Please help me with light brown paint

[wowfudge]

I thought I'd cracked it yesterday after trying four tester pots, but after painting a larger area with the rest of the tester I think my chosen colour isn't right.

Need to re-paint under dado rail in hall, stairs and landing. Above the dado is Crown Wheatgrass so the other colour needs to work with that. I chose Dulux Soft Stone as a lighter brown than the current Crown Walnut. This morning the Soft Stone looks too pink. We had exactly the same issue a few years ago with a colour called Nutmeg which was a hideous pinky peach on our walls and was painted over after nearly two coats everywhere.

So suggestions please for a perhaps more yellow toned brown which is sufficiently darker than Wheatgrass to look obviously different. My preference is for a one coat paint as this is supposed to be a quick job! Aargh.

I will need to try more testers I know but do not have bottomless pockets.

Mix a darker one with some white?

Could do I suppose - but then I'll have to buy two cans of paint.

Natural Hessian?

I think that might be too greyish actually thinking about it. Egyptian Cotton?

We have London Stone in a downstairs cloakroom and it's a great colour.

Wheatgrass looks to have some pink in it though, so I'd not completely all Browns with a touch of pink.

Natural Hessian is too pale. Totally agree about a pinkish tinge to Wheatgrass, which makes it quite difficult to get a colour that complements it. If Crispy Crumble looked grey on our walls, Egyptian Cotton definitely will. Actually the area was painted in three shades of grey when we moved in. It was gloomy and cold feeling.

Now I think I looked at London Stone online earlier - but it's £38 a tin. Gulp. I've also read about F&B paints needing three coats to get a good result.

Sorry, meant to also say the Caramel Latte looked better this morning. So I need something between that and Soft Stone. I live near a B&Q warehouse but they've rearranged the paints and sample blocks in such a way that it's just confusing and they don't seem to have all the colours and finishes displayed. Annoying.

I have crown East Village and love it.

Also the Dulux mix to order range - if you can get that near you - have a look at the Bleached Litchen card.

I have now painted some Wheatgrass alongside the Caramel Latte and plan to go back to B&Q to find something darker than the Caramel Latte. If necessary I'll get something mixed. Thanks for the advice so far. I might look at colour matching F&B's London Stone.

I did two coats of London Stone which was fine.

If you are going to be doing a lot of decorating then I highly recommend getting hold of this box which has the latest colour swatch cards from all the brands, and you get a paintbrush too. Then you don't need to trawl around all the shops picking up the cards. Costs 5.95 including postage, and its a big old box of delight

Thanks for that TheWild. One of the issues in B&bloodyQ was that they just didn't seem to have any colour cards. I've had one of those things in the past now that I think about it.

London Stone here too, with Oxford Stone. Only 2 coats & it's gorgeous.

Which colour cards are missing? Do you mean the painted display chips?

Crown paints are £9 as opposed to £18.47 in b&q ATM.

Right - update time. I had a disaster having something mixed which then looked terrible. Possibly can use it in a different room with different light. Have learned then anything which looks just right in daylight is about 10 shades darker on the bloody wall in the hall. It was as dark as the existing colour but more yellow/orange toned.

I wasn't convinced London Stone was right, although I do like it so I bit the bullet and went to Farrow & Ball. I have to say I have never spent so much on a tin of paint! Went for Oxford Stone as I felt London Stone would be too dark. They tried to get me to have Elephant's Breath but it's too grey for our hall. I have painted - all done with one coat. I'm really pleased with it - loads of paint left over though.

The reason you've seen them selling Crown at such a low price 26Point is because they are discontinuing them. My local one has hardly any Crown stuff left and there wasn't the colour I was after anyway.

This experience has been a typical quick paint job: becomes a costly, time sapping exercise!