May 17, 2025 • 39 mins
In this episode of the RepcoLite Home Improvement Show, sponsored by Benjamin Moore, Dan explores the common dilemma of choosing the wrong paint color for a room. Key tips include sampling paint, trusting your gut feeling, and understanding the impact of lighting and surroundings on color perception. If you do end up with a color you dislike, he provides six essential questions to consider before making any hasty decisions. The episode concludes with advice on potentially tweaking the current color and repurposing the paint for other areas, emphasizing patience and a positive mindset through the repainting process.00:00 Introduction and Morning Greetings00:23 Bathroom Books: A Library Story04:35 The Dilemma of Choosing the Right Paint Color06:08 Tips for Avoiding the Wrong Paint Color10:34 Trusting Your Gut on Paint Colors12:07 Dealing with the Wrong Paint Color14:36 Questions to Ask Before Repainting17:37 The Impact of Lighting on Paint Colors19:17 Adjusting to Change in Paint Colors20:35 Understanding the Fear of Change21:53 Overcoming the Fear of Change23:22 Is It the Wrong Color or the Wrong Room?27:23 Reevaluating Your Vision33:27 What to Do When You've Chosen the Wrong Color37:12 Final Thoughts and Encouragement
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
Well, the morning, everybody, Happy Saturday. You're listening to the
repcal Light Home improvement Show sponsored by Benjamin Moore the
shoe sponsored by Benjamin Moore. I don't know why I
said it that way. I was trying to be sophisticated.
I guess maybe using sophisticated accents. It's just the same
old repcal Light Home improvement show, So don't get all
(00:23):
excited anyway, before I get into the real meat of
the show, the really, really good stuff, I do have
a quick thought to share. It's just something rattling around
in my head this week. You know how they say
that there are no dumb questions, right, We've all heard that,
and we know that's not entirely true, right. You know,
(00:44):
I encourage everybody out there. I encourage my kids myself
ask questions. You know. It's how we grow, it's how
we learn. But let's be honest, some of those questions
they're pretty bone headed, they're pretty dumb, and maybe part
of the process, the learning process, is just asking a
question and then learning how to be laughed at when
the question is dumb. You know, that's still good. It's
(01:05):
good to learn anyway. Case in point, this is what
I want to get to. I was at the library
the other day, minding my own business, you know, just
perusing the area and looking at all the books on
the shelves, And as I happened to pass the main desk,
I overheard a young guy walk up and in a
very clear and very loud and public voice, he asked
(01:28):
this question. He said, excuse me, but do you have
a policy about people taking books, you know, into the bathroom?
Because I'd really like to read this one, but I
don't want to break any rules. Well, I froze mid
stride because I thought this was comedy gold waiting to happen,
waiting to happen right in front of me. I half
(01:50):
expected some sort of library police force to repel down
from the ceiling, tackle the guy on the ground, and
then pry the book from his hands. But no, that
didn't happen. The librarians. They just sat there, smiled politely
and said, we prefer that the books don't go into
the bathroom with you, as if this is just a
routine interaction, right like this question comes up a lot.
(02:14):
The guy blinked and nodded, you know, made sense to him,
and he said, yeah, that is a little gross, I guess,
to which the librarians responded, you know, calmly, politely, with
no judgment. Yes, quite well. The whole thing was really
funny to me until I started looking at the shelves
and shelves of books all around me, and suddenly I
(02:36):
had one single thought going through my head. What if
other people don't ask? I mean, really, any of these
books could have spent time in a public restroom stall,
or maybe plopped down on the floor at some point
in the exchange or the interaction or whatever's going on
in there. I could be handling a bathroom floor book
(02:57):
at this very moment. But I swept those thoughts from
my mind. You know, one look at the librarians. That
told me it's very unlikely that anybody's going to sneak
a book into the bathroom past those guys, those ladies,
they were vigilant, they were egoied. They were the guardians
of these tomes of knowledge and entertainment. But they don't
(03:17):
go home with us. That was the next thought that
went through my mind. The librarians, they stay here. Heaven
only knows what these library books have seen in the
homes of John and Jane Public right. I'm not a
germaphoe by any measure, but man, just thinking about what
some of these library books may have experienced really made
me shiver. You know, I wonder when they come back,
(03:39):
if they're all deposited in some kind of decontamination chamber,
you know, are they all bathed in UV light when
they come back? Is there some sort of scanner maybe
that will alert the staff that this book won't won't
won't won't won't this book has spent time in a
bathroom in somebody's house. And if that's the case, is
the book, you know, immediately decommissioned at the point is
(04:00):
the person who brought it, you know, home? Is that
person deprived of library privileges for life? My goodness, what
a can of worms that one simple question opened in
my mind. Was it a dumb question? Was it a
good question? I don't know. I don't even care anymore.
It was a scary question. Anyway. That's neither here nor there.
(04:21):
It's just my random thought for the week, and I
wanted to share it with somebody, And since I work
in a building all entirely by myself, there's nobody to
share that with. So it gets to be you all,
all right, let's get to the show this week. What
I want to talk about is something that hits a
little too close to home for a lot of us.
(04:42):
I want to talk about what happens when you pick
the wrong paint color. Now. I just went through a
painting project myself, and this question was front and center
in my mind the entire time that I was working,
you know, did I get the color right? And as
I work through the project, I was second guessing, questioning, analyzing,
and doing all of those things. And as I did that,
(05:02):
I came across a few really helpful insights that I
do want to pass along. These things kept me saying
in the process, and I'm certain they're going to help you,
because really, there is nothing that I'm aware of that's
more frustrating in a paint project then pouring all of
your time and effort into painting that room. You know,
you move all the furniture out, you tape off the trim,
(05:24):
you cut in around everything, you roll the paint on.
Then you put the room, you put it back together,
you know, get all the furniture back in place, and
then you take that step back. Right, we all do that,
and we soak it all in and we're hoping to
have this wow moment. But sometimes we do that and
this horror starts to set in. You know, we hate it,
(05:45):
or we think we hate it. You know, we got
all that time lost, all that money gone, all that
energy wasted. It's frustrating, it's expensive, and maybe most importantly,
it happens. You know, it happens way too much. So
let's talk about what to do if you find yourself
in situation. But before we deal with fixing it, let's
talk about avoiding the problem in the first place. That's
(06:06):
the best way to go anyway, right, So let's avoid
the problem. And I've got just a few ideas to
think about or things that will help you. For starters,
don't assume that a color that you loved in somebody
else's home, or even in a different room in your
own home, don't assume that that color's going to work
in the room that you're getting ready to paint. All right,
our homes are all different, and even room to room
(06:28):
in your own home, the lighting isn't the same. On
top of that, the woodwork is sometimes different, furniture is
usually different, the art in the walls is different, and
all of those differences can have a dramatic effect on
your perception of a color. For example, my daughter's room
is a wonderful pale yellow. It's a soft color that
looks absolutely great in her west facing room. I really
(06:49):
really like it in there, and as we were painting
it in there, I realized, or I thought I realized
that I found the perfect color for my formal living room.
When it was time to paint that living room, I
grabbed some of the leftover paint and tried it on
one single wall, and I was stunned to see the difference.
My east facing living room made that soft, buttery warm
(07:11):
yellow look almost like a highlighter, you know. It hit
a neon greenish kind of an undertone that I couldn't unsee.
Even though I work with color on a daily basis,
I was still surprised to find out how different that
color looked between the two different rooms. So my first
tip again, don't assume that since the color worked in
another room or somebody else's home, that it's going to
(07:32):
be perfect and wonderful in your space. That's the first tip.
Second tip is related, and I'm sure you've already clued
into it because your smart audience. Sample the color every
single time. You know, if you have paint that you
believe is going to be the perfect color, like I did,
roll some on before you order boatloads, you know, boku buko, boku,
(07:57):
large amounts of it. Don't order large amount of it
until you've sampled a little bit. You know. If you're
working with color chips or computer renditions of a color,
make sure you actually get your hands on some of
the paint. So narrow down your choices until you've got
one or two front runners. And then once you've got
it to that point, by one or two Benjamin More
color samples. They're right around six bucks something like that,
(08:18):
and they'll give you enough actual paint to roll the
color onto a foam board or even onto your wall.
Do that, and then check that color out in different
lighting situations. Check the color out for a while in
natural light versus artificial light, in the morning time versus evening,
and so on. Check it out near your furniture, your flooring,
your trim, all of that. And when you do this sampling,
(08:40):
make sure you're using at least two coats, especially over
another color, you know, just to make sure that what
you're seeing and what you're sampling and what you're assessing,
make sure that that's actually the true color. And finally,
remember that color is contextual. Now, what I mean by
that is that the other colors that surround your color
can influence its appearance. When you roll a new color
(09:01):
onto a wall that's already painted with a different color.
