Lighting plays tricks! Time and time again when a paint job is complete, homeowners will stand back, examine the walls, and ask… is that really the same colour on these 2 different walls? The answer is always yes, and I don’t blame them for the question one bit.

The purpose of this post is to primarily make homeowners aware of the role that lighting plays regarding paint colours and then to offer suggestions on how to best prepare and mitigate lightings tricky nature.

Lighting plays a huge role in how your walls will look after everything dries. From straight sunlight, to changing daylight, fluorescent light, halogen light and incandescent light, they are all going to differently affect how your walls will look. The position of the light source in the room can also affect two neighbouring walls differently. So, what can we do?

Before having your rooms fully painted, the best thing that homeowners can do is to put test samples on their walls with 2 or 3 of the top paint colour choices they have narrowed the decision down to. Trying samples out on different walls, in different rooms, and in different corners of the rooms allows homeowners to get the best idea of how that colour will look after the full paint job is complete. Having test samples on the walls for a couple of days lets you see the colour in different lighting at different times of the day. Doing it this way will give you the closest representation of what that colour will really look like in your home. It is important to note that typically the test cans that are used for sampling is a different product/sheen than what will really be used when the rooms are fully painted, so there could still be a very slight variance.

If you are not fully committed to having your house painted, then you probably don’t want to walk around painting test samples on numerous rooms in your house. If this is the case, then the next best option you can do is to paint a piece of Bristol board or foam board the potential colour. The sample board can be held up to different walls of your house, next to certain pieces of furniture, and examined under different lighting to give you a solid representation of what it will look like.

Hope that helps!