Why is decorating so sodding difficult???

[BigSkies22]

Just a bit of a rant really. I have spent two weeks prepping a room for redecoration - sanding, filling, caulking, sanding again, cleaning surfaces. Used sample pots (Little Greene) in the way directed, took advice on room light and orientation, consulted. Actually, that was probably where I went wrong - went with DH and DS preference against my own.

The results are shit. A pastel abomination when what I wanted was rich, warm and sophisticated. It's quite funny really, but I'm going to have to start again. What is wrong with me??? why is the soft, rich, warm blue I see everywhere on the internet so hard to repeat in my own house.

Anyone else experienced similar gaps between fantasy and execution?

Just to clarify - this is what I've got after days of careful prep. This is LIttle Greene Delicate Blue and China Clay on the ceiling.

I hear you!! I know that soft warm, rich, warm blue - I am also looking for it, but can’t find it!

For me, it’s always the removal of wallpaper resulting in awful walls beneath that gets me 😫

Same here, but with green... I bought a billion green tester pots, tried the favourites on 2 or 3 different walls of the room, looked in daytime and nighttime, picked one - and I don't really like it . It's nice in daylight actually but in artificial light (which is nearly all the time as it's a dim room) the colour is too bright.

I have lived with it a few years now and am just putting up with it till it needs redecorating again.

Looks beautifully executed OP even if it’s not actually the colour you wanted!

Surely you won’t have to redo all the preps again, you can just paint over in the richer/warmer blue once you figure out what that is?

Also, if it is just freshly painted I think it’s worth waiting a few days until it’s completely dried out to see the full final effect, also with your furnishings and other colours in the room.

How did you use the sample pots?
My tip would be paint a piece of lining paper, you usually get close to A4 size from a sample. You can then move this round the room; alcoves, bright areas, corners etc and get a good idea of how the colour looks in different lights.

Im the same. Currently got a sort of lilac which was meant to be pinker but seems bluer so a bit cool toned. Also problem with my lack of skill at making walls look nice and smooth, painting edges neatly, painting picture rails and so on. I don't have the funds to pay a professional unfortunately

Picture rail should be same colour as above it. I think that is making it look a little amateur.

Also it always looks better once finished, curtains, light fittings, soft furnishings all make such a difference.

Nah I like the picture rail being the bottom colour, it’s give a more immersive look.

@JustWonderingIfYou

Picture rail should be same colour as above it. I think that is making it look a little amateur.

I agree. Looks a bit weird to me not to have the picture rail white like the ceiling and wall above it.

I would try going over the picture rail and see how that changes the look of the blue.

It looks blotchy because it needs another coat

I agree that the picture rail needs to be white

Paint UP OVER picture rail in my book. And the book of many interior designers too. But it's only one coat on the picture rail currently - I"ve done enough to make me lose heart and realise that the colours ain't right and nothing will make them so.

Yeah, I get that it won't be finished until it's finished - but I'm getting new curtains organised too, so need to get the colours right.

I did the paper painting and the painting of sample patches straight on the wall. I was thorough. TBH, Delicate Blue was not my choice, I wanted Brighton. Image attached - Brighton is the patch on the rhs of the fireplace. DS didn't want it because it was very close to the colour of the tiles - that was a point in its favour in my opinion.

Brighton is better.

If you repainted it would your dh actually know it wasn’t the colour he picked if you didn’t tell him?

Women can distinguish more colour tones than men on average.

I commend you for lovely prep. That is always time well spent and will make it quicker when you do change the colour - either now or in the future. I had a similar experience redecorating the home office. I prepped, lined, sanded, replaced skirting etc. Painted it ‘pale lupin’ by little greene which is a lovely warm blue used elsewhere in the house but I don’t like it in the office. Gah!

Surely only up over picture rail if you are painting the wall above the picture rail?

I would definitely either do picture rail in the China clay or paint the blue on the wall above the rail.

Also agree your blue was nicer! Lovely high skirtings you've got.

I find very pale blues are generally tricky to work with. Ditto greens. Just pastelly and difficult to coordinate. Mid or dark tones seem to be more up to date and look better with wood tones, in my opinion.

Little Greene always looks better after a couple of coats, try it and see what you think. Honestly, we used hopper and I was really worried after coat 1 but three coats in I love it.

All the prep hasn't gone to waste. Just change the colour. I agree it's not great. It's a sort of baby boy nursery blue.

It's not white on the ceiling. It's China Clay 1. In the south-facing room on the ground floor below this room, China Clay on the ceiling comes out as a warm, sophisticated neutral, not noticeably pink, just a little something humming away. In the south-facing room here, it looks sugary as all fuck. I'm going to paint over it, possibly with Slaked LIme.

Green -- so many greens, aren't there? I have had a great result with Opal by Fired Earth - really translucent, cool and elegant green, in a north facing bedroom. Paired with oyster woodwork and walnut wood floors and furnishings. Also, Primrose Hill by Mylands in a tiny east-facing room - really gorgeous kind of Mary Quant green. French Green by Mylands also beautiful.

@Wintersbonen - thank you! 'Babyish' was my word too!

I agree the prep isn't wasted work.

I tried a couple of other blues but I think they are too dark and will overwhelm the fireplace tiles, which are one of the best features of the room.

they are Celestial Blue and Grey Stone, attached.

I think you need to either go properly dark on the walls in which case you might be ok with the ceiling colour Or rethink both.

Sorry.

Either of those last two are much better.

The white on the fireplace gives enough of a visual break so the tiles will still pop.

yeah, I am redoing both. I am reconciled to having got it wrong, just trying to feel my way towards a better outcome.

Probably Brighton on all walls and woodwork, and a cooler neutral - maybe Slaked Lime - on the ceiling. I don't think really dark will work in that room because it will overwhelm the fireplace tiles, which are a very nice feature of the room. So I want to take the colour of the walls over the fireplace surround to the tiles. And use the same for the window frames, door, skirting boards, radiator, but in eggshell obviously, not emulsion.

I think I will experiment with taking the wall pigment up over the picture rail and the bit of the wall between the picture rail and where the ceiling curves over. There's a line which seems to offer a natural lid. It would raise the height of the walls doing it this way and reduce the amount of lighter coloured paint bouncing light around in the room.

I don't want to leave the firepalce surround white. I'm taking the colour over the surround to the tiles. The darker colours (Celestial Blue looks like somehting you'd paint a prison toilet block, frankly) will do nothing for the woodwork or tiles.

We have Farrow & Ball Borrowed Light in our bedroom and it is lovely. Bedroom doesn't get loads of sun (north west facing?) but the colour changes with the light.

It's a pale blue. The swatch on the website is rubbish though as it looks nothing like it!