For example, we had that lighter yellow, that yellow from
my daughter's room rolled onto one wall in the home.
You know, it's the yellow that I didn't like, the
neon green yellow. So I chose a new color, a
darker yellow, and then I painted like a two by two,
you know, a two foot by two foot section on
my wall right over that first yellow. I looked at
(09:22):
it and I thought it was too dark. It was
just too much. It was crazy. But then I wondered
if that lighter yellow that it was painted on was
throwing off my perception. So visually I blocked out the
lighter yellow and then found a way, you know, to
view just the new color against the woodwork, and all
of a sudden, that too dark, too bold feeling went away,
you know, right away went away. The other color, that
(09:44):
lighter yellow, was changing my perception of that new color.
So all that to say, before you decide that the
new color that you sampled is wrong, try to view
it apart from any other color that's surrounding it. And similarly,
you know, right along these lines, which is exactly what
similarly means. I didn't need to say both of those things. Similarly,
don't sample multiple colors next to each other. Not only
(10:06):
do other colors influence how color appears, but our eyes
also do some interesting things with color. We tend to
think that when we see a color, we're measuring that color,
but actually it's less about measuring and more about averaging.
So when we see two or more colors that are
very close to each other, we're not seeing color accurately
on either one of those. We're seeing an average of
(10:27):
the colors. So keep your color samples far enough apart
that that doesn't happen. Okay, so sample your colors. That's
my main point there. Next tip I've got is this,
trust your gut. When I painted that first yellow onto
the wall, the neon green, you know, highlight or yellow,
just to sample it. My first thought when I did
that was that it was too greenish, you know, something
(10:47):
was off. I was bummed about it because I thought
it was going to be the right color, and I
wasn't big on starting the searchover, and so I sat
with it for about a week or two, you know,
hoping that it would get better, and in some lights
at some times day I kind of liked it. And
I found myself really really trying to convince myself that
it was good. This is the one Dan, go for it,
(11:07):
jump in. You're gonna like it, right, I really tried
to make myself like it. I asked the kids what
they thought, and they liked it, And so I started
to tell myself that I was just being too fussy,
too finicky, that I was overthinking it. But there was
this nagging idea that it was just the wrong color.
You know, that feeling when you're in it, When you're
having that feeling, you know what I'm talking about. Do
(11:29):
not disregard that feeling and plow ahead with a full
paint job, no matter how frustrating it is to go
back to the drawing board, you know, and start over
trying to find a new color. That's frustrating, but it's
way better than going through the work of painting a
room and then hating the results and then still having
to go back to the drawing board, find a new color,
and all of that. So if you have misgivings about
(11:51):
a color, you know, a sample that you put on
the wall, make a switch, or at least take a
little longer to debate whether this is the right color.
Your gut isn't you wrong on these things? So listen
to it? All right, those are some things that you
can do to help you avoid picking the wrong color
in the first place. But what if you do that,
or maybe you skip those things, and who knows. But
(12:11):
let's say you painted a room and now you're standing
there looking at it and you're thinking, oh, no, I
don't think this is very good. If that's your situation,
what do you do? Or we're going to get to
that next Stay tuned and we're back. You're listening to
the Repcolite Home improvement show sponsored by Benjamin Moore, and
(12:32):
we're working our way through an episode all about the
wrong color. You know, we've either been there, or we've
known somebody who has, or we can easily imagine, you know,
the scenario. In fact, I'm just emerging from that exact
scenario right now. It's all going down in that room
that I was just talking about that living room with
the yellows. In this instance, I sampled the color. I
(12:56):
found what I thought was the right yellow, and then
I painted the entire room with two coats of that color.
And when I stepped back, you know, when it was
all done, surveyed my handiwork. I looked at it and
I thought, what chaos have I wrought? What have I done? Now?
To be fair, I didn't hate the color, but I
sure wasn't like, boy, I love this. I was all
(13:17):
over the place. I was nervous, I was concerned. I
was frustrated. Let me tell you, if you haven't been there,
it's a punch in the gut. I've got two gallons
of paint that I spent money on, and I don't
like to spend money on anything. I've got tools that
I've used up more than all of that. I've got
time that my kid and I spent doing this. Rolling
(13:38):
the walls that was nothing but cutting in, you know,
doing all of that, you know, cutting in around the
baseboard and along the ceiling, around the windows. That took
a lot of time and a lot of care. And
to think about doing all of that again with another
color was disheartening to say the least. Now, last segment
we talked about some practical things that you can do
to give yourself the best chance possible to stay out
(13:59):
of the scenario. But as I'm living proof, there are
still no guarantees you can do everything right and still
find that that new color that you chose makes you
scratch your head in wonder. Now, in this segment and
the next one, we're going to focus on how you
can navigate this exact scenario that I just described. I've
got six questions that you can ask yourself before you
jump ship and run to the paint store to repcollite
(14:22):
to buy new paint. You know, before you do that,
ask yourself these six questions. And of course you've got
to answer the questions too just asking them. These are
not rhetorical. This is not something for you to just ask,
and it's something that you've got to answer, all right.
So the first question is this is this the wrong color?
Or am I seeing the previous color through the new color? Now,
(14:43):
this can be really misleading. Some colors hide better than
other colors, that is, they cover the existing color better.
The yellow that I was working with, for example, it
did not hide very well. It definitely needed two coats
for full coverage. When I got my first coat applied
over the original beige on the walls, that yellow looked really,
really funky. A second coat completely hid the beige, and
(15:08):
I was finally able to see the true color, you know,
for what it was. I know that applying a second
coat seems kind of nuts if you're thinking that you
hated that first color, But really you've got to look
at that closely, because you probably are not seeing, you know,
your new color yet. You're seeing just some kind of amalgamation.
It's a blending of the old color and the new color,
(15:28):
and it can be really funky. You've got to get
that second coat on there so that you're assessing the
true color that you chose. If you switch right now
and go get new paint, it could take you off
in the wrong direction. So make sure you're seeing a
good sample of the new color. That's the first question.
Second question is this is it the wrong color or
is the chaos of the room making it look that way?
(15:51):
And what I'm getting at here is this, there's no
way to truly see how a color looks in a
space if the space is completely torn up and filled
with all the trappings of the paint job. You know,
when I finished my second coat, I was looking at
the walls and taking it all in, But there was
no way to judge that color accurately until the drop
claws were picked up, the window treatments put back in place,
the furniture brought back in, and the art hung back up.
(16:13):
I had to make it a room again, really, before
I could see what that color was going to look like.
And the same is true for you, and I get it.
It's really tempting in certain instances to want to strike
while the iron's hot, so to speak. You know, the
room's torn apart, I'm in my painting clothes, i don't
like the color, and I'm in a panic. You guys
have to do you, But really, when you think about it,
(16:34):
jumping into panic induced action and rushing out and getting
new paint at that point, or adjusting your color or
whatever you end up doing just so you can keep
painting is not the best step. I'd encourage you to
put the room back together, give it some time, and
just let it cook now for one thing. Once it's
back together, you may find that you like the color
for another thing. And this is really important, so don't
(16:55):
miss this. Successful painting is just as much about mindset
as it is about skill and technique. If you're frustrated,
if you're stressed, if you're tired of it, sick of it,
all of those things, whatever, that is not the time
to start applying another code of paint. It's not the
time to rush out to the paint storm pick a
new color. You know, when you're in that mindset, you're
(17:16):
gonna cut corners, you're gonna make bad decisions, you're gonna
do slop your work. You just want to be finished,
and that's not the path to a great paint finish.
So my general advice would be this, get that second
code of paint on, and even if you're unsure, put
that room back together. Deal with that next code of
paint on another weekend, another evening, sometime when you're fresh
(17:36):
and ready to tackle it. All right. The third question
that I've got is this one. Is my color wrong?
Or is it maybe the lighting that's the problem. Now
we talk about it on the show all the time,
but lighting can dramatically change the way a paint color looks.
Cool led bulbs, for example, those with a bluish, you know,
kind of a bluish tint to them. They can make
warm beige colors look drab, a little bit gray, a
(17:58):
little bit dreary. On the flips side, warm incandescent style bulbs,
they can make cool blues look muddy or greens look
a little bit funky. So before you run out to
repaint and get new color and all of that, take
a moment to consider your lighting. What kind of bulbs
do you have in the room, Are the led CFL halogen, incandescent?
And what's the temperature rating of them? You know, check
(18:19):
that Calvin rating on the box. If you've got the box,
Try swapping out a few bulbs and just see how
that impacts the space and the color. The bottom line
is this, paint and light are kind of like partners
in all of this. Don't judge one without at least
considering the other. Sometimes, I mean, this is wonderful when
it happens. Sometimes a ten dollars change in light bulbs
(18:40):
is all it takes to turn a bad color into
something that you really do love. So keep that in mind.
