Unpopular opinion: I think paint samples on paper are a waste of money

Spent $30 on sample pots for my living room in Austin last weekend, then realized a paint store employee told me they change color on the wall by 30% from the swatch. Has anyone else just skipped samples and gone straight to painting a big test patch on drywall?

2 comments

2 Comments

rowanp1514d ago

Change by 30%" sounds like a made up stat. Just paint a big square on the wall.

wendy_clark14d ago

Oh man, $30 on sample pots hurts my soul. I once spent a whole Saturday painting a giant test square on my dining room wall, only to realize my cat had been rubbing against it and left fur imprints in the wet paint. Had to repaint the whole patch anyway, so it was basically a waste of time and paint. But I swear the color on the wall looked totally different than the little paper swatch. The lighting in my kitchen made it look like a sad beige, not the warm tan I wanted. Did any of your samples actually match the wall once you painted them?