Has anyone redecorated and then hated the colour?

[Shadow1986]

We’ve just had a lot of work done to the house and spent A LOT of money. I really struggled with paint colours and making a decision and felt I was eventually rushed into picking a colour because the builders apparently needed to get started...but actually didn’t for a while after...anyway, room is finished. I wanted an off white but to me it just looks so yellow. It’s farrow and ball Wimborne white, well it was supposed to be but the builder got it colour matched for a cheaper version - husband likes it, it’s just making me feel so rubbish about the whole thing. Has this happened to anyone else and if so what did you do?!

I have Wimborne white all through my house, F&B original, not builders match, and love it. I’m sorry you are disappointed.

Yes. That’s why the best value for money in the world is a tester pot of paint.

Then you need to look at it on different walls, in different lights, at different times of day and weather. The probably takes a week if you are indecisive like me.

I am drawn to colours that suit me in clothing - which are cool blue based.

But the colours that suit my house are red based colours, because of the light, the stonework and the woodwork. Also we are in the country so it’s very green everywhere ( yes even now) and in the north the light is blue.

The first room I painted I used a yellow based off white / cream and the blue light Turned it pale green. So I repainted it a red based warm colour - it’s a beige / off white with the tiniest touch of pink - it just reads as neutral in the room.

I find the way that the posh brands group their colours to be very helpful. But I don’t use their paints, just their information.

Now I have a warm blue in one room and warm green in another and it works well.

If you go on Pinterest you will see that the Americans have a thing about whole house colours schemes and everything coordinating. At first I thought this was wanky nonsense but now I think it’s useful.

So that all your rooms work together and the colours don’t clash - NOT that they match.

It’s harder for kids rooms of course as they often like weird colours. But they do grown out of it.

@Smidge001

I've just done it!! I picked a dulux heritage powder colour, which I thought was going to be a bit like the colour of plasterwork - sort of coffee ish with a hint of pink. But it's come out SO pink!! Arghh! Wouldn't mind if it was a bedroom maybe, but it's a dining room, I've just spent ages doing a wooden floor and our dining furniture is an orangey wood colour. The pink is just so pink it's crazy. I don't know what to do! The painter has done 2 coats already, I don't feel like I can get him to start over. A, he probably doesn't have the time, B his work is really good, it's just me not liking the colour that I picked, and C it feels so wasteful. I keep thinking maybe I repaint when he's gone but that just seems so crazy. Perhaps I'll get used to it? My husband doesn't like it at all and is really disappointed. I'm supposed to be ordering blinds and I don't know what to do now - should they tie in with the pink or should I go with something that doesn't match on the assumption I'll repaint within the year?! God what a dope

Honestly, it will not be the first time he's had to repaint owing to a home owner not liking the colour! Just ask when he's free to do it (you'll have to pay him obviously).

Don't 'waste' his hard work by painting over it yourself & don't try to live with a colour you both hate!!

A waste? It's paint. Not the end of the world!

@Shadow1986

Oh no! Well thank you all for sharing. I’m glad in a way I’m not the only one. We really need a decorator to come along and tell us whether it would be best to say nothing, and redecorate once they’re gone or whether they’d rather we said! My husband just keeps accusing me of being negative all the time but I’m just so disappointed with it.

Just tell him. He's a big boy, you will NOT be the first client who hasn't liked the colour!!

As I said on my previous post, just ask him when he's free. Tell him you're very happy with his work, but don't like the colour you chose! Clearly you'll need to pay him but he's done the hard work preparing the walls, the actual painting is the easy bit.

@LeaveMyDamnJam

I have Wimborne white all through my house, F&B original, not builders match, and love it. I’m sorry you are disappointed.

But colours look vastly different in different light.

@MikeUniformMike

I've used colours and hated them.

What colour is the floor @Shadow1986? A cool floor will make a warm white look yellower.

@MikeUniformMike the floor is grey oak so yes - quite a cool floor!

@LeaveMyDamnJam

I have Wimborne white all through my house, F&B original, not builders match, and love it. I’m sorry you are disappointed.

Ive had my kitchen done in Wimborne white too and don’t dislike it there - so it’s not the colour I dislike. I think it’s to do with the lighting of the living room and maybe the shape of the room.

@Beamur

DH usually picks paint colours. I insisted I got to choose for a change. Picked a colour for the hall. Didn't like it...

That did make me laugh sorry. Did you change it?

But colours look vastly different in different light

And seriously different too. I painted my living room as said in f and b pigeon and it was horrible, it looked either steel really dark grey or in some lights actually a sort of pale blue.

In our bedroom it’s a gorgeous green grey colour.

I have farrow and ball french grey in both living rooms, you’d never know it was the same colour, in the play room it’s a dark greyish green, and in the big living room it’s a pale soft sage green. You’d think totally they were similar but you’d think they were different colours.

I also painted the downstairs room in a soft pale grey years ago, loved the colour, so did the hall in it too. It looked lilac. And had to be changed.

@Begonias never go for the colour on the tin. That is an approximation. The only way to know for sure is if the brochure is actually painted with the paint or buy a tester pot

I found out about the flooring affecting the colour on the walls when I changed the bathroom flooring. The tiled walls now look a dirty yellow-white, whereas they were a creamy white before.