Ask that question and of course answer it. Okay, that's
three of my six questions. We're going to take a
break and we're gonna get to the other three questions
on the other side. Stick around and we're back. You're
(19:02):
listening to the Repco Light Home improvement shows sponsored by
Benjamin Moore, and we're working our way through six questions.
You should ask yourself if you finished painting a room
and you're standing there wondering if you picked the wrong color.
We made it through the first three questions. Let's keep going.
Question four is this is it the wrong color? Or
am I just struggling with change? This one's big and
(19:24):
it gets overlooked all the time. You know, if you've
made a big shift in color, or if you're replacing
a color that's been on the walls for years and
years and years, your brain, your poor little brain is
going to need time to adjust, right, And the older
you are, the longer your brain is going to need
to adjust. Don't underestimate the reality of the psychology of change. Here,
(19:49):
just briefly, is why we struggle, you know, pop psych
Saturday morning stuff. Here's why we struggle with change. We're wired,
first off, to find comfort in familiarly. I would sure
love to be able to just say the word the
way I see it, or the way I see it
in my mind. Familiarity, familiarity. We find comfort in things
(20:12):
that are familiar to us. I'm so sorry. I so
hoped to make that intelligent and smooth, and I completely
flubbed it up. We're wired to find comfort in things
that are familiar to us. Change, especially sudden or you know,
uncertain things, they can feel like a threat to that stability.
So that's one thing that's playing out, even with a
(20:34):
color change. Another thing, and I think this one is
really interesting, we feel loss more deeply than we feel gain. Right,
we feel loss more deeply than we feel gain. So
changing something like the color of the room, let's just
stick with that, that can feel like the loss of
the atmosphere that the room previously had more than it
feels like the gaining of a new atmosphere. Also, the color,
(20:57):
if it's not exactly producing the effect that we inticiy pated,
we can feel the loss of our expectations or of
our vision more than we feel the opportunity to find
a new vision. More on that in a minute. We're
going to get to that in its own question down
the road, and it's a good one. So don't bail
on me early. All right. Another reason we really struggle
with change is that we fear regret. Right. You know,
(21:18):
we're asking ourselves constantly, what if I made the wrong decision,
What if I hate this in a month? What if
this color drives me crazy down the road. Well, that
fear can make us doubt even a great color choice.
You know, it's playing in our mind. It's part of
being human. Last thing, even small changes can shake our
sense of identity or control. You know, the way a
room looks and feels is kind of a big part
(21:40):
of how we experience our home, probably one of the
biggest parts of how we experience our home, and if
that changes too quickly or too drastically, it can feel
or lead us to feel, you know, a little bit unsettled.
All right, So, as we mentioned earlier, put the room
back together. That's your way to work through this whole
fear of change thing. Put the room back together, other
(22:00):
and just let it cook. I've already said that phrase
that the kids say it all the time to me,
let it cook, Dad. I never let things cook. You
gotta let things cook. And I think that just means
let it sit for a while, let it do its
thing right, let the room sit, get it back together,
and let it sit. It normally takes us a little
bit of time to overcome all these natural human reactions
(22:21):
to change. If you're really hoping, you know, to step
outside your comfort zone and push the boundaries with color,
and a lot of us want to do that. We
want to break out of the molds that we've been in.
We want to stretch a little bit. If that's you.
If you're really wanting to do that, you're gonna need
to be prepared for how your brain wants to handle change.
So give that new color some time, give yourself some time.
(22:42):
Take yourself off of this self imposed you know, timetable.
We always create these timetables that this room has to
be done, you know, by this day, or it's going
to be done by that day, and that stresses us out. Now,
sometimes we really do have timetables people are coming to
visit or whatever, but a lot of the times they're
kind of just things we've put on ourselves for no
(23:03):
real reason other than I think we like to have
deadlines and timetables. So take yourself off of that timetable.
If you can ease up, take your foot off the
gas and just relax a little bit. You might find
that you love this change after you've given your brain
a little bit of time to adjust. All right, that's
question number four. Question number five is this one? Is
it the wrong coat? Is it the wrong color? Or
(23:28):
is the rest of the room wrong? Is it the
wrong color or is the rest of the room wrong?
Is how the adults in the room would say it.
The prepubescent teens would have said it the first way
that I tried to say it. Is it the wrong color?
Or is the rest of the room wrong. This doesn't
apply in every case, and it's a little bit weird,
but here's what I'm getting at. If you've got a
beautiful space with furniture and art that you love, things
(23:50):
that you're keeping, and the wall color isn't working, then yeah,
you probably have the wrong color. You're going to need
to change that color. That's obvious. But often we paint
a room knowing full well that we're not fans of
the furniture or the decor in that room. That's where
I'm at right now. I've got that living room that
I've been talking about, that yellow living room, and when
I put the room back together, you know, it looked better,
(24:12):
but my gut reaction was, you know, I'm still not
sure that this color is working, you know, so I'm
letting it sit, I'm letting it cook and all of
those things. But as I sit with it, the more
I'm realizing that I don't think it's the color that's
the problem. It's the couch, it's the chair. You know,
these things were good ish in their day, but their
(24:32):
day is long past. I mean, long long past the chair.
Let's talk about my chair. My word. I've talked about
this chair before, for the true believers who listen every
week to every word that drips from my mouth. I've
talked about this chair before, and I'm kind of a
little bit embarrassed to bring it up, but not really,
because these things crack me up. My cheapness, cracks me up.
(24:55):
My decisions crack me up. My chair, my favorite chair
in the whole wide world is plether. Right. Plether It
sounds fancy. It just means fake leather, plastic leather, fake leather.
It looked like leather a long time ago, but the
leather like stuff on it, it's coming off in huge
(25:16):
flakes all the time, and everywhere. I first noticed it
when I had black stuff, you know, falling out of
my hair in the shower, and the minute I saw that,
being an imminently, imminently and innately, being an incredibly reasonable
person like I am, I assumed that these black things
(25:38):
were lice babies. That's all I could think, lice babies.
I found out later they're not called lice babies, but
a little baby lice lice. I didn't know what lice
even looked like. I just remember standing in the shower
thinking that I'm gonna have to be dipped in some
sort of pesticide vat to kill the lice babies growing
rampant on my head. You know, I've never had lice,
(26:00):
the kids never had lice. The experience was very scary,
very disconcerting. It was a dark mystery that I had
to try to figure out. Anyway, you can guess how
relieved I was to discover that it wasn't lice at all.
It was just my favorite chair falling to pieces, you know,
as I would sit in it. So anyway, back to
my room, when I pushed that radi old chair back
(26:23):
in place, it helped make that room, you know, kind
of feel like a room again. There was a chair
in the spot where there's supposed to be a chair,
but that chair really didn't vibe, you know, with the
color on the wall. Fortunately, before I could repaint everything,
one of the kids said, you know, it's the furniture
that blows in here, it's not the wall color. And
when I started thinking about it from that point of view,
(26:43):
I realized he was right. All of these pieces that
I've got, they're already on my replace eventually list anyway,
and I realized if they were gone and newer pieces
were in their place, well, the wall color most likely
would be fine, if not great. Now, I understand replacing
your furniture and accessories. If that's not an option for
(27:04):
you right now, then yeah, like I said earlier, you
might need to adjust that wall color. All I'm saying
with this question is, don't toss out your vision just
because it's clashing with pieces that you may be already
planned to change out. Maybe this is just the cue
that you need to move those changes up the priority list.
All right, last question I've got for you, question six,
is this is it the wrong color or was your
(27:26):
original vision wrong? This one is my favorite of all
of the questions, and I love it because it encourages
us to shift, you know, our perspectives, to let go
of expectations, and maybe, you know, hopefully maybe discover something
even better than what we had planned now. Earlier, when
I was talking about change and why we resist it,
(27:47):
I mentioned how we sometimes can see a new color,
for example, and feel the loss of a vision or
an expectation. You know, we see this new color, and
even when the room is put back together, we realize
it's just not the vision that we'd originally intended, and
we feel a sense of loss and frustration over that.
But what if the color itself isn't wrong? What if
your original vision just wasn't the best one. What if
(28:09):
the new color is giving you an opportunity to go
in a better direction. I know it's a little bit
weird to think about, but personally, some of my favorite
creative achievements have come about from accidents or unexpected changes,
you know, and that's not really terribly uncommon. Artists, for example,
they've stumbled into new styles and new ways to express
themselves entirely on accident. Authors they've written entire novels based
(28:33):
on random snippets of conversation that they overheard by accident
in a diner or a coffee shop. How about this example,
you know, this should make the case. This is from
the world of film. In Jaws, you know the shark movie.
