‘Does paint dry darker or lighter’, a frequently asked question that might have popped in your head at some point in your life, and surprisingly almost all of us can relate to it.
Imagine you just started painting your living room with a decent cranberry color with fine strokes that even Leonardo da Vinci might have appreciated. While the paint was drying, you saw changes in the color on certain spots. You painted those spots again thinking you missed those spots.
Finally, you finished painting, the wall is still wet and due to your repainting, the spots are now darker while the rest of the wall seems lighter. Oh, those darker brush strokes on a nicely painted wall are enough to drive anyone crazy. That’s not all of it, it could have been the opposite! Your painted wall could look darker after drying.
Does the scene seem familiar? That’s not just you, multiple factors determine whether your wall will look lighter or darker after the paint dries. And there are homeowners out there who may be more than you can imagine with the same question as you are having right now, ‘does paint dry lighter or darker’.
Take a look at this brief article to find out the answer and why does your paint dry darker or lighter?
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Does Paint Dry Darker or Lighter?
Before we move any further, let’s find out if the paint dries darker or lighter. To answer the question precisely, “paints do not dry lighter or darker in general”. But to answer the question in a balanced way we can say that paints may appear darker or lighter after drying depending on various factors such as the temperature, paint types, environment, and many other reasons including psychological factors.
Here are some reasons that make dried paint appear lighter or darker:
Temperature
You might not expect this one, but temperature can affect the dried paint’s shade. If you paint a surface at a cool temperature, like more than 10 degrees cool temperature, thereafter the color of the dried paint, is most likely to appear in a lighter shade.
On the contrary, if you paint it over 10 degrees warm temperature, thereafter the dried paint color is most likely to appear in a darker shade.
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Impact of Surrounding Walls and Objects
Another big reason for the paint to appear darker or lighter after drying might be the objects around the painted surface and the surrounding walls.
If you apply a color to a surface surrounded by objects and other walls with different colors, the color of the surface will be significantly different than the color you saw in the store.
But why does it happen?
Well, in some cases, the surrounding walls especially with walls painted in light colors create some sort of an illusion. Lighter shades create a deceiving contrast in the room. That means brighter colors on walls will reflect more lights than the darker ones.
On the contrary, darker colors absorb colors from the surrounding walls. So, when applying dark color on a wall surrounded by other walls with dark colors, your newly painted wall will absorb colors from surrounding walls. The contrast between the dark colors of other walls versus the newly painted walls will give you a darker shaded wall after drying.
That’s why sometimes you get your newly painted wall darker than the shade you saw on the color swatch.
A Quick Tip: When you are pairing a paint with red, you are most likely to get a brighter red surface if you choose red with its complementary such as blue or green. On the other hand, if you are selecting red with its similar colors such as yellow or orange you will get a darker red surface.
So, to get accurate colors after drying, always keep an eye on the color selection list considering the colors of surrounding walls and objects.
Lighting
1. Natural light
Light sources and the amount of light may greatly impact the color of your room. Lighting can be a potential answer for ‘does paint dry lighter or darker than swatch.
Both sunlight and your interior lighting slightly alter the tint of a color. Sunlight can improve your room’s color depending on the location of your room from the sun’s position.
- If your room is facing the north, natural light from the north will add a bluish touch producing a softer, and warmer effect on your room. So, darker hues will turn into a bit more intense and light hues into more subdued.
- If your room is facing the south and you have south-facing doors and windows, it will receive the most intense natural light through these doors and windows. As a result, darker colors of your room will turn brighter and light colors may appear lighter or a bit washed-out.
- In the case of a room that has west-facing doors and windows, you will observe a little orangey warm cast in the room. So, if your room has already been painted with a warm tone like Warm Amber, Yellow, or Rich Cream, it may become a bit more saturated.
- Finally, rooms facing the east will observe the enhancement of green tones on the walls. So, if you have color tones in your room similar to green, the eastern light rays may impact the color.
2. Interior Lighting
Fluorescent, incandescent, and halogen bulbs are widely used for our daily interior lighting. These artificial lights impact the color of your room too.
- Conventional fluorescent bulbs are best-known to emit a bluish-toned, cool light. This cool light can improve the colors which are in the cool-blue region in the color wheel.
- Incandescent bulbs emit a warm light. Bright and warm colors will be more intense if you use incandescent lighting in your rooms. On the other hand, paints with cooler hues will look a bit dull.
- Halogen bulbs are very similar to natural light, just like a replica. It will keep the color of your paint very close to a hue that results in natural light.
Sheen
Before we dive into the depths of the effect of sheens, first let’s have a quick check on ‘what is sheen’. Sheen means the paint’s finish. It refers to the paint’s finish like matte, flat, and gloss. Okay, ‘sheen’ is understood. Now, let’s find out if sheen has any effect on paints or not.
- Matte
Matte finish has nothing to deal with gloss and whatsoever. Since there is no special type of finish on matte paint there is no gloss or sheen to refract light.
Matte paints don’t make a glaze as the pigments are fully unhindered in paint. Woah, it’s getting involved in too much science stuff. So, if we finish it in a sentence, ‘they are light absorbent’, that’s the reason behind matte paints appearing lighter.
- Satin and Eggshell Paint
Satin, an excellent choice for rooms that we use frequently. Its performance stands as a ‘one of a kind’ when it comes to scrubbing and regular cleaning, but does satin paints dry darker or lighter? Let‘s find out.
In our paint spectrum, satin and eggshell paints are in between matte and gloss. Satin has roughly 40% gloss and eggshell has roughly 15% gloss. So, Satin will appear brighter than the glossy paints.
- Gloss
Gloss paint gives a reflective glaze. It has a special additive in it that makes it shinier. We are not jumping into science stuff again. We can simply say, glossy paints appear in darker hues.
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Paints that Change Color after Drying
Some paints are known to naturally change their color after drying. The color becomes a bit lighter or darker after they dry. If Leonardo would have painted Monalisa with these colors, besides changing smiles maybe we could see her changing colors!
Wondering what would it be called, ‘the Chameleonisa’? Nah, I guess not, my jaws are hurting. Anyway, let’s have a look at the paints that change shades after drying.
- Darker Drying Paints
Paints like acrylic, oil, and latex are more likely to dry in darker shades in most cases. Glossy and semi-gloss paints are also darker drying. The reason for their darker appearance is the reflection of light.
- Lighter Drying Paints
Some paints dry in a lighter shade and the science behind them is different from the darker drying paints. Colors like Cream and White dry lighter. These colors appear light as the shades themselves are light in color. The reflection of light makes these colors appear lighter.
Metamerism
Last but not least, we have metamerism. Warning: metamerism is psychological-sciencey stuff, you may take precautions if you have science allergies!
Joking apart, metamerism is a phenomenon when in different circumstances color looks different to a person, which