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Hi all,
our new house is currently being painted with Lexicon and I could nearly cry because its not at all what I was hoping for. Its throwing way too much blue and just doesn't have that slight grey tone I was expecting. AFter much googling yesterday I've discovered this can happen with whites that are tinted with black. Wish I would've done my homework first before going with Lexicon!!
It looked lovely on the little paint chip we got, but a whole house filled with it just isn't working the way I imagined it would.
Its only had 1 coat, is it likely this blue will "settle down" after it has its final coat? If not, is there anything we could possibly do with the remaining paint to tone this down or whatever before applying the second coat? I know nothing about paint (obviously!) so please forgive me if my questions seem silly. I don't trust the advice of the paint rep we have been dealing with, even though he is a friend of my husbands and has worked in paint for years, any advice he's given or questions he's answered haven't really been on the ball if you ask me. Unfortunately thats the problem when you deal with "mates". You're stuck between trying to be nice and keep the peace, and trying to be 100% happy with the choices you make based on advice you're given.
One thing is I know even though we chose a dulux colour, he uses Solver base paint. Would this make a difference? Hubby says no because they still mix it up using the correct code...but I'm not so sure.
Here are some pics of what its looking like so far...I realise light/shade make all the difference when we're dealing with whites and yesterday when I took these pics it was a shady overcast kind of day. So I'm hoping on a nice bright sunny day when all our furniture is in things might not seem so bad....but I'm not expecting much considering it was bright and sunny on Friday when I first saw it. Its an expensive mistake to make when I'm going to have to look at these walls for the next however many years it will be before we can afford to repaint it
Edited: ok, so clearly I can't figure out how to attach pics properly either
I'll keep working on that...
don't judge the paint colour until all the coats have been applied and dried.
some think that it makes no difference, I think that trying to replicate one brand colour with another paint company does make a difference, they may look similar but the base will always be different and that has an effect on the finished look.
Surrounding colours will all have an effect, whether that be what the ceiling is painted or the furniture & accessories - you have an empty room and thus your focus goes onto the walls, once the room is filled with other items then your focus will shift
I hope this gives you some reassurances
Thanks very much for your reply
I think I've figured it out....our ceiling & cornice is painted in plain ceiling white, ie pure white, nothing else. It's obviously making the slight colour in the Lexicon more obvious.
Unfortunately nothing can be done about that now, hubby said repainting the ceiling is out of the question. I shall wait until the final coat goes on, and if I still don't like it, I'm just going to have to deal with it. We have 2 small kids so the walls will probably be wrecked in 12 months and need refreshing anyway
Hey - we have full Lexicon on all of our walls too (half lexicon on the celings) and I too cried when I saw the blue tinge when the house was being built!!!
BUT after moving in and having warm coloured furniture it has totally changed the colour and does not look blue at all now.
Even with muted light coming through curtains at different times of day it looks much more warmer than when you see a stark white wall in an empty house with out curtains!
Here is a linked to some just moved in photos of our place - the Lexicon looks warmer here
viewtopic.php?f=31&t=32916&hilit=wilson%27s&start=700I know how you feel because I felt the same - but rest assured that once your house is full of furniture it will all be ok
It looks good in sleven's house, I can't even notice a tinge of blue in it. I am sure once you have your curtains up and furniture in it will look great.
aaarrgggg!!! have picked lexicon throughout my house, so Im a bit worried.I wanted a grey toned white and searched on the forum to find lexicon.Sleven your thread was one I came across while researching and love your house, was the decider for me when picking my paint color.
Please let us know how you get on with your 2nd coat, hope youre happy with it.....
sleven thank you for that - your pictures are gorgeous!! Why doesn't mine look like that??? I am hoping once we've moved in ours too will look that good. You're right, not a hint of blue in any of those. Its exactly the look I was trying to achieve! I am planning on charcoal coloured carpet (if I can find anywhere that stocks it, having trouble with that, everyone who I've visited still seems to have all the boring old beiges & chocolates etc). Hopefully that will make a difference too. I've been stressing all day wondering if I can possibly change to something like White Duck Quarter strength if the Lexicon is still too "blue" when its finished. But fingers crossed it doesn't come to that. We really don't have the time or money to change our mind and start from scratch, so if it doesn't end up looking as good as yours sleven I will just have to learn to love it I guess.
Thanks everyone for your replies, once its finished I will try to figure out how to upload some pics and you can decide for yourselves whether my eyes are playing tricks on me.
I too am going for charcoal carpet, also black and white kitchen, bathroom etc.I found some good charcoal carpets at carpet court, in both wool and nylon varieties.
I actually have a sample pot of lexicon, which I should probably paint something to see it for myself.Our building co also use solver paints too.
