Choices, Changes

Continuing saga of the 1st floor hall tile pattern.  I tried to post Wednesday, to give an update on my progress.  But my computer wouldn't load the photos.  (Blzzzzt).

Let's see what luck I have today.

OK, above we have the view from the front room, quite over-illuminated and yellowed by the light sources. But you get the idea.

And now from the kitchen end:

These are as of early morning, Thursday the 10th, just after I completed the first coat of tile pattern.  Is anyone surprised that I think it's too loud and unsettled for a floor?

So that evening I called the Sherwin Williams store in Beaver Falls and asked Mark the manager if they were able and willing to retint as little as a half quart of somebody else's paint, and if so, for how much.  Sure, he could tackle that, provided I wasn't hoping to come out lighter or brighter, for $2 a can.

(I'm deliberately giving the particulars, so the Sherwin Williams people will get the credit.  The yellow color I originally chose was too greenish from the start, but the Lowe's paint department guy said they couldn't retint it to match another, toned-down color, even an untouched full quart.  I had to do that myself, by mixing in smidges of the red-orange.  And if you're wondering, the reason I didn't get the paint from Sherwin Williams in the first place was because when I bought it last fall-- thinking I was going to get onto this floor painting job right away-- the SW floor paint line wasn't on sale and I simply, simply cannot afford to buy it when it is not.)

I took the half-can of Valspar "Hot Pepper" porch paint and the three-quarters can of "Sunbaked" (again, tinted so by me) up to Beaver Falls and Mark the manager very skillfully added colorant to transform them respectively to "Red Barn," a deep-baked brick red, and "Ligonier Tan," a color that on the card looks almost khaki.  For convenience, I'm calling it "buff," in line with standard Victorian tile color names.

That night I laid the second coat on the first two rows, just to find out what the general effect would be, then let it alone till yesterday.  I got lots done yesterday.  Lots and lots.  Maybe too much.  Because the more I did, the more I wondered.  The new red color was good, lots better.  But the buff color . . .  I wasn't sure . . .  was it still too . . . ?  . . . I was afraid it was still too . . . .

Before I could cut myself off from getting upstairs, I maneuvered my way up to my computer and submitted the photo above to a little editing.  I came up with this:

 

I was concerned that I wasn't getting an accurate representation (Ha.  That's a laugh, considering my camera and my computer!), since both work lights were trained on the surface when I took the picture above.  So I shot it again in daylight, voilà:

Either way, with the brown it looks more like a floor and less like a flying carpet.  I posted them side by side to my Facebook page, and as of this afternoon the vote is unanimous for the scheme with the brown.  And here's precedent for it, from a British tile distributor's web page:

So now I've been to Lowe's ('fraid I have to continue with the paint I started with) and brought home a few card samples of possible browns, which I intend to study in all sorts of lights to see which one I'll choose.  That I shall change the buff to a brown is without doubt, as tedious as I find painting those 2x6 strips to be.