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[ close box ] [ print version ]"WET PAINT" COLOR TEST SAMPLES
Having trouble selecting the RIGHT paint color?
Most people are unable to successfully select the RIGHT paint color, merely by examining the small paper swatches provided by the paint manufacturers.
- The paper swatches are usually made using ink. The paper swatches are too small.
- The paper swatches may change color with time, contamination and exposure to light.
Now, if you are interested in purchasing:
you may test a small quantity of any of these manufacturer’s current, residential, ready mixed or custom colors, available for application inside or outside the house.We call these samples or testers "Wet Paint" Color Swatches. They are 1-1/2 ounce fluid ounce bottles of actual paint and provide you with enough paint to help you quickly and economically determine if the tested color is really the color you want. Click on any of these subjects of interest:
- What CUSTOMERS HAVE SAID about our "Wet Paint" Color Swatches
- Belcaro Paint's AWARDS AND ACCOLADES due to the tester bottles program
[ close box ] [ print version ]STEP BY STEP TO QUICKLY SELECT THE "RIGHT" COLOR
If you will follow these simple steps you have a much greater chance of quickly and economically arriving at the paint color you want:
1. Go to your local Benjamin Moore or Pratt & Lambert paint store and look through all of the color swatches available from these manufacturers. Select a group of those colors you think may be good options, including some swatches a little lighter and some a little darker than you think will be perfect.
2. At your home, at the time of day when you will be most critical of the final coat of paint, examine the color swatches, narrowing down your selection to fewer colors swatches.
3. Call us to order "Wet Paint" Color Swatches of those colors you want to test in actual paint, 303-757-5435. We will mail them to you the next working day.
4. Apply the "Wet Paint" Color Swatches with an inexpensive 1" foam brush:
Inside testing: Apply the sample to a well lighted wall, preferably with the window to your back for good illumination. If applied in a corner you can see how the tester looks on two walls. Applied next to trim helps show how two colors look together. Another option is to apply the paint from the testers to a piece of poster board so you may move the dried sample to various parts of the room or house.
Outside testing: Try to physically group the various test colors you are evaluating with any other colors planned in the final color scheme, including roof, brick, down spout, trim and body of house.
5. When you are 90% sure of the color you want, go back to your favorite paint store and buy a quart of paint of that color in the final product you plan to use. Applying this quart to a larger area will help confirm you have made the proper color choice. If the color of the quart still looks good, you should be safe buying the quantity of paint necessary to complete your job.
6. If your favorite paint store is good at matching colors, and you want to use a different brand of paint than the sample represents, save some of the paint in the bottle for the paint store to match.
Click here to view NICE COMMENTS our customers have made to us about "Wet Paint" Color Swatches (paint color tester bottles)
[ close box ] [ print version ]SO WHAT'S THE COLOR SOLUTION?
Our solution to the paint color selection problem is the development of testers, smaller than and much less costly than quart samples. We call these testers or samplers "Wet Paint" Color Swatches. They are 1-1/2 fluid ounce bottles of actual paint (usually interior latex eggshell paint), cost $2.89 per sample for the Benjamin Moore and Pratt & Lambert colors and $3.49 for the C2 colors
Benjamin Moore (old & new systems)----Pratt & Lambert--C2 Premium Paints
With over 6,000 different colors available for testing, our customer’s color selection process becomes quicker and more economical with less frustration and without generating additional waste for our environment to absorb from unwanted quarts.The paint contained in the bottles is the highest quality made by each of the paint manufacturers and are as accurate to the paper color swatches as a quart would be. Although the product is mostly interior latex paint, the samples will serve, from a color point of view, for evaluating the acceptability of a color when used either inside our outside. The 1-1/2 fluid ounce quantity is enough paint to apply to approximately four square feet, however, since it is frequently necessary to apply more than one coat to completely cover a different color, we recommend you apply the samples to a smaller area so you have enough paint for more coats.
The "Wet Paint" Color Swatches will also give you some idea of how many coats of paint will be required for your project. Some colors, such as deep reds, yellows, and oranges may require as many as five coats of paint, depending on the color you are covering. With this knowledge you will probably want to purchase a tinted primer to use first. Click here for a Step by Step method of rapidly and economically selecting the "right color"
[ close box ] [ print version ]SO WHAT'S THE COLOR PROBLEM?
In our paint store we find that our customer’s first few paint color choices for a given project, turn out to be mistakes. The reasons for this are:
1. The lighting conditions in a paint store are very different from the "right" light, which is the light in the place where the paint is to be applied. The perceived color of a surface will vary with the light source which is illuminating that surface.2. Surrounding objects with color, such as carpet, fabric, furniture upholstery, effect how another color appears. Until all the color elements are placed together the true impression of the paint color is impossible to observe.3. It is impossible to accurately anticipate how the color of a small paper swatch will look on a much larger area where your entire field of vision is flooded with that color.
4. The little paper color chips, provided by the paint manufacturers, do not always accurately represent the color of paint they are supposed to represent.
Since you should anticipate a few color selection mistakes in the beginning, it makes sense to start out slowly and buy the smallest amount of paint possible for testing. Your stack of unusable paint in the basement or garage AND our country’s hazardous waste landfills do not need to grow at your unfortunate expense.In the past, in our store, and at the present in almost every other paint store, a customer’s only option for testing a color was/is to purchase and apply a quart of paint, tinted to the color under consideration. We found that our customers would frequently return to the store, frustrated that they had used no more than an ounce of paint before they realized the color was wrong.
The constant disappointment of our customer’s wasted dollars and time inspired us to come up with a better idea; a SOLUTION to the color selection problem (See: What's the Color Solution?)
