Sax Maniac's Journal: The Man's Guide to Picking Paint Colors

Ever paint a room, finish, and... decide that the color sucks? This happened all the time to me, and for years I couldn't figure it out. Maybe you picked a color, liked it, and took it home. Maybe you even did your homework, took home a few cards, and picked from one of those.

The answer: never, ever pick a paint color in the store.

Here's what you do.

1. Buy a book of color sample cards. Not one card, ALL of them. For $15, you get all the colors you could ever want. Take it home and walk around. $15 is nothing compared to spending $50 in paint that you absolutely hate, and the wheel will last longer than you do.

2. Pick your hue, by considering the deepest color on the card, usually at the bottom. Most of the cards are different lightnesses of a single color, with the basis color at the bottom. If you want a light gray with brown undertones, look at the bottom - it should be a deep brown. Sometimes the base tone is surprising. You might find the base tone is orange when the lighter tone looks brown.

2. Pick your shade by choosing one of the levels on the card. After you pick it, go one level lighter. There is a bit of an optical illusion you need to compensate for, when you take that chip and put it on a big wall, it will feel one level darker, even though it's technically the same shade.

3a. (for married people): Spread out the next few colors card to the left and right of your chosen hue, off the wheel. Let your wife pick the particular color. This will save lots of problems later. Note that I did not say you actually need to buy that shade, just let her pick.

4. Test your color by looking at the chip in daylight, and at night with the lights on. Natural daylight is much bluer than typical incandescent light bulbs, which are more yellow. You might find that the added blue at day, or the added yellow at night, is not to your taste. I distinctly remember picking a tan-looking color in the store for our bedroom. After painting, it looked deep yellow under our room's lighting, and I hated it for years.

5. Now go buy your paints. You should know which finish you want, and let the store guy pick the can. Certain color go with different paint bases and you'll get it wrong. Before you leave, make sure he didn't screw up by looking at the color sticker. The particular base paint should match the sticker.

6. Don't paint yet! When you get home, do as they do on those stupid home improvement shows, and put a good sized splotch on the wall. This is not pointless or for show. Let it dry, and look at it under different lights as above. Let it sit for a day or two. Look how the finish covers the wall - if you have walls in poor condition, a shiny finish is going to magnify those imperfections. If you do this before prepping and taping off the walls, it will have plenty of time to dry. If you hate it now, you've wasted a few bucks, but don't have to live with that color or finish for years.

7. Now paint. When you put it on at first, it will look way too light, and you'll think that picking the lighter shade in step 3 was a mistake. Be patient. It's going to dry one level darker, and when it's everywhere, it's going to feel one more level darker.