Du doudn't don't you know? You know the movie? You
know the movie. In that movie, the mechanical shark kept
(28:54):
breaking down during filming, so Steven Spielberg, the director, had
to pivot, had to come up with another plan. So
instead of showing the shark as he intended, he used music,
point of view shots, and subtle visual cues to build suspense,
and as a result, he ends up creating one of
the most iconic thrillers ever made. And it happened because
he had a problem, not in spite of one. So
(29:16):
when your newly painted room feels off, it might not
be a mistake. It might be an invitation to rethink
your vision. And I know that still sounds a little wacky,
the wacky. Nobody uses that word anymore. It sounds I
don't know, I don't have anything better wonky wacky. That's
(29:37):
the limits of my vocabulary. I know it sounds strange,
let's just say that, but it really can be true.
For example, that yellow that I used in my living room.
Let's go back to that living room scenario. That yellow
that I ended up using, that's on the walls right now.
It wasn't what I expected. I was going to have.
My vision for that room was a soft, buttery yellow
(29:58):
that was going to make the room feel like a
sn spring morning, you know, filled with flowers and peaceful vibes,
like if the easter bunny, you know, hopped through the
living room on a given morning. It would just feel normal.
You know. That's what I was shooting for. That was
my original plan. But I'd overcorrected from the very first yellow.
I sampled and I went from something that was too
light to something that was much too dark, you know,
(30:20):
too bold. And when I stood there, when I was
all done looking at the completed room, I realized that
my initial vision was completely lost, and I was frustrated.
But then I started thinking differently. I started thinking about
what I could do with the color that I had now.
That living room, that front living room, that formal living room,
whatever whatever you want to call it. This yellow living
(30:41):
room has always been kind of a neutral space. You know,
it's nice enough, but it's forgettable. We've got another room
in the house, a family room in the back part
that's a statement room. You know. We've got a painted
brick fireplace that's really cool, an eclectic mantle full of
all kinds of little odds and ends, bookshelves filled with
old hardcovers and unusual trinkets that we've collected over time.
(31:04):
It's a room that feels like us. It's a ton
of fun. I love that space. The front living room
never had that, you know, but with the yellow on
the walls, now, suddenly I could see a little bit
of potential here now. Years ago, this is my favorite
part of this whole segment. I hope this part, this
point comes through. Years ago, I came across this wonderfully
ridiculous emerald green mid century couch in a design magazine. Now,
(31:29):
the idea in that article was to ground a room
in neutral, classic elements and then flip it with one
bold statement piece, you know. In that instance, they were
highlighting this ridiculous emerald green couch, and I loved it.
I loved that couch. It was fun, it was unique,
and it was one of those things that I saw
in a magazine that I thought, man, that's cool, and
(31:50):
it's too bad that it would never ever work in
my house, you know, my house doesn't really allow for
anything fun like that. But then all of a sudden,
I've got this yellow on the walls on accident. Didn't
mean to do this, and as I'm looking at it,
I'm realizing that, for the first time in my whole
time of owning this house, I actually could bring a funky,
(32:10):
emerald green couch into that space and it would work.
I could do it in my house. I never noticed
it because I didn't have anything bold or crazy going on.
That yellow that I accidentally ended up putting on my
walls opened up an entirely new vision for me. So
now I've snagged some grounding furniture pieces, you know, I've
got some used leather chairs that I snagged so I
can replace my you know, falling apart pleather chairs, and
(32:33):
those new chairs used chairs. They look wonderful, you know,
great with the yellow walls. Now I'm on a hunt
for that couch or something like it, something to give
the room completely a new attitude. Suddenly this room has
the potential to be a standout space in the home.
And I'm way, way, way, way more excited about this
new direction than I ever was about my easter bunny,
(32:56):
sunny spring morning original plan. So maybe what I'm getting
at is that you're looking at something right now that's
the wrong color. Maybe it's not so much the wrong color.
Maybe it's an unexpected opportunity to reshape your vision into
something way better. All right, those are some questions to ask,
and maybe you'll find out that you don't have the
wrong color. You just need to adjust your thinking a
little bit. But sometimes you're going to ask those questions
(33:19):
and the answer is going to be won't won't want
that you have the wrong color. When that's the case,
what do you do? What are your options? Where do
you go from there? We're going to get to all
of that in just a minute. Stick around and we're back.
You're listening to the Repco Lite Home Improvement Show sponsored
(33:39):
by Benjamin Moore, and today's spend all about talking about color,
specifically talking about what to do if the color you
painted is possibly the wrong color. You know you made
a mistake. Now, if you've asked yourself the questions that
I posed in the last two segments, all six questions,
and you're still convinced that the color's wrong, let's talk
about that. What do you do at that point? What
(34:02):
are your options? You know, what's the path forward? Well,
first thing I would tell you is don't rush a decision.
You know something that I mentioned earlier in the show,
I think I want to bring back up. Painting is
just as much about a mindset as it is about technique.
You know, if you've decided that the color that you
put on the walls isn't working, you're probably going to
(34:22):
be tempted to run back to the store, grab a
different shade, a different tone, and get it all fixed.
Right now, get that new paint on so you can
go to bad feeling like you've got that room, you
know exactly where you want it. But usually that's not
the best move. The best thing you could do is
probably take a breath, take a break. You know you
already made one mistake. That's fine, it happens, but don't
(34:44):
compound it by rushing into another one. So slow down,
let yourself rest. You're going to choose better colors. You're
going to paint better when you're fresh and you're thinking clearly.
So first thing I'd say is just don't rush it.
Slow down for a second. Now. The second thing is
that sometimes we can adjust the color. You know, if
you've got leftover paint, bring it in. Most of the
time there's a good chance that we can tweak the color.
(35:06):
You know, we can make it a little bit warmer,
a little bit cooler, a little bit lighter, a little
bit deeper. But with that set, here's what you need
to know. If you've got a full gallon, we can
usually or a full court, a full container, we can
usually adjust the color and still maintain a formula that
we can repeat, you know, down the road for later gallons.
That's ideal. If the can that you've got is partially full,
(35:28):
we can still tweak that color. But if you love
the result and you want more, we're going to need
a wet sample in order to rematch it. We can't
create a repeatable formula from a partial can alone. So
keep those two things in mind. And then here's something
that a lot of people don't realize. The base paint
that we use to make your color that is going
to affect how much we can adjust it. Light colors,
(35:49):
for example, are tinted in bases that contain a lot
of titanium dioxide. That's the white pigment that gives them
brightness and hiding power. Dark colors, they're mixed into bases
that have very little or no white pigment at all,
none of that titanium dioxide or very little of it,
and that allows us to push those colors deep and
make them rich and saturated and all of that. Because
(36:09):
of that, it's tough to take a light color and
make it much lighter. You know, it's kind of already
at its limit, and just adding white colorant isn't going
to really do a whole lot. It's hard to darken
it dramatically as well, because it's got all that white
titanium dioxide already in it and it's fighting against the
colorant that we throw in. Dark colors, on the other hand,
they can be lightened a bit, but they do tend
(36:31):
to shift in tone. You know, think about lightning a
deep red and you're probably gonna end up making it
pushing it towards the pinks. So, bottom line, small tweaks
in color are very very doable. Big shifts they're a
lot trickier. If you do have paint left over, though,
and you're not happy with the color, bring it in.
We'll do what we can and we'll be honest about
what your options are. Third thing to keep in mind
(36:54):
is this, maybe the color doesn't work in the room
that you're working in, but maybe it could work somewhere else.
So think about that, maybe a bathroom, basement, walls, a closet,
a garage, something like that. Don't count the paint as
a complete loss until you've really thought about all the
spaces that you've got, and you know, maybe you could
find a place for it there. Now, I know, picking
the wrong color really really stinks. I've been there. You know,
(37:16):
it's really disheartening, really frustrating. But as we wrap this up,
let me leave you with a couple final thoughts. First off,
if you're not changing the color dramatically, you know the
color you picked, the new color that you need in
that space isn't that different. If that's the case, repainting
usually isn't going to be as bad. The second time
you've done the hard prep. It's going to go a
(37:37):
lot quicker than you think it's going to. So rest
in that confidence a little bit. And then the last
thing I'd say is this too is going to pass.
You know, right now it feels huge, this mistake, you know,
wasted time, wasted money, disappointment, all of that. But really,
in a few weeks or months, the moment's going to fade.
You know, maybe you'll even be laughing about it someday.
(37:57):
Maybe you won't. But at the bitterness, the the bite
of it all is going to fade. You're gonna forget
how frustrated you were. You're gonna move on. You know,
we've all got that one project or more that we
had to do twice. This one just happens to be yours,
you know, so go a little easy on yourself. It will,
you know, the pain will go away as time goes by.
(38:19):
Time heals all wounds, even poor color choices. All right
at Repcolite. Remember we've got color experts in every single store.