I have used Lexicon throughout my house (except the Theatre room and one feature wall) and it's great. Very neutral. Not a ting of blue to be seen. Great colour. Wait until you've furnshed the house. I think you'll like it.
Casa2 did you use full strength Lexicon? And can I ask what colour your ceiling is? The only reason I ask is because we've had Lexicon half before and there was not a hint of blue, it was great. But now that we've gone with full strength it seems to throw that blue back. Our ceilings are pure white as well - I reckon if we'd gone with Lexicon 1/2 or 1/4 we wouldn't be seeing any blue and it would've looked perfect. But oh well - you live & learn!! I know a lot more about colours and paint than I did a week ago.
The painter is going to mix up whats left as 1/2 strength now and do the 2nd coat with that, he's done one coat on one wall and its looking better, not nearly as blue. Whiter than I originally wanted, but better than blue. So I'm happy with that
I got my sample pot of lexicon out and tested it out.did 2 coats of a reasonable sized area, and not a blue tinge at all,actually just looks like a bright white, if anything it is a bit whiter than I thought it would look.Have looked at it against my colors and I like it, not so sure if I will later on though with 4 males in the house!!!
I hope the girl at the paint place put the right amount of tint in it, as it really does look just white.
mary23 - I will check out a Carpet Court re the Charcoal carpets, thanks! I'm glad to hear your lexicon doesn't seem to have any blue to it. I honestly think the problem for us has been the fact we have pure white ceilings & cornice, its drawing the "colour" out of the Lexicon. Everyone who has seen it has told me it looks blue (everyone except for my husband that is). If its still so "blue" when its all finished and we've moved in I will just learn to love it until we can afford to "renovate"
girlonamission (love that name!),
We have ceiling white ceilings and Lexicon (not half or quarter, that is, full strength). As others have said, outs doesn't have a hint of blue. Also, we have no cornices (square set). Maybe it's worthwhile getting a paper sample and holding up to the wall (to check it was mixed correctly at the shop and that the Solver base didn't distort anything.
Cheers,
Casa
Hey Casa2, thanks for the name compliment
. Well before doing the 2nd coat the painter re-mixed the paint for us to half strength, and I'm very happy to report that the result is MUCH better, and no longer any hint of blue. I don't know why it looked so blue in our house, but everyone who saw it said they could see the blue straight away. the painter grabbed the brochure I had and put a little bit next to the sample, it definitely looked the same as the sample so as to why it looked so blue on our walls, well our only solution seems to be a combination of plain white ceiling/cornice and not a lot of natural sunlight coming into the rooms. Either way, I'm much happier with my 1/2 strength now so thats a relief!
Thanks everyone for your input
so pleased youre happier with the color now, can i just ask can you see the grey tone in the white or does it just look really white?I keep looking at the board I painted with my sample pot and it does look like just a vivid white to me.
Hi mary23,
against the plain white ceiling & cornice, you can definitely see they are different colours, and the hint of grey is quite obvious. Not in an obtrusive kind of way, but you can clearly see it is a different colour against the plain white. I was really nervous about the 1/2 strength too because I thought it looked like vivid white as well, but once on our walls it hasn't come up that way at all. It really does seem to depend on what is against it (at least, thats the case in our house). I think if you had a room that got a lot of bright sunlight, it would look very white. But ours doesn't have a whole lot of sunlight streaming in so its just perfect now for ours.
Hope that helps!
thats good.thanks
also any luck with searching for your charcoal carpets?I have picked one in a solution dyed nylon, really quite dark and I really like it, I think it will look fabulous with the lexicon.Really didnt have a preference for carpet except for the color, went for a lower priced but still good quality one which is only for the bedrooms, as Im spending more on the living areas by getting bamboo floors.
I have a friend who works in a carpet court and she prefers the wool carpet and we did find some that come in charcoal too.
would love to see some photos of your house later on.
I haven't actually had a chance to go carpet shopping yet, but I'll have to get my act into gear very soon because it will only be a few weeks before we need it. Just been so busy with everything else. I'm not sure whether to just go with a cheaper carpet or not - we have 2 kids aged 4 & 2 and they absolutely wrecked the carpet in our last house (both were spewy babies so you can imagine), so I don't think its worth putting good quality carpet in until they're older.
I'll definitely put some pics up when I figure out how. I should probably start a building thread, although now we're almost finished its hardly worth it! I've got plenty of progress pics though...will see how I go.
I am sure the colour will look better when there is furniture in the room. We are having lexicon 1/4 with charcoal carpet and grey tiles. I have to say you all have great taste lol. I would love to see some pics when you are all done
Oh, I am, however worried bout our kitching going with our wall colour. We are having a polar white kitchen and am worried that that will make the walls look bluish. Do any of you have a white kitchen with lexicon?