light blue turned smurf

doctoranda

Last week I bought this "soft blue" paint color to paint my home office with. When I started painting I realized that I didn't like the color all that much and stopped painting after 1 wall. I really wanted a grayish light blue but this is more between a nursery and smurf color (in the morning light it looks a lot better than the night). We are on a tight budget these months so don't want to paint over the wall but just combine it with another color. I was thinking a greige or light taupe. What do you guys think? I have light oak floors and a light wood desk in there (which I may paint white). I put a light taupe paint chip up against it and it looks pretty nice. I think eventually when we have more money I will paint over the smurf wall. For now I could use some advice on the rest of the walls, and the drapes etc. to tie everything in nicely. The room has huge windows from floor to ceiling and is facing East. 

TheyCallMeLiz

Depending on where you bought the paint, you should be able to take the paint back to the store and have them add white to soften it up. Of course this will require you to have a sample dried to determine if you like it. May take a couple tries, but that could help.

Susie Derkins

Is there enough paint left in the gallon to cover the entire room (starting over)?  If so, I'd take it back to where you bought it ask what they could do to change the color to something you like better.  I'd do that before just trying to mix paint willy nilly and hope it comes out ok.

In the future, if you like muddier colors, try picking from the neutrals section of the fan deck rather than the brighter colors.  Just going up to the lightest shade on the paint chip doesn't help you avoid that "baby boy" look with blue for example.  Lighter shades of bright colors are just bright pastels.

doctoranda

Thanks TheyCall, that would have been a good idea were it not that that one wall I painted took up almost an entire 2,5 liter can. My husband told me to just do the whole wall with it and let it sit. (I started freaking out right away). I still have to pint 2 other walls though... Btw it does not look good with white (which would be a safe bet you'd think) because it makes the blue a bit harsh in my opinion.

doctoranda

Thanks Susie for the advice. I will need to be more careful in the future This just seemed so pretty and perfect for an office. I have to say though that in general I do go for the neutrals but at some point started to feel like light blue would be good for the office. I have not enough paint to have mixed and paint the whole room with so am seriously looking for inspiration to contrast it with neutrals and make the mistake into something unusual and perhaps fab (as sometimes happens with mistakes ). I think one reason the paint also didn't work out is that the space is small and the color pops of the wall too much.

Susie Derkins

doctoranda:

in general I do go for the neutrals but at some point started to feel like light blue would be good for the office.

Just to be clear, I didn't mean neutrals like "gray/beige/tan/white only."  I meant colors from the neutral section of the fan deck:

The third section from the left is what SW calls the Fundamental Neutrals section, and there are blues, greens, etc. in there.  They're just muddier than the bright stuff in the first and second sections.  That's the section pretty much all of my paint picks come from (including blues & greens).

BrianaBones

Most paint stores will sell you sample tubs of custom colors for $2-3. They're SO so so worth it. for next time anyways. 

some colors are just hard, they change in every light. 

doctoranda

Thanks for the clarification Susie! The colors in that section all do look very pretty indeed! 

doctoranda

Briana, I guess that's what I'll do next time. One has to learn from one's mistakes. It's funny that you mention the light as, now that it is dark here, the color looks amazingly beautiful. But still maybe too much if the whole room was like it...

BrianaBones

I just painted my whole house. the sample tubs were a life saver. 

My bathroom would have ended up a completely vomit shade of green if I hadn't tested it first. Sometimes you can love the swatch, but it just completely changes on the real wall!