Tester Paint Pots

They look so different when you paint them onto the wall, don't they [and Dulux no longer seem to do the online room thingys that they used to do; that was a good way to see the overall colour]. Mind you, if you google Dulux and the colour you can quite often see lots of rooms painted in that colour with recommendations from people [I tried that when I painted my bedroom, realising that the colour I'd chosen was a much darker grey than it looked on the chart]. Also, when you've chosen the colour google again and you can find the best deal; Wilco's were doing Dulux two for one at that time.

We once tried 14 pots before we chose one! Luckily DD1 uses them in her school or to paint murals.

anneey...do bear in mind that lighting can make a huge difference. I'd always go paler than you think.
In B&Q they do a mix it yourself range with a clever gizmo that lets you see the sample in three different lights.

I agree Hilda at one point I wanted to paint our south facing sitting room in a pale greeny grey. We were staying with friends and much admired the colour of the bedroom we were given. Asked the name etc, (Swansdown, Dulux I think) bought a matchpot and were amazed when it came out a bright icy blue!

If you can get hold of a proper trade colour chart, the ones with the numbers as well as the sometimes daft names, one of the numbers used gives you an indication of how much grey there is in the base colour. It is sometimes quite surprising how much grey there is in a pink shade, for example.

How big is the room anneey and what is in there that will have to stay, furniture, carpets etc?

anneey we wanted the same effect and used Dulux Apricot Crush, it's lovely!

I like these tester pots - I use them to shabby chic mirror/picture frames.

If you have half a dozen match pots why not tip them.all into a bucket, stir well and use the resulting mix? #helpfulhintsnumber1

methinks that would make [err] brown....everything when mixed together makes brown and brown isn't the new black this year. Of course, if it made grey it would be ok .

We mixed a couple of earthy colour tester pots into one of the Dulux whites (barley?) and got a nice cream with a terracotta tinge for the kitchen.

Thank you all for your tips, and some made me chuckle.
Yes Tegan I will Google into Dulux, to see what info I can glean from them.
Rosequartz ...........sounds similar to what I am after, but haven't the confidence to mix paint myself, will end up wasting the lot.
The last tester I tried was too, Terracotta so I will try a paler version of same. Yet another tester pot. £3.29 each.
Rosesarered The last time I decorated I used Dulux Dusky Apricot, possibly the same as yours, but they changed the name. I just want a slight change this time.

The actual Dulux site isn't as good as it was [unless you pay them] but the colours are quite often shown on sites sich as Pininterest. After struggling with painting my bedrom when it was incredibly hot I read the instructions [didn't think to do that with emulsion paint that I'd used for years] and it said to water it down. I also used old rollers; a false economy..should have gone out and bought some new ones. Having said I never wanted to see a paintbrush ever again you've got me itching to decorate something else, anneey . Have you used Annie Sloan chalk paint on furniture? I must warn you, it's highly addictive! Which reminds me that Farmer and Ball [sp], albeit being a bit expensive, has loads and loads of colours for just about everything.

Tegan tell us a bit about using this paint on furniture?[Annie Sloan.]

Decorators always water down emulsion a bit, it goes on much smoother they say.

There's a thread lurking somewhere about it roses [I'll try and dig it out]. I am doing cold turkey at the moment, having been away for a few days!

Thanks!

I just have to tell you how frustrated I am. After trying half a dozen paint tester pots.... I decided to go for a different colour....Perfectly Taupe.
Tried a patch on my wall, the result is a Steel Grey.
I then tried it on the back of an envelope and on the back of a tester card, and the result was perfect.
Flabbergasted I phoned Dulux for advice. They say there is some chemical reaction on my wall, advised I paint first with Polycell Basecoat.
I rang my Decorator for his opinion. He told me that he has had that problem before, and painted first with white emulsion. Well that didn't work, I ended up with 'Muddy Grey'.
Maybe I will try Farrow & Ball Paint.
Trouble is Dulux have a 2 for the price of ! at the mo.
Will make a big difference to the cost, but I can't think of another option.
I could waste even more money trying Polycell (Dulux told me they could not guarantee it would work)

Try to look on the bright side in that you didn't buy a large tin of the stuff! The paint I was going to use turned out to be dark grey on the wall. I ended up using Egyptian Cotton which goes really well with duck egg [my favourite colour at the moment] and seems to adapt itself to several colour schemes. Laura Ashley seem to do nice paint as well.

Yes Tegan, A friend has Egyptian Cotton, I was impressed, and surprised how the shade changed on every wall, as the light caught it.
I will try a laura Ashley colour chart I have got to that stage when I feel that blow the expense.

I've Egyptian cotton in my kitchen. Looks lovely with my granite work tops and Carrara marble splash backs

Message deleted by Gransnet for breaking our forum guidelines. Replies may also be deleted.

This is a perfectly legitimate comment, but in the light of redwest's other (5?) posts "recommending" this product, I am wondering.
So, reported I am afraid, along with the others.
There is a whole thread on Annie Sloan paints, why not stick with that redwest?

I was just noticing that redwest appeared to be commenting on a lot of dormant threads !!

I reported them too, mainly because I don't like her name.

And she has got a very odd profile.