Hallway colour crisis

B&Q would have colour matched the F&B tacky tailor colour if you'd bought the swatch in with you for a fraction of the price. They do F&B colours all the time.

100%. Looks fine to me OP. More pink than lilac. Though does look darker than the pale chalky, plaster pink you wanted.

But don’t despair. Almost any colour looks good if you roll with it and add the right decor touches: rugs, pictures, plants etc. Pale colours often look darker when on a large expanse of wall, like a stairwell, until you add furnishings. Some black-framed pictures should knock it back a bit.

More concerning is why your DH is blaming you - behaviour your DS seems to be copying. Did he not take equal responsibility for choosing the colour? If he really didn’t like it, why did he persist with painting the entire stairwell in it?

Agree you should check against the tester, as may well have been made up incorrectly. So, you may at least get a refund on the paint. But of course that doesn’t solve the problem of time to repaint.

When you get the new tester do not paint it onto the wall. Get a piece of white card (inside old cereal box works well) and paint the card, then tape it to the wall with low tack tape (only need a tiny piece of tape). Do another piece of card with the paint from the tin and compare them side by side when they are dry. Then you’ll know for sure if the paints are actually different colours.
I do have to say though, I’ve often found when you paint an entire space the colour looks different to the tester, often because of the different lighting around the space. Painting a tester card instead of direct to the wall means you can move it around at different times to day to check the colour really is want you want.

You can get paint mixed from various online sellers by specifying the brand and colour reference. I wanted a Farrow and Ball colour in my kitchen but wanted a more hard wearing and wipeable finish. I bought a specially mixed Crown Kitchen paint in the colour I wanted and it was a perfect match.

If you're asking to match Farrow and Ball beware - the Farrow and Ball paint is nothing like the colour chart. I'm assuming it's a deliberate move to make it harder to match. If they match it to the colour chart it won't be the same shade as the actual F&B.

I think that the colour has been mixed wrong and it's worth going back to the shop. With Dulux it's best to buy off the shelf. You never really know what you're getting when they mix colours.

I'm assuming that the 5 days included a lot of prep work, wood work and ceilings. Changing the colour should be a half day per coat, so not as big a job.

Pink is trickey and it can be hard to pull off outside of a bedroom. If you have a tendency not to be happy with your choices maybe play it a bit safer.

Oh you did, just RTFT.

You had some great advice, no need for smart pants replies. Hope you get it sorted. Only how did you not see this wasn't the right colour? The colour you originally chose is nice.

Dulux doesn't do a 'Blossom Pink' paint though, it does a Blossom Tree (slightly more lilac than Blossom White), a Dulux Heritage Blossom and a Peach Blossom (v pink).

You are getting a harsh time on here OP, but it is AIBU. You might have had a bit more support on Chat or one of the home deco/reno forums.

There is something particuarly heart breaking about investing time, effort and money in home improvements only to find it wasn't quite what you were expecting.

The fact that you wanted a Farrow and Ball colour is kind of neither here nor there as you ordered and paid for Blossom White by and in Dulux! FWIW I think it looks very different from how it is advertised and I would query it with the people who mixed the paint.

One final thing, from somebody who just came home and cried as the grouting in my freshly installed bathroom was 'the wrong grey' (it was supposed to be light grey and came out anthracite!) and then realised it was just because it was still wet! How long has it been since you painted? It may well dry out paler over the next day or two.

Out of interest, did you not test the paint on your walls?

I just wanted to say if you ask for the Dulux copy of any other company's colour the paint shop can match it well

I’m in the “it’s too late now” camp. You should have realised within the first pot it wasn’t right.

Especially if the tin was correctly labelled.

Why so snarky??????
Just why?
Laughing emoji - but you are anything but funny

I knew a staff member had mixed it before I even read that post. Same happened to us. Took it home, slapped a bit up on the wall and was scratching our heads. DH called them and said it looked nothing like the sample wasn’t right, they said go back and they would change it, free of charge which they did.

I’m in the “it’s too late now” camp. You should have realised within the first pot it wasn’t right.

Just leave it and arrange some counselling for DS.

It looks quite nice to me.

Of course they do 😄

They claim 99%, I think
They used to scan the paint chart, but now have a different system - better accuracy???