So if you are struggling with a choice, bring us
your fabrics, your cushions, your artwork, whatever you're working with.
Bring photos. We've got an eye for color, and we've
got the experience to help you narrow everything down. All right,
that's all the time we got. That's gonna do it.
(38:40):
We're gonna wrap this one up. If you want to
catch it again, you can find it online at repco
Light dot com. Whatever you do today makes your paints
a part of it. And remember your next project is
way easier than you think. Stop by any Repcolite location
and let us help. Have a great weekend everybody, and
I'll see you next week. I'm Dan Hanson. Thanks for listening.
(39:02):
Continent
Well, the morning, everybody, Happy Saturday. You're listening to the
repcal Light Home improvement Show sponsored by Benjamin Moore the
shoe sponsored by Benjamin Moore. I don't know why I
said it that way. I was trying to be sophisticated.
I guess maybe using sophisticated accents. It's just the same
old repcal Light Home improvement show, So don't get all
(00:23):
excited anyway, before I get into the real meat of
the show, the really, really good stuff, I do have
a quick thought to share. It's just something rattling around
in my head this week. You know how they say
that there are no dumb questions, right, We've all heard that,
and we know that's not entirely true, right. You know,
(00:44):
I encourage everybody out there. I encourage my kids myself
ask questions. You know. It's how we grow, it's how
we learn. But let's be honest, some of those questions
they're pretty bone headed, they're pretty dumb, and maybe part
of the process, the learning process, is just asking a
question and then learning how to be laughed at when
the question is dumb. You know, that's still good. It's
(01:05):
good to learn anyway. Case in point, this is what
I want to get to. I was at the library
the other day, minding my own business, you know, just
perusing the area and looking at all the books on
the shelves, And as I happened to pass the main desk,
I overheard a young guy walk up and in a
very clear and very loud and public voice, he asked
(01:28):
this question. He said, excuse me, but do you have
a policy about people taking books, you know, into the bathroom?
Because I'd really like to read this one, but I
don't want to break any rules. Well, I froze mid
stride because I thought this was comedy gold waiting to happen,
waiting to happen right in front of me. I half
(01:50):
expected some sort of library police force to repel down
from the ceiling, tackle the guy on the ground, and
then pry the book from his hands. But no, that
didn't happen. The librarians. They just sat there, smiled politely
and said, we prefer that the books don't go into
the bathroom with you, as if this is just a
routine interaction, right like this question comes up a lot.
(02:14):
The guy blinked and nodded, you know, made sense to him,
and he said, yeah, that is a little gross, I guess,
to which the librarians responded, you know, calmly, politely, with
no judgment. Yes, quite well. The whole thing was really
funny to me until I started looking at the shelves
and shelves of books all around me, and suddenly I
(02:36):
had one single thought going through my head. What if
other people don't ask? I mean, really, any of these
books could have spent time in a public restroom stall,
or maybe plopped down on the floor at some point
in the exchange or the interaction or whatever's going on
in there. I could be handling a bathroom floor book
(02:57):
at this very moment. But I swept those thoughts from
my mind. You know, one look at the librarians. That
told me it's very unlikely that anybody's going to sneak
a book into the bathroom past those guys, those ladies,
they were vigilant, they were egoied. They were the guardians
of these tomes of knowledge and entertainment. But they don't
(03:17):
go home with us. That was the next thought that
went through my mind. The librarians, they stay here. Heaven
only knows what these library books have seen in the
homes of John and Jane Public right. I'm not a
germaphoe by any measure, but man, just thinking about what
some of these library books may have experienced really made
me shiver. You know, I wonder when they come back,
(03:39):
if they're all deposited in some kind of decontamination chamber,
you know, are they all bathed in UV light when
they come back? Is there some sort of scanner maybe
that will alert the staff that this book won't won't
won't won't won't this book has spent time in a
bathroom in somebody's house. And if that's the case, is
the book, you know, immediately decommissioned at the point is
(04:00):
the person who brought it, you know, home? Is that
person deprived of library privileges for life? My goodness, what
a can of worms that one simple question opened in
my mind. Was it a dumb question? Was it a
good question? I don't know. I don't even care anymore.
It was a scary question. Anyway. That's neither here nor there.
(04:21):
It's just my random thought for the week, and I
wanted to share it with somebody, And since I work
in a building all entirely by myself, there's nobody to
share that with. So it gets to be you all,
all right, let's get to the show this week. What
I want to talk about is something that hits a
little too close to home for a lot of us.
(04:42):
I want to talk about what happens when you pick
the wrong paint color. Now. I just went through a
painting project myself, and this question was front and center
in my mind the entire time that I was working,
you know, did I get the color right? And as
I work through the project, I was second guessing, questioning, analyzing,
and doing all of those things. And as I did that,
(05:02):
I came across a few really helpful insights that I
do want to pass along. These things kept me saying
in the process, and I'm certain they're going to help you,
because really, there is nothing that I'm aware of that's
more frustrating in a paint project then pouring all of
your time and effort into painting that room. You know,
you move all the furniture out, you tape off the trim,
(05:24):
you cut in around everything, you roll the paint on.
Then you put the room, you put it back together,
you know, get all the furniture back in place, and
then you take that step back. Right, we all do that,
and we soak it all in and we're hoping to
have this wow moment. But sometimes we do that and
this horror starts to set in. You know, we hate it,
(05:45):
or we think we hate it. You know, we got
all that time lost, all that money gone, all that
energy wasted. It's frustrating, it's expensive, and maybe most importantly,
it happens. You know, it happens way too much. So
let's talk about what to do if you find yourself
in situation. But before we deal with fixing it, let's
talk about avoiding the problem in the first place. That's
(06:06):
the best way to go anyway, right, So let's avoid
the problem. And I've got just a few ideas to
think about or things that will help you. For starters,
don't assume that a color that you loved in somebody
else's home, or even in a different room in your
own home, don't assume that that color's going to work
in the room that you're getting ready to paint. All right,
our homes are all different, and even room to room
(06:28):
in your own home, the lighting isn't the same. On
top of that, the woodwork is sometimes different, furniture is
usually different, the art in the walls is different, and
all of those differences can have a dramatic effect on
your perception of a color. For example, my daughter's room
is a wonderful pale yellow. It's a soft color that
looks absolutely great in her west facing room. I really
(06:49):
really like it in there, and as we were painting
it in there, I realized, or I thought I realized
that I found the perfect color for my formal living room.
When it was time to paint that living room, I
grabbed some of the leftover paint and tried it on
one single wall, and I was stunned to see the difference.
My east facing living room made that soft, buttery warm
(07:11):
yellow look almost like a highlighter, you know. It hit
a neon greenish kind of an undertone that I couldn't unsee.
Even though I work with color on a daily basis,
I was still surprised to find out how different that
color looked between the two different rooms. So my first
tip again, don't assume that since the color worked in
another room or somebody else's home, that it's going to
(07:32):
be perfect and wonderful in your space. That's the first tip.
Second tip is related, and I'm sure you've already clued
into it because your smart audience. Sample the color every
single time. You know, if you have paint that you
believe is going to be the perfect color, like I did,
roll some on before you order boatloads, you know, boku buko, boku,
(07:57):
large amounts of it. Don't order large amount of it
until you've sampled a little bit. You know. If you're
working with color chips or computer renditions of a color,
make sure you actually get your hands on some of
the paint. So narrow down your choices until you've got
one or two front runners. And then once you've got
it to that point, by one or two Benjamin More
color samples. They're right around six bucks something like that,
(08:18):
and they'll give you enough actual paint to roll the
color onto a foam board or even onto your wall.
Do that, and then check that color out in different
lighting situations. Check the color out for a while in
natural light versus artificial light, in the morning time versus evening,
and so on. Check it out near your furniture, your flooring,
your trim, all of that. And when you do this sampling,
(08:40):
make sure you're using at least two coats, especially over
another color, you know, just to make sure that what
you're seeing and what you're sampling and what you're assessing,
make sure that that's actually the true color. And finally,
remember that color is contextual. Now, what I mean by
that is that the other colors that surround your color
can influence its appearance. When you roll a new color
(09:01):
onto a wall that's already painted with a different color.
For example, we had that lighter yellow, that yellow from
my daughter's room rolled onto one wall in the home.
You know, it's the yellow that I didn't like, the
neon green yellow. So I chose a new color, a
darker yellow, and then I painted like a two by two,
you know, a two foot by two foot section on
my wall right over that first yellow. I looked at
(09:22):
it and I thought it was too dark. It was
just too much. It was crazy. But then I wondered
if that lighter yellow that it was painted on was
throwing off my perception. So visually I blocked out the
lighter yellow and then found a way, you know, to
view just the new color against the woodwork, and all
of a sudden, that too dark, too bold feeling went away,
you know, right away went away. The other color, that
(09:44):
lighter yellow, was changing my perception of that new color.
