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Original poster

Hallway colour crisis

336 replies

TailorTack · 12/03/2026 07:33

Well this was the colour I wanted. Tailor Tack. For our tiny little entrance, stairway and upstairs little landing. Can't even call it a hallway really because we have no hallway. I wanted to make it look lovely. But we couldn't justify the cost of F&B.
So based on me wanting a pale white pink, DH bought Blossom White Dulux and we've just spent the week prepping and decorating, it has taken 5 days, using precious annual leave time to do it whilst DC are at school and out of the way.
It's nothing like it looked online or in the colour chart pamphlet, or in the tester patch.
Online and in the Dulux colour chart it looked a very pale chilled out pink.
In my hall it is.....basically bright lilac.
It's not the colour I wanted at all😰
DH has hit the roof and said "You do this every time! We decorate a room after weeks on end of looking at different shades of different colours, then when it's done you always say you don't like it!!!". Which I can't deny. But the colours never look the same on the walls as they do on the charts, or even the tester pot patches!
Oh, forgot to say, we started off painting it what looked like a lovely sedate green on the colour chart but it looked like grey sludge on my walls so we abandoned it 1/4 way through and that caused a row in itself. And a waste of money.
I wanted a nice, very pale, calm, muted white pink.
What I've got is bright lilac, maybe you could call it bright but pale lavender.
It literally looks NOTHING like the Dulux images of the colour on their website.
It looks nothing like other images of it online.
It's done now and I will be able to live with it though I am upset because I wanted to love it. I wanted to walk in and love the colour that greeted me. Instead I think "urgh, don't like it".
DH likes it!
DD 10 is skipping around saying it's the best colour ever!!!
But DS 14 absolutely HATES it. He literally hates it. He's saying "I love our house, why have you painted the hallway bright purpley-pink?!?! It's horrible!".
This morning DH said to DS "Is the colour growing on you?" And DS said "I can't even talk about it" whilst looking mortified.
I feel really bad for him.
Should I lump it, having both spent a week of AL working on it? And just tell DS he'll have to live with it?
Or change it and risk a massive fall out with DH? He won't take any more AL to do it all over again so it'd be me on my own. And he'll argue about the time and cost involved.
And if I buy another 7.5 litres of a different colour paint, I may as well have just paid more for F&B and got Tailor Tack in the first place😪
We have an absolutely tiny little house with a tiny little hallway. I wish we could move to a more spacious house but we can't. So I thought 'Okay, just make the best of what we've got' and I was trying to create a beautiful entrance/stairs/landing. I've seen tiny houses on Pinterest/Instagram that still look lovely if they're decorated absolutely beautifully and tastefully. That's what I was trying to achieve but have failed.
So
Leave it be, or go through the pain of changing it?

OP posts:
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17
Hermyknee · 13/03/2026 11:47

Pay £2.70 for the blossom white tester from the dulux website. Find a big piece of white card. Paint the white card to the edges and let it dry and place it next to your walls. It will show how wrong the shop got it. You could even download their visualiser app but I would get the tester to confirm.

Hallway colour crisis
pitterypattery00 · 13/03/2026 11:31

My tip for the future would be to paint the tester on to a large white piece of cardboard or paper, leaving enough of a white border all around the new colour so you can see it against the white. Try sticking it to the walls in various places and keep it up for a few days so you can see what it's like at different times of day, in bright sun, artificial light etc. Agree with PPs that light bulb type and North/South facing all makes huge difference.

I learnt the hard way myself so I feel your pain. And I did repaint as it looked ridiculous in my case. Given your walls are freshly painted you wont have to prep the walls again or do ceilings/woodwork so it should be a lot quicker. (For those saying they've painted 3 rooms in a day etc - in my experience the painting is the quick bit, it's the prep if you live in an old house). The prep alone of our dining room/kitchen walls took a professional 2 days as so much work was needed.

Comefromaway · 13/03/2026 10:50

If your room is North facing than Tailor Tack has warm pink undertones which makes it a good colour choice.

Blossom White has cooler lavender undertones which makes it not suitable for a north facing room.

TheYorkshirePudding · 13/03/2026 09:50

It’s because it’s north facing? I think north facing rooms bring out any blue in the paint hence why it’s gone lilac …you need a yellow base for north facing. Think like a concealer pallette - yellow is opposite blue.

Icedcoffeeforme · 13/03/2026 09:06

I had the same colour happen to me! I wanted light blue-grey for the living room and stairs/landing. We painted test patches all over the place. We had professional decorators in who got the paint we wanted from Brewers and they painted our house the same purplish colour it looks like you have. I really didn’t like it at all but couldn’t bring myself to say so because of the time and expense and so lived with it for years. When we repainted I looked into the undertones of the paint and that seemed to work well to achieve a colour I wanted.

