Test Paint Colors on a Movable Board for 48 Hours Before You Commit

The Problem

Every paint color carries an undertone the chip doesn't show: the gray that reads purple by sunset, the white that goes pink at 4 PM, the warm beige that turns khaki next to oak floors. A two-inch chip under store lighting knows nothing about your windows, your floors, or what your living room does in the evening.

The Technique

1. Skip the chip. Buy the sample pot and paint two thick coats onto a piece of foam board around two feet square. Now the sample is portable and opaque enough to trust.
2. Move it around the room. Lean it on the wall that gets morning light, then the one that gets evening light. Stand it next to the sofa, hold it behind the bookshelf. It will look like four different colors in four spots — that's the information you came for.
3. Wait 48 hours before deciding. Look at it over morning coffee, at sunset, and at night with just the lamps on. A color that works in all of those is the right color; a color that only works in one of them is a chip that got lucky.
4. Check it against what stays. The rug, the pillows, the art, the floors — paint lives next to everything else in the room, and the undertones either cooperate there or they don't.