How much time do you spend scrolling the web trying to find a paint colour for your home or a client’s home? Unfortunately, pretty inspiration photos alone will not help you make the easy right choice.
And having more options isn’t always better. Too many choices often leave us stressed and paralyzed.
So when the painter or client is breathing down your neck to choose a paint colour, here’s what I use to make an EASY and CLEAR paint colour choice – and now you can have this magic too!
All neutrals have specific undertones. And you can’t see the nuances until you COMPARE it to other similar neutral colours.
It’s the reason your grey sofa doesn’t match your grey rug. Or why some beiges look TERRIBLE together. Neutrals are anything but… neutral.
The large painted colour boards in neutrals and whites are a necessary companion to the Understanding Undertones neutral colour wheel.
You need large painted samples to provide CLARITY on the EXACT undertone you are comparing the colour wheel to.
That’s why each colour board collection comes with a free colour wheel inside.
Here’s the thing, when using the colour wheel to IDENTIFY and COMPARE neutrals, you need to understand this important distinction:
If you skip this step, you are still making a GUESS. The neutral colour wheel becomes 100x more powerful when it’s paired with either the Benjamin Moore or Sherwin-Williams neutrals and whites collection of large painted colour boards.
My large painted colour boards come in two paint brands: Benjamin Moore and Sherwin-Williams. Choose the brand you use most. None of the collections overlap in paint colours.
If you really want to sharpen your skills at identifying neutral undertones, START with the Benjamin Moore Core and/or Sherwin-Williams Foundation collection. These collections complement the Understanding Undertones neutral colour wheel and help you practice identifying undertones all around you.
All my large painted colour board collections come with a free colour wheel.
*Need another paint brand? When you have a set of colour boards, you can use them to compare to paint colours in ANY brand so you can identify the right neutral undertone or category of colour.
For designer-approved ideas on how to store your large painted colour boards, check out THIS POST.
These carefully edited collections of painted samples immediately SIMPLIFY the the job of choosing the perfect colour. I’ve already curated the MOST USEFUL colours, neutrals and whites.
So instead of sorting through hundreds thousands of paint colours, you can quickly narrow it down and work through a process of elimination to confidently arrive at the right one. Work smarter, not harder.
Painted on 11×14″ 18-pt. cardstock, these boards are reusable and portable so you can move them around the room and easily place them next to your sofa or countertops without the annoying peel and stick application. Each colour board is also categorized and labeled with the correct neutral undertone and paint number.
By the way, do you know why the peel and stick colour samples aren’t ideal? Because when you stick the sample on the wall it is simply floating around with the old wall colour, you STILL won’t be able to tell if it’s the right choice.
You need to be able to move the sample around the room and compare it to EVERYTHING. I promise, you will use my colour boards over and over again to choose colour in any application for years to come.
Let’s say you want to see if the colour you have just chosen for your living room will pull the room together. Simply prop up your sample (or 2 or 3 colours) either on the mantle or behind the sofa and stand back. Easy.
In a bathroom or kitchen (where the undertones of tiles and granite are the most confusing), just go through your large samples until you find the one that works. Simple.
Shopping for finishes or decor to coordinate? Once you know which undertones you are looking for, you can bring your boards to the fabric or tile store to help you find the best options.
For designer-approved ideas on how to store your large painted colour boards, check out THIS POST.
“My husband and I built our dream house and I invested in your Sherwin-Williams Foundation [Collection].
With all the colour decisions we had to make, I used these over and over again. Every time I had to make a decision for my counters or cabinets or tile or really, everything, I whipped out the boards [to check against them]. My husband started telling people they were my colour bible.
Our house would not be as serene and beautiful if I didn’t have your boards. And the cost was so worth investing in ahead of making the many, many decisions we had to make.”
– Laura
** The cost of each sample works out to approximately $9 each. To paint your own would cost around $12.00 each. A paint tester sample costs around $8.99 never mind the time and cost of poster boards, rollers etc. to make up your own. It took me 2 hours to paint 8 samples.
Maria Killam is an acclaimed decorator, stylist, and a leading authority on colour. Known for her revolutionary Killam Colour System™ and her innovative Understanding Undertones® Neutral Colour Wheel, she's also an educator, sharing her expertise and insights on all things colour along with her timeless design aesthetic. Colour Made Easy™
© 2024 Maria Killam | Timeless Colour. | Site Made With ❤️ By Brand Overture
