How to tone down a bright paint color?

How to tone down a bright paint color?

Hi,

There are a few things you can try!

This is a problem many of you might like to have an answer for in your bag of tricks. You have just painted your walls the perfect (you thought) color to co-ordinate with the tile on the floor or the bedding in your room. Once you have painted the entire room, it seems the color choice was a poor one. What do you do?

You really have two choices:

1. Paint three of the walls back to a neutral color, leaving the bright color as an accent.

2. Wash on a pale faux finish to “tone down” the bright color.

The easiest and most fun choice is to faux finish over the bright paint you have used.

Wash on (not a ragging or ragging off) a watered-down or glaze in off-white/pale cream. This will “frost” the bright color. If you try to add on darker colors, they will seem to float on top of the bright color and not blend. The idea is to add this wash that will tone down the paint color without having to paint the entire room again from scratch.

The trick is to get the wash to go on with a nice blended look. This may take more than one trip around the room. I would suggest that you get your hands on a tool called a “Woolie” to apply and blend the finish. It is a sheepskin-covered tool that blends the glaze without leaving brush stokes.

You will also need a chip brush to get into the corners and ceiling line. Use the chip brush with a delicate touch and you should be able to blend the glaze into an even finish over the entire wall.

You can also paint a mural on one or two of the walls to coordinate with your new bedding. This would give the color a reason to “be”.

Hope this helps to fix a few rooms and get rid on a few headaches!