Littlejellyuk · 13/03/2026 08:22

TailorTack · 13/03/2026 07:03

It did, yes. And I immediately said so. But DH was saying it's because I was looking at a much bigger surface area once he'd rollered it all over the walls and was saying paint colour all over a wall looks different to a tester patch colour because the brain takes in much more of the colour so sees it as a different colour to how it sees a tester patch colour surrounded by the original wall colour. He was telling me this theory every time I said "Hang on, it looks a very different colour to the tester pot, it's got much more blue in it!". Then he was saying the light was affecting the colour of what we were painting on, that you can't tell its true colour when it's wet, that it would be the same colour as the tester once it had dried out, that it would take a few days for the colour to settle down. He was saying this throughout! So I went with it but I did keep saying it's not the colour I wanted and I've spent weeks looking at the right shade and using tester pots and now we're painting on a colour I didn't choose and which is different to the tester pot patch. That's when he started arguing at me.

Edited
Show quote history

I'm honestly surprised that a mumsnetter hasn't yet said LTB . 😂 🙃 🤣
Every thread I go on, someone always says LTB. But in your case it could stand for
Leave The Blossom (paint) 😆

Edited to say, I honestly would repaint 💐

watermybegonias · 13/03/2026 08:01

I would still go back to the store, honestly, if only to prove you are right!!!

Yadday · 13/03/2026 07:58

Repaint it if you don't like it.

I think the colour has been mixed with too much blue. Personally.
Tailor tack is a warm yellow paint.
Blossom white has more red. I don't think that's a good compromise for tailor tack. But that aside, I do think your colour has been mixed up wrong. Get a tester pot and check.

Needtosoundoffandbreathe · 13/03/2026 07:56

We once had paint mixed at Homebase and the machine colours were topped up between tins being mixed. Result: two completely different shades, despite it being a computerised system. I suspect you have a combination of the lighting affecting how the colour appears on the walls and that it was colour mixed rather than off the shelf.

If you hate it, don't live with it. It'll just bug you every day. I would have Tailor Tack matched at a Johnstone's Decorator Centre and try a sample first, then redo it. The machines at Johnstone's are great and they are aimed at professionals.

To the poster who scoffed at 5 days prep: proper prep is always the key. At least when you paint over this it will be quicker.

We once picked a pale brown colour called something like Just Nutmeg from Dulux. It was bloody pinky peach on our walls. Also bought Mellow Mocha for the living room and it was lilac!! Both rapidly got painted over.

Melarus · 13/03/2026 07:51

You could wait till he goes away on a trip, and repaint sneakily then. Once it's done, it's done, so he can hardly complain. Maybe he won't even notice......

diddl · 13/03/2026 07:40

Oh dear.

He's sounding like a bully who can't be wrong.

He should have just painted a patch & let it dry when it was so obvious a difference.

holidayonkirrinisland · 13/03/2026 07:27

I’m still laughing about the DS who doesn’t want to talk about it.
What a lot of fuss from you all about nothing!
Hilarious.

Original poster
TailorTack · 13/03/2026 07:03

diddl · 13/03/2026 06:40

So they didn't mix what you asked for.

It must have looked very different to the tester though!

It did, yes. And I immediately said so. But DH was saying it's because I was looking at a much bigger surface area once he'd rollered it all over the walls and was saying paint colour all over a wall looks different to a tester patch colour because the brain takes in much more of the colour so sees it as a different colour to how it sees a tester patch colour surrounded by the original wall colour. He was telling me this theory every time I said "Hang on, it looks a very different colour to the tester pot, it's got much more blue in it!". Then he was saying the light was affecting the colour of what we were painting on, that you can't tell its true colour when it's wet, that it would be the same colour as the tester once it had dried out, that it would take a few days for the colour to settle down. He was saying this throughout! So I went with it but I did keep saying it's not the colour I wanted and I've spent weeks looking at the right shade and using tester pots and now we're painting on a colour I didn't choose and which is different to the tester pot patch. That's when he started arguing at me.

OP posts:
Original poster
TailorTack · 13/03/2026 06:52

MeAndMyGhost · 13/03/2026 05:14

I am so invested in this thread 👀

Will you repaint OP? Do you think DH will come round?