So all that to say, before you decide that the
new color that you sampled is wrong, try to view
it apart from any other color that's surrounding it. And similarly,
you know, right along these lines, which is exactly what
similarly means. I didn't need to say both of those things. Similarly,
don't sample multiple colors next to each other. Not only
(10:06):
do other colors influence how color appears, but our eyes
also do some interesting things with color. We tend to
think that when we see a color, we're measuring that color,
but actually it's less about measuring and more about averaging.
So when we see two or more colors that are
very close to each other, we're not seeing color accurately
on either one of those. We're seeing an average of
(10:27):
the colors. So keep your color samples far enough apart
that that doesn't happen. Okay, so sample your colors. That's
my main point there. Next tip I've got is this,
trust your gut. When I painted that first yellow onto
the wall, the neon green, you know, highlight or yellow,
just to sample it. My first thought when I did
that was that it was too greenish, you know, something
(10:47):
was off. I was bummed about it because I thought
it was going to be the right color, and I
wasn't big on starting the searchover, and so I sat
with it for about a week or two, you know,
hoping that it would get better, and in some lights
at some times day I kind of liked it. And
I found myself really really trying to convince myself that
it was good. This is the one Dan, go for it,
(11:07):
jump in. You're gonna like it, right, I really tried
to make myself like it. I asked the kids what
they thought, and they liked it, And so I started
to tell myself that I was just being too fussy,
too finicky, that I was overthinking it. But there was
this nagging idea that it was just the wrong color.
You know, that feeling when you're in it, When you're
having that feeling, you know what I'm talking about. Do
(11:29):
not disregard that feeling and plow ahead with a full
paint job, no matter how frustrating it is to go
back to the drawing board, you know, and start over
trying to find a new color. That's frustrating, but it's
way better than going through the work of painting a
room and then hating the results and then still having
to go back to the drawing board, find a new color,
and all of that. So if you have misgivings about
(11:51):
a color, you know, a sample that you put on
the wall, make a switch, or at least take a
little longer to debate whether this is the right color.
Your gut isn't you wrong on these things? So listen
to it? All right, those are some things that you
can do to help you avoid picking the wrong color
in the first place. But what if you do that,
or maybe you skip those things, and who knows. But
(12:11):
let's say you painted a room and now you're standing
there looking at it and you're thinking, oh, no, I
don't think this is very good. If that's your situation,
what do you do? Or we're going to get to
that next Stay tuned and we're back. You're listening to
the Repcolite Home improvement show sponsored by Benjamin Moore, and
(12:32):
we're working our way through an episode all about the
wrong color. You know, we've either been there, or we've
known somebody who has, or we can easily imagine, you know,
the scenario. In fact, I'm just emerging from that exact
scenario right now. It's all going down in that room
that I was just talking about that living room with
the yellows. In this instance, I sampled the color. I
(12:56):
found what I thought was the right yellow, and then
I painted the entire room with two coats of that color.
And when I stepped back, you know, when it was
all done, surveyed my handiwork. I looked at it and
I thought, what chaos have I wrought? What have I done? Now?
To be fair, I didn't hate the color, but I
sure wasn't like, boy, I love this. I was all
(13:17):
over the place. I was nervous, I was concerned. I
was frustrated. Let me tell you, if you haven't been there,
it's a punch in the gut. I've got two gallons
of paint that I spent money on, and I don't
like to spend money on anything. I've got tools that
I've used up more than all of that. I've got
time that my kid and I spent doing this. Rolling
(13:38):
the walls that was nothing but cutting in, you know,
doing all of that, you know, cutting in around the
baseboard and along the ceiling, around the windows. That took
a lot of time and a lot of care. And
to think about doing all of that again with another
color was disheartening to say the least. Now, last segment
we talked about some practical things that you can do
to give yourself the best chance possible to stay out
(13:59):
of the scenario. But as I'm living proof, there are
still no guarantees you can do everything right and still
find that that new color that you chose makes you
scratch your head in wonder. Now, in this segment and
the next one, we're going to focus on how you
can navigate this exact scenario that I just described. I've
got six questions that you can ask yourself before you
jump ship and run to the paint store to repcollite
(14:22):
to buy new paint. You know, before you do that,
ask yourself these six questions. And of course you've got
to answer the questions too just asking them. These are
not rhetorical. This is not something for you to just ask,
and it's something that you've got to answer, all right.
So the first question is this is this the wrong color?
Or am I seeing the previous color through the new color? Now,
(14:43):
this can be really misleading. Some colors hide better than
other colors, that is, they cover the existing color better.
The yellow that I was working with, for example, it
did not hide very well. It definitely needed two coats
for full coverage. When I got my first coat applied
over the original beige on the walls, that yellow looked really,
really funky. A second coat completely hid the beige, and
(15:08):
I was finally able to see the true color, you know,
for what it was. I know that applying a second
coat seems kind of nuts if you're thinking that you
hated that first color, But really you've got to look
at that closely, because you probably are not seeing, you know,
your new color yet. You're seeing just some kind of amalgamation.
It's a blending of the old color and the new color,
(15:28):
and it can be really funky. You've got to get
that second coat on there so that you're assessing the
true color that you chose. If you switch right now
and go get new paint, it could take you off
in the wrong direction. So make sure you're seeing a
good sample of the new color. That's the first question.
Second question is this is it the wrong color or
is the chaos of the room making it look that way?
(15:51):
And what I'm getting at here is this, there's no
way to truly see how a color looks in a
space if the space is completely torn up and filled
with all the trappings of the paint job. You know,
when I finished my second coat, I was looking at
the walls and taking it all in, But there was
no way to judge that color accurately until the drop
claws were picked up, the window treatments put back in place,
the furniture brought back in, and the art hung back up.
(16:13):
I had to make it a room again, really, before
I could see what that color was going to look like.
And the same is true for you, and I get it.
It's really tempting in certain instances to want to strike
while the iron's hot, so to speak. You know, the
room's torn apart, I'm in my painting clothes, i don't
like the color, and I'm in a panic. You guys
have to do you, But really, when you think about it,
(16:34):
jumping into panic induced action and rushing out and getting
new paint at that point, or adjusting your color or
whatever you end up doing just so you can keep
painting is not the best step. I'd encourage you to
put the room back together, give it some time, and
just let it cook now for one thing. Once it's
back together, you may find that you like the color
for another thing. And this is really important, so don't
(16:55):
miss this. Successful painting is just as much about mindset
as it is about skill and technique. If you're frustrated,
if you're stressed, if you're tired of it, sick of it,
all of those things, whatever, that is not the time
to start applying another code of paint. It's not the
time to rush out to the paint storm pick a
new color. You know, when you're in that mindset, you're
(17:16):
gonna cut corners, you're gonna make bad decisions, you're gonna
do slop your work. You just want to be finished,
and that's not the path to a great paint finish.
So my general advice would be this, get that second
code of paint on, and even if you're unsure, put
that room back together. Deal with that next code of
paint on another weekend, another evening, sometime when you're fresh
(17:36):
and ready to tackle it. All right. The third question
that I've got is this one. Is my color wrong?
Or is it maybe the lighting that's the problem. Now
we talk about it on the show all the time,
but lighting can dramatically change the way a paint color looks.
Cool led bulbs, for example, those with a bluish, you know,
kind of a bluish tint to them. They can make
warm beige colors look drab, a little bit gray, a
(17:58):
little bit dreary. On the flips side, warm incandescent style bulbs,
they can make cool blues look muddy or greens look
a little bit funky. So before you run out to
repaint and get new color and all of that, take
a moment to consider your lighting. What kind of bulbs
do you have in the room, Are the led CFL halogen, incandescent?
And what's the temperature rating of them? You know, check
(18:19):
that Calvin rating on the box. If you've got the box,
Try swapping out a few bulbs and just see how
that impacts the space and the color. The bottom line
is this, paint and light are kind of like partners
in all of this. Don't judge one without at least
considering the other. Sometimes, I mean, this is wonderful when
it happens. Sometimes a ten dollars change in light bulbs
(18:40):
is all it takes to turn a bad color into
something that you really do love. So keep that in mind.
Ask that question and of course answer it. Okay, that's
three of my six questions. We're going to take a
break and we're gonna get to the other three questions
on the other side. Stick around and we're back. You're
(19:02):
listening to the Repco Light Home improvement shows sponsored by
Benjamin Moore, and we're working our way through six questions.
You should ask yourself if you finished painting a room
and you're standing there wondering if you picked the wrong color.
We made it through the first three questions. Let's keep going.
