sample would look if actually painted on my wall, I knew right away it wasn’t the color for me.  What was shocking to me was how it translated in the photo…  As a much lighter color. 🙂  Hope that makes sense!     Check out Colour Me Happy for expert color advice & prefessional training!