Question About Paint Colour

woofgang | 17:43 Mon 17th Mar 2014 | Interiors

32 Answers

I am choosing a new wall colour and have got it down to two shades of the same colour. I have painted two tester squares but one is satin and the other is matt. I want a satin finish.
so, two questions to help me make my mind up
All other things being equal
1. does a satin finish to paint make the paint colour appear lighter or darker when the room is painted?
and
2. assuming a satin finish, does the pain colour appear lighter or darker once the whole room is painted than if does on a 2ft by 2 ft tester square?

Thanks oh wise ones.

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jno

Best Answer

22:18 Mon 17th Mar 2014

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woofgang

Question Author

I prefer satin to matt. washability isn't an issue.
Pixie, in your experience, does the colour of a whole room painted appear lighter or darker than a 2 foot tester square please?

pixie373

I would say lighter.

carrust

https://www.dulux.co.uk/products/light--plus-space-matt/

Have a look at this woof.

humbersloop

woof, in my experience - which is on large, exterior surfaces - the perception of the colour depth itself isn't affected one bit by whether the paint is satin or matt, and I believe the same is true for interiors.

The finish affects perception on the surface it's painted on to - so if you have a poor surface, matt disguises it, satin draws the eye to any imperfection.

Brightness or softness is down to the ambient light conditions, so if satin's what you want, use that.

jno

with regard to the tester squares it partly depends on the background colour you're already got - the light yellow squares we put on a darker beigey wall looked darker than they did when we painted the whole room. The bigger the square, I suppose, the less your eye will be tempted to bleed in the surrounding colour; but all the same it will be affected by the ambient light on the colour you've already got.

For bogof reasons, we ended up using the same colour twice - satin in the hallway, matt in the bedroom. The bedroom looks brighter. Partly that will be because it's bigger and better lit anyway, but even with the low winter sun shining down the hall, and all lights on, it still seems slightly the darker. Which is the opposite of what I expected.

So for me that's (1) darker and (2) it depends.

lilacben

There is a new Dulux paint out now called Magic Light and it is supposed to reflect light making things llighter.

woofgang

Question Author

Thank you folks, now we are cooking with gas! I have used Light and Space paint and very pleased with it but the colour palette is limited and doesn't have the colour that I want.

woofgang

Question Author

I am sure you've all been biting your nails waiting for an update so here's the story so far. I painted 3 A4 sheets of paper with the three contending greys, let them dry and then painted over half of each sheet with PVA glue. This gave a satin finish to the covered half of the painted sheet.

To my naked eye, in each case and in direct and indirect light, the satin finished half of each sheet of card looks noticeably darker than the matt half.
So know you know!!

jno

I wouldn't have thought of the PVA, I must say. But the result does match my experience, even if I have no idea why.