Re 5 days surely it depends on how much prep and what else done eg woodwork, spindles and doors. Also if only working 9.30-2.30 when kids at school it’s short day. Last time we had hallway and landing done it took a professional a week inc stripping old paper.

Hi OP, you said in a previous post that you wanted Blossom White, but you said the sticker on the tin says Blossom Pink.

Maybe that's the issue?

I will add a point here, because I've been meaning to post something on this subject, going thru the same process.

If you are doing the ceiling and strip above the picture rail as white, as in Pure Brilliant White, you should use that as your benchmark, or ground zero. When doing a colour testing, do a big strip of Pure Brilliant White tester, then apply your tester of the other paint below it.

This is because the other paint - in our case Dulux Heritage Piano White - will, if you will, show its true colours under the PBW. If Piano White ordinarily seems pretty damn nice and white on an old dirty wall (and note of course, most if not all paint colours - but especially whites - look several shades lighter when you first apply them; but the next-day second coat application and then leaving it for a week will show what the colour really is...) it won't in the final analysis. Under the Pure Brilliant White of the ceiling, Piano White looks like Ivory White which is what it really is. It looks like yellow teeth, or a bandage and in the darkness of the hall, looks darker and more shadowy than I'd have liked. I might have avoided this if I'd realised to put the Pure Brilliant White on to compare.

Most Dulux so-called White colours are nothing of a kind, many paints don't do much variation on Pure Brilliant White - imo because they can't sell them in magazines. House Beautiful type mags can only sell bold, dark, dynamic colours because they look good in the photos, variations on pure white just don't.

Benjamin Moore do a pretty good range of almost whites and I think the quality is better so if you did go for Pure Brilliant White all round, their one might look better.

I'm not totally sure about painting a sample on a white card because while it's not an awful idea, the Benjamin Moore samples came out a bit different. Another problem is picking an inconspicuous part of the room or hall to test your paints, because while that's good for a starter, it's not the typical part of the room, it may throw a false reading.

I feel your pain. I have returned a tin of Dulux 3 times now, because the colour on the chart and even in the shop lighting looks completely different when home and under my house lighting conditions. That looks so like Perfectly Taupe that I bought and hated it as soon as I loosened the lid.

I really like the Valspar website as it gives really good information on undertones and groups together in sub colour groups. You can also order "paint chips" I haven't received mine yet so can't comment on how useful they are however... Big shout out to Crown for the A5 paint cards. They are fantastic you get 5 for £4 and can hold them up and move them around your room to see the shade. I got them because I have gone very bold and wanted to be sure - currently painting bedroom in Woodland Wanderer which is a very dark green and I have paint card for dark blue for the living room and picked Midnight Navy.

One of the cards I got was Creme de la Rose which is going to be my complementary colour to the green in the bedroom. It's really subtle.

Highly highly recommend the Crown cards.

Which is why I only ever use F&B and Little Greene. You can’t recreate them because of the pigments they use.
I know F&B say that if the colour is not a match for their colour chart they will come out to see why.
Light changes their colours during the day.
Also for those who don’t know (and I haven’t RTFT) don’t use a sample pot to paint a patch on the wall. Paint a piece of backing paper (or several) and place them in different places on the wall. Then as the light changes during the day so should the colour reflect that.
IMHO if you want a particular F&B colour then bite the bullet and pay for it rather than living in permanent disappointment that the colour you wanted isn’t the colour you are living with.
Worth £100 for the peace of mind to get what you want IMHO.

The stuff in your pic looks nothing like Blossom White. There is a mistake. Phone the shop manager. Take in a sample and the remains in the tub. Don't throw away the label or the receipt or the tub.

That’s very useful to know! Just in the process of choosing between two valspar shades (although I am getting the tester pots not just the little swatches so that should help)

I still can't get over it taking 5 days 😮😂

Please go back to where you had the paint mixed - there is no way on this earth that is how it should have come out. I had a similar thing once but stopped painting very quickly! Take the actual spot tin back and let them see it, and then compare with what it should be.

I know it doesn’t solve your time and energy issue, but a refund from them can go towards what you really want, or just get the Blossom White made up properly.