Color Time!

GOODNESSGRACIOUSLAWSYMEOHMYAUNTLUCY! Look at that color!

That is how I am feeling about the new color for our house. [the Asian lilies ain't too shabby, neither] Harry just began painting on the back side of the house and I can't quit going outside to look at it.

Some peeps have asked how I go about creating custom colors and this is part of it. If you aren't interested you are excused to surf elsewhere for now, but be sure to come back in a day or so!

You may remember last week when I wrote about how we picked the color together. Well then I mixed up a small batch of it with acrylic paints and painted a large area on the house. In the sunlight, the color appeared much faded so I had to deepen the hue. We waited a few days, living with the color during weather changes and times of day, noticing as we walked past.

It took several color adjustments but when I finally got the color we liked, I took it to the paint store. They did the computer color scan and mixed the paint according to the formula the computer gave them. The problem of course is that the pigments the paint store uses and the acrylic pigments I have are different. Add the fact that their computer program uses a diff color theory and so of course we ended up with a diff color than we really wanted. It was a too-bright pastel blue green.

So I took a bit of it & put it into a small tin and added a bit of yellow to warm it up and a bit more of magenta to de-intensify it. Took this to the color store and they color scanned this but of course the computer just told them to add black to gray it out. If you want yummy colors NEVER EVER allow the color store to add black to the formula!!! But the price you pay is that you will be there quite awhile adding units of color bit by bit until you get "around" the black to what you want. And if you get crabby paint store peeps, you also have to put up with them trying to make you feel like a nuisance.

So I was there a long time. Actually the paint store guy was really great and patiently allowed me to tell him what to mix into the can. First we added just a bit of yellow. Then we added increments of magenta cautiously, mixing and test swatching between each one. After six additions, we got the magenta right and added a bit more yellow. After an hour I think he really felt accomplished when I told him it was perfect... WE DID IT! I think I will take him some brownies as thank you. And maybe a photo of the house. No wait, maybe not a photo, he might throw eggs at it when he drives by...

But wait, maybe he won't if I put a link to their store Sherwin Williams @ 1884 W Main St, Troy, OH. Tell them the redhead with the turquoise paint sent you.

Of course there is so much more to color and some peeps have asked for a color-mixing workshop with my focus on intensity and my anti-black-pigment campaign. Think I'll post a poll to see if anyone's interested. Please vote. TNX!