Paint mistakes are magnolia and yellow. What I'd imagined as a soft pastel yellow looked bright lemon in a sunny room. The magnolia was in a room with not muchh natural light and it was a greeny-yellowy white colour in that light. Both got painted over pretty much immediately.

I had the head Farrow & Ball colour consultant come and specify the colours for my house. It cost about £400 which I reasoned was cheaper than asking the painter to repaint my own colour mistakes.

I hate approximately half of the colours she picked.

What’s worse is that I visited a school friend whose new house is totally different to mine - huge, different orientation, in the country - and discovered exactly the same colour consultant had been. Because she’d used exactly the same colours.

@iswhois

Yes. We painted our bedroom what we thought was a dusty pink colour and it turned out lilac.

Put up with it for a year then couldn't beat it any longer, painted it a green colour now and love it.

Was it Dulux dusted fondant by any chance @iswhois? I have that on my bedroom walls too and it's bright lilac. I don't like it either but can't be arsed repainting it at the moment. It's not good paint either, it doesn't clean well and retouching looks awful.

I had my bedroom redecorated. I chose the colour.
Walked in to see it when the decorator had finished.

I hated it.

The decorator was really good about it. He re-did it the following day and didn't charge me much to do it again.

I have a friend who is terrible with colours, she had her house fully done and just picked from the paint tins, ended up with luminous pea green rooms, bright pink, the lot. Nothing like she thought, and disliked it but lived with it,

So about ten years later she had it redone, when finances allowed, and simply said to the decorator, you pick. Literally she just told him to pick colours and to do it. Gave no advice. So He did. She loved it, it wasn’t to my taste to be honest, but still arguably better than before. 😂

Before we moved into our house we were able to get it painted throughout. I'm a fan of keeping it simple so it was white throughout except for two rooms. A sunny pale yellow in the ensuite that was absolutely right. And after much consideration an almond off white in the study. Which I was shaky about from the start and still hate - it turned out the room doesn't really catch the light and the walls seem cold and unwelcoming. If we ever redo it I will be angling for a warmer shade.

15 years down the line the repainting does need to happen, but it's going to be a while before we start at the current rate. The rooms where we are reminded of the previous owner's (bright) colour choices will have to be done first ...

I've been living with Dulux True Walnut for the past 18 months in my lounge diner. Hate it- it's so very...lilac! Yet, in the hall and on the landing and stairs it looks slightly pink and I love it. It's got to be the lighting. I will repaint at some point but it's not a priority

Why on earth did he go off and colour match it?.

Yes, a few weeks ago. Picked a nice rich cream for hall, stairs and landing (house is on three floors, so lots of walls, and high ceilings). DH had the week off work, so he cracked on.

Half way through, we decided that, actually, we really should just get on with it and replace the carpets in the hall, stiars and landing too. went to the flooring shop and we really liked a particular stripe for the stairs. Wondered whether it would go with the half-done paint, but thought it probably would, and I didn't have the heart to say that DH might have wasted the last two days, so DH continued to crack on.

The job took four (long) days. Finally finished. Yay. As he was washing his brushes and putting away the ladders, we said out loud what we had both been thinking - the paint didn't go with the new flooring at all. We choose new paint colours and he redid the whole thing - took less time second time round as there was no filling of cracks etc. Poor Dh spent seven days painting on his week off.

Looks really good now but DH's shoulder is buggered

Yes- dining room- it's a quite gloomy room so I thought that it needs brighten up so choose coral colour- hated it for years( hubby isn't fan of painting so have to wait) - actually it makes my eyes sore, how bright the colour was.
That was years ago, then we were redecorate the room again and I decided for muted sage green- the whole atmosphere immediately changed and the room feels very calm and relaxing.
Lesson learned- never ever strong colours.

I have done this with wallpaper, am going to change it after this is all over.
If you want farrow and Ball you should get it, you will be much happier and if you have paid a lot for the decorating you might as well pay for the paint you really want.
I have farrow and ball helleborus in my bedroom, I love it I'm going to get their paper in the lounge when lockdown is over. X

@Shadow1986 hi OP. Thought I'd come back and see what you ended up doing. I posted fairly early on in the thread with my ott pink dining room, and although it started to improve a little bit after the week mark, I ended up getting the painter to come back and redo in a creamier version. I'm so much happier now, seriously! Cost me another £100 but I am justifying it by spreading that cost over the next 15 years as I'm sure it'll last that long now

[quote Smidge001]@Shadow1986 hi OP. Thought I'd come back and see what you ended up doing. I posted fairly early on in the thread with my ott pink dining room, and although it started to improve a little bit after the week mark, I ended up getting the painter to come back and redo in a creamier version. I'm so much happier now, seriously! Cost me another £100 but I am justifying it by spreading that cost over the next 15 years as I'm sure it'll last that long now [/quote]
Hi Smidge, I changed it too!! Like others said I think the most time consuming part is the filling and making good - the painting was the fairly easy part. It didn’t go down terribly well but it’s done now and I’m much happier! Thanks for checking in. Glad you’re sorted now too.

Glad you’re happy with the change. I’m glad we changed ours too, even though it was a massive fad and so much time wasted, which could have been spent doing other jobs. Or even relaxing!