Question four is this is it the wrong color? Or
am I just struggling with change? This one's big and
(19:24):
it gets overlooked all the time. You know, if you've
made a big shift in color, or if you're replacing
a color that's been on the walls for years and
years and years, your brain, your poor little brain is
going to need time to adjust, right, And the older
you are, the longer your brain is going to need
to adjust. Don't underestimate the reality of the psychology of change. Here,
(19:49):
just briefly, is why we struggle, you know, pop psych
Saturday morning stuff. Here's why we struggle with change. We're wired,
first off, to find comfort in familiarly. I would sure
love to be able to just say the word the
way I see it, or the way I see it
in my mind. Familiarity, familiarity. We find comfort in things
(20:12):
that are familiar to us. I'm so sorry. I so
hoped to make that intelligent and smooth, and I completely
flubbed it up. We're wired to find comfort in things
that are familiar to us. Change, especially sudden or you know,
uncertain things, they can feel like a threat to that stability.
So that's one thing that's playing out, even with a
(20:34):
color change. Another thing, and I think this one is
really interesting, we feel loss more deeply than we feel gain. Right,
we feel loss more deeply than we feel gain. So
changing something like the color of the room, let's just
stick with that, that can feel like the loss of
the atmosphere that the room previously had more than it
feels like the gaining of a new atmosphere. Also, the color,
(20:57):
if it's not exactly producing the effect that we inticiy pated,
we can feel the loss of our expectations or of
our vision more than we feel the opportunity to find
a new vision. More on that in a minute. We're
going to get to that in its own question down
the road, and it's a good one. So don't bail
on me early. All right. Another reason we really struggle
with change is that we fear regret. Right. You know,
(21:18):
we're asking ourselves constantly, what if I made the wrong decision,
What if I hate this in a month? What if
this color drives me crazy down the road. Well, that
fear can make us doubt even a great color choice.
You know, it's playing in our mind. It's part of
being human. Last thing, even small changes can shake our
sense of identity or control. You know, the way a
room looks and feels is kind of a big part
(21:40):
of how we experience our home, probably one of the
biggest parts of how we experience our home, and if
that changes too quickly or too drastically, it can feel
or lead us to feel, you know, a little bit unsettled.
All right, So, as we mentioned earlier, put the room
back together. That's your way to work through this whole
fear of change thing. Put the room back together, other
(22:00):
and just let it cook. I've already said that phrase
that the kids say it all the time to me,
let it cook, Dad. I never let things cook. You
gotta let things cook. And I think that just means
let it sit for a while, let it do its
thing right, let the room sit, get it back together,
and let it sit. It normally takes us a little
bit of time to overcome all these natural human reactions
(22:21):
to change. If you're really hoping, you know, to step
outside your comfort zone and push the boundaries with color,
and a lot of us want to do that. We
want to break out of the molds that we've been in.
We want to stretch a little bit. If that's you.
If you're really wanting to do that, you're gonna need
to be prepared for how your brain wants to handle change.
So give that new color some time, give yourself some time.
(22:42):
Take yourself off of this self imposed you know, timetable.
We always create these timetables that this room has to
be done, you know, by this day, or it's going
to be done by that day, and that stresses us out. Now,
sometimes we really do have timetables people are coming to
visit or whatever, but a lot of the times they're
kind of just things we've put on ourselves for no
(23:03):
real reason other than I think we like to have
deadlines and timetables. So take yourself off of that timetable.
If you can ease up, take your foot off the
gas and just relax a little bit. You might find
that you love this change after you've given your brain
a little bit of time to adjust. All right, that's
question number four. Question number five is this one? Is
it the wrong coat? Is it the wrong color? Or
(23:28):
is the rest of the room wrong? Is it the
wrong color or is the rest of the room wrong?
Is how the adults in the room would say it.
The prepubescent teens would have said it the first way
that I tried to say it. Is it the wrong color?
Or is the rest of the room wrong. This doesn't
apply in every case, and it's a little bit weird,
but here's what I'm getting at. If you've got a
beautiful space with furniture and art that you love, things
(23:50):
that you're keeping, and the wall color isn't working, then yeah,
you probably have the wrong color. You're going to need
to change that color. That's obvious. But often we paint
a room knowing full well that we're not fans of
the furniture or the decor in that room. That's where
I'm at right now. I've got that living room that
I've been talking about, that yellow living room, and when
I put the room back together, you know, it looked better,
(24:12):
but my gut reaction was, you know, I'm still not
sure that this color is working, you know, so I'm
letting it sit, I'm letting it cook and all of
those things. But as I sit with it, the more
I'm realizing that I don't think it's the color that's
the problem. It's the couch, it's the chair. You know,
these things were good ish in their day, but their
(24:32):
day is long past. I mean, long long past the chair.
Let's talk about my chair. My word. I've talked about
this chair before, for the true believers who listen every
week to every word that drips from my mouth. I've
talked about this chair before, and I'm kind of a
little bit embarrassed to bring it up, but not really,
because these things crack me up. My cheapness, cracks me up.
(24:55):
My decisions crack me up. My chair, my favorite chair
in the whole wide world is plether. Right. Plether It
sounds fancy. It just means fake leather, plastic leather, fake leather.
It looked like leather a long time ago, but the
leather like stuff on it, it's coming off in huge
(25:16):
flakes all the time, and everywhere. I first noticed it
when I had black stuff, you know, falling out of
my hair in the shower, and the minute I saw that,
being an imminently, imminently and innately, being an incredibly reasonable
person like I am, I assumed that these black things
(25:38):
were lice babies. That's all I could think, lice babies.
I found out later they're not called lice babies, but
a little baby lice lice. I didn't know what lice
even looked like. I just remember standing in the shower
thinking that I'm gonna have to be dipped in some
sort of pesticide vat to kill the lice babies growing
rampant on my head. You know, I've never had lice,
(26:00):
the kids never had lice. The experience was very scary,
very disconcerting. It was a dark mystery that I had
to try to figure out. Anyway, you can guess how
relieved I was to discover that it wasn't lice at all.
It was just my favorite chair falling to pieces, you know,
as I would sit in it. So anyway, back to
my room, when I pushed that radi old chair back
(26:23):
in place, it helped make that room, you know, kind
of feel like a room again. There was a chair
in the spot where there's supposed to be a chair,
but that chair really didn't vibe, you know, with the
color on the wall. Fortunately, before I could repaint everything,
one of the kids said, you know, it's the furniture
that blows in here, it's not the wall color. And
when I started thinking about it from that point of view,
(26:43):
I realized he was right. All of these pieces that
I've got, they're already on my replace eventually list anyway,
and I realized if they were gone and newer pieces
were in their place, well, the wall color most likely
would be fine, if not great. Now, I understand replacing
your furniture and accessories. If that's not an option for
(27:04):
you right now, then yeah, like I said earlier, you
might need to adjust that wall color. All I'm saying
with this question is, don't toss out your vision just
because it's clashing with pieces that you may be already
planned to change out. Maybe this is just the cue
that you need to move those changes up the priority list.
All right, last question I've got for you, question six,
is this is it the wrong color or was your
(27:26):
original vision wrong? This one is my favorite of all
of the questions, and I love it because it encourages
us to shift, you know, our perspectives, to let go
of expectations, and maybe, you know, hopefully maybe discover something
even better than what we had planned now. Earlier, when
I was talking about change and why we resist it,
(27:47):
I mentioned how we sometimes can see a new color,
for example, and feel the loss of a vision or
an expectation. You know, we see this new color, and
even when the room is put back together, we realize
it's just not the vision that we'd originally intended, and
we feel a sense of loss and frustration over that.
But what if the color itself isn't wrong? What if
your original vision just wasn't the best one. What if
(28:09):
the new color is giving you an opportunity to go
in a better direction. I know it's a little bit
weird to think about, but personally, some of my favorite
creative achievements have come about from accidents or unexpected changes,
you know, and that's not really terribly uncommon. Artists, for example,
they've stumbled into new styles and new ways to express
themselves entirely on accident. Authors they've written entire novels based
(28:33):
on random snippets of conversation that they overheard by accident
in a diner or a coffee shop. How about this example,
you know, this should make the case. This is from
the world of film. In Jaws, you know the shark movie.
Du doudn't don't you know? You know the movie? You
know the movie. In that movie, the mechanical shark kept
(28:54):
breaking down during filming, so Steven Spielberg, the director, had
to pivot, had to come up with another plan. So
instead of showing the shark as he intended, he used music,
point of view shots, and subtle visual cues to build suspense,
and as a result, he ends up creating one of
the most iconic thrillers ever made. And it happened because
he had a problem, not in spite of one. So
(29:16):
when your newly painted room feels off, it might not
be a mistake. It might be an invitation to rethink
your vision. And I know that still sounds a little wacky,
the wacky. Nobody uses that word anymore. It sounds I
don't know, I don't have anything better wonky wacky. That's
(29:37):
the limits of my vocabulary. I know it sounds strange,
let's just say that, but it really can be true.