Ha! I'm invested in it too!😂
Will you repaint OP?
ATM I'm trying to work out whether to re-paint by myself which will cause DH to argue and fall out with me. I mean he really will fall out with me and get in to an awful mood about it, which I need to weigh up. He will see it as a waste of his A/L time. And a waste of his money as he bought the paint. It still cost a lot of money even though it's 'only' Dulux.
Do you think DH will come round?
No. He likes it.
Although I will add that he says he likes any and every colour. When we put the green on the walls first up, and it looked grey and sludge like, he said he liked it. When we painted the walls white as an undercoat, he said it looked nice. I think DH saying he likes it simply means "It's paint/I don't care what colour it is/I'm point blank not redecorating/so it's fine/end of discussion."
Basically, I'm over invested in this colour and DH is underinvested.
Honestly if we'd painted it Magnolia or Majenta he'd just say "It's fine, I like it, I'm not re-painting".

OP posts:
diddl · 13/03/2026 06:40

So they didn't mix what you asked for.

It must have looked very different to the tester though!

Original poster
TailorTack · 13/03/2026 06:31

iamnotalemon · 13/03/2026 06:12

This is a crisis? Really….

It was a tongue in cheek title.

OP posts:
Original poster
TailorTack · 13/03/2026 06:29

Rednotdead · 12/03/2026 22:30

Colours look different in different lighting. Lesson learned and buy a few tester pots next time, paint a large square from each tester pot and live with it for a week, then see which one you prefer.

I did.

OP posts:
Original poster
TailorTack · 13/03/2026 06:28

WimbyAce · 12/03/2026 22:05

My daughter has the pretty pink and it is kind of lilacy. Confused why you couldn't have just bought the pot of blossom white, why was it made up?

I couldn't find the ready made version anywhere local to me. None in stock at 3 different B&Q stores within driveable distance. Our nearest Homebase closed down. Then I tried local Brewers, it said 18 in stock online. I called them to be sure and a very helpful man said that meant 18 pots of base in stock and then they add the Dulux colours to make it up to Blossom White. It wasn't a colour match in a different 'Brewers own' make. It is Dulux, in a Dulux tin with a Dulux label. He said they do it like that because they're a trade place. I didn't question it at the time really, I was just pleased to be able to find the paint to buy.

Hallway colour crisis
Hallway colour crisis
OP posts:
AloeTom · 13/03/2026 06:22

RogueFemale · 13/03/2026 00:54

@TailorTack I just replied to another thread about this, and tester pots etc.

After years of agonising, and spending a fortune on posh paint samples, I discovered Dulux Heritage.

You have to get the fandeck. https://www.duluxheritage.co.uk/en/products/details/dulux-heritage-fandeck

I haven't bought a tester since then, nor regretted a colour choice.

The colours on the fandeck are exactly the same colour on the wall. Fuck all the stuff about getting the daylight-facing wrong, or the lighting wrong.

I guarantee, choose a colour from the fandeck which looks good, order it, paint it. And everything will be fine.

Edited

Was not my experience with Dulux heritage at all. I bought multiple testers and tried them in various places in my kitchen. All were different.

iamnotalemon · 13/03/2026 06:12

This is a crisis? Really….

MeAndMyGhost · 13/03/2026 05:14

I am so invested in this thread 👀

Will you repaint OP? Do you think DH will come round?

RogueFemale · 13/03/2026 00:54

@TailorTack I just replied to another thread about this, and tester pots etc.

After years of agonising, and spending a fortune on posh paint samples, I discovered Dulux Heritage.

You have to get the fandeck. https://www.duluxheritage.co.uk/en/products/details/dulux-heritage-fandeck

I haven't bought a tester since then, nor regretted a colour choice.

The colours on the fandeck are exactly the same colour on the wall. Fuck all the stuff about getting the daylight-facing wrong, or the lighting wrong.

I guarantee, choose a colour from the fandeck which looks good, order it, paint it. And everything will be fine.

Paint Finishes - Matt, Eggshell & Primer Paint | Heritage

Choose from our range of versatile paint finishes from classic, long lasting matt paint to quick quick-drying primer undercoats and eggshell paint. Shop now.

https://www.duluxheritage.co.uk/en/products/details/dulux-heritage-fandeck

Rednotdead · 12/03/2026 22:30

Colours look different in different lighting. Lesson learned and buy a few tester pots next time, paint a large square from each tester pot and live with it for a week, then see which one you prefer.

Sometimesyoujustneedachangeofname · 12/03/2026 22:19

Do Dulux still do the offer where if you don't like the colour that they will change it for free? Check online OP. I changed something years ago because I couldn't live with it. It's a bit in your face for a small hallway and I too have a small hallway. I couldn't live with it.

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