For example, that yellow that I used in my living room.
Let's go back to that living room scenario. That yellow
that I ended up using, that's on the walls right now.
It wasn't what I expected. I was going to have.
My vision for that room was a soft, buttery yellow
(29:58):
that was going to make the room feel like a
sn spring morning, you know, filled with flowers and peaceful vibes,
like if the easter bunny, you know, hopped through the
living room on a given morning. It would just feel normal.
You know. That's what I was shooting for. That was
my original plan. But I'd overcorrected from the very first yellow.
I sampled and I went from something that was too
light to something that was much too dark, you know,
(30:20):
too bold. And when I stood there, when I was
all done looking at the completed room, I realized that
my initial vision was completely lost, and I was frustrated.
But then I started thinking differently. I started thinking about
what I could do with the color that I had now.
That living room, that front living room, that formal living room,
whatever whatever you want to call it. This yellow living
(30:41):
room has always been kind of a neutral space. You know,
it's nice enough, but it's forgettable. We've got another room
in the house, a family room in the back part
that's a statement room. You know. We've got a painted
brick fireplace that's really cool, an eclectic mantle full of
all kinds of little odds and ends, bookshelves filled with
old hardcovers and unusual trinkets that we've collected over time.
(31:04):
It's a room that feels like us. It's a ton
of fun. I love that space. The front living room
never had that, you know, but with the yellow on
the walls, now, suddenly I could see a little bit
of potential here now. Years ago, this is my favorite
part of this whole segment. I hope this part, this
point comes through. Years ago, I came across this wonderfully
ridiculous emerald green mid century couch in a design magazine. Now,
(31:29):
the idea in that article was to ground a room
in neutral, classic elements and then flip it with one
bold statement piece, you know. In that instance, they were
highlighting this ridiculous emerald green couch, and I loved it.
I loved that couch. It was fun, it was unique,
and it was one of those things that I saw
in a magazine that I thought, man, that's cool, and
(31:50):
it's too bad that it would never ever work in
my house, you know, my house doesn't really allow for
anything fun like that. But then all of a sudden,
I've got this yellow on the walls on accident. Didn't
mean to do this, and as I'm looking at it,
I'm realizing that, for the first time in my whole
time of owning this house, I actually could bring a funky,
(32:10):
emerald green couch into that space and it would work.
I could do it in my house. I never noticed
it because I didn't have anything bold or crazy going on.
That yellow that I accidentally ended up putting on my
walls opened up an entirely new vision for me. So
now I've snagged some grounding furniture pieces, you know, I've
got some used leather chairs that I snagged so I
can replace my you know, falling apart pleather chairs, and
(32:33):
those new chairs used chairs. They look wonderful, you know,
great with the yellow walls. Now I'm on a hunt
for that couch or something like it, something to give
the room completely a new attitude. Suddenly this room has
the potential to be a standout space in the home.
And I'm way, way, way, way more excited about this
new direction than I ever was about my easter bunny,
(32:56):
sunny spring morning original plan. So maybe what I'm getting
at is that you're looking at something right now that's
the wrong color. Maybe it's not so much the wrong color.
Maybe it's an unexpected opportunity to reshape your vision into
something way better. All right, those are some questions to ask,
and maybe you'll find out that you don't have the
wrong color. You just need to adjust your thinking a
little bit. But sometimes you're going to ask those questions
(33:19):
and the answer is going to be won't won't want
that you have the wrong color. When that's the case,
what do you do? What are your options? Where do
you go from there? We're going to get to all
of that in just a minute. Stick around and we're back.
You're listening to the Repco Lite Home Improvement Show sponsored
(33:39):
by Benjamin Moore, and today's spend all about talking about color,
specifically talking about what to do if the color you
painted is possibly the wrong color. You know you made
a mistake. Now, if you've asked yourself the questions that
I posed in the last two segments, all six questions,
and you're still convinced that the color's wrong, let's talk
about that. What do you do at that point? What
(34:02):
are your options? You know, what's the path forward? Well,
first thing I would tell you is don't rush a decision.
You know something that I mentioned earlier in the show,
I think I want to bring back up. Painting is
just as much about a mindset as it is about technique.
You know, if you've decided that the color that you
put on the walls isn't working, you're probably going to
(34:22):
be tempted to run back to the store, grab a
different shade, a different tone, and get it all fixed.
Right now, get that new paint on so you can
go to bad feeling like you've got that room, you
know exactly where you want it. But usually that's not
the best move. The best thing you could do is
probably take a breath, take a break. You know you
already made one mistake. That's fine, it happens, but don't
(34:44):
compound it by rushing into another one. So slow down,
let yourself rest. You're going to choose better colors. You're
going to paint better when you're fresh and you're thinking clearly.
So first thing I'd say is just don't rush it.
Slow down for a second. Now. The second thing is
that sometimes we can adjust the color. You know, if
you've got leftover paint, bring it in. Most of the
time there's a good chance that we can tweak the color.
(35:06):
You know, we can make it a little bit warmer,
a little bit cooler, a little bit lighter, a little
bit deeper. But with that set, here's what you need
to know. If you've got a full gallon, we can
usually or a full court, a full container, we can
usually adjust the color and still maintain a formula that
we can repeat, you know, down the road for later gallons.
That's ideal. If the can that you've got is partially full,
(35:28):
we can still tweak that color. But if you love
the result and you want more, we're going to need
a wet sample in order to rematch it. We can't
create a repeatable formula from a partial can alone. So
keep those two things in mind. And then here's something
that a lot of people don't realize. The base paint
that we use to make your color that is going
to affect how much we can adjust it. Light colors,
(35:49):
for example, are tinted in bases that contain a lot
of titanium dioxide. That's the white pigment that gives them
brightness and hiding power. Dark colors, they're mixed into bases
that have very little or no white pigment at all,
none of that titanium dioxide or very little of it,
and that allows us to push those colors deep and
make them rich and saturated and all of that. Because
(36:09):
of that, it's tough to take a light color and
make it much lighter. You know, it's kind of already
at its limit, and just adding white colorant isn't going
to really do a whole lot. It's hard to darken
it dramatically as well, because it's got all that white
titanium dioxide already in it and it's fighting against the
colorant that we throw in. Dark colors, on the other hand,
they can be lightened a bit, but they do tend
(36:31):
to shift in tone. You know, think about lightning a
deep red and you're probably gonna end up making it
pushing it towards the pinks. So, bottom line, small tweaks
in color are very very doable. Big shifts they're a
lot trickier. If you do have paint left over, though,
and you're not happy with the color, bring it in.
We'll do what we can and we'll be honest about
what your options are. Third thing to keep in mind
(36:54):
is this, maybe the color doesn't work in the room
that you're working in, but maybe it could work somewhere else.
So think about that, maybe a bathroom, basement, walls, a closet,
a garage, something like that. Don't count the paint as
a complete loss until you've really thought about all the
spaces that you've got, and you know, maybe you could
find a place for it there. Now, I know, picking
the wrong color really really stinks. I've been there. You know,
(37:16):
it's really disheartening, really frustrating. But as we wrap this up,
let me leave you with a couple final thoughts. First off,
if you're not changing the color dramatically, you know the
color you picked, the new color that you need in
that space isn't that different. If that's the case, repainting
usually isn't going to be as bad. The second time
you've done the hard prep. It's going to go a
(37:37):
lot quicker than you think it's going to. So rest
in that confidence a little bit. And then the last
thing I'd say is this too is going to pass.
You know, right now it feels huge, this mistake, you know,
wasted time, wasted money, disappointment, all of that. But really,
in a few weeks or months, the moment's going to fade.
You know, maybe you'll even be laughing about it someday.
(37:57):
Maybe you won't. But at the bitterness, the the bite
of it all is going to fade. You're gonna forget
how frustrated you were. You're gonna move on. You know,
we've all got that one project or more that we
had to do twice. This one just happens to be yours,
you know, so go a little easy on yourself. It will,
you know, the pain will go away as time goes by.
(38:19):
Time heals all wounds, even poor color choices. All right
at Repcolite. Remember we've got color experts in every single store.
So if you are struggling with a choice, bring us
your fabrics, your cushions, your artwork, whatever you're working with.
Bring photos. We've got an eye for color, and we've
got the experience to help you narrow everything down. All right,
that's all the time we got. That's gonna do it.
(38:40):
We're gonna wrap this one up. If you want to
catch it again, you can find it online at repco
Light dot com. Whatever you do today makes your paints
a part of it. And remember your next project is
way easier than you think. Stop by any Repcolite location
and let us help. Have a great weekend everybody, and
I'll see you next week. I'm Dan Hanson. Thanks for listening.
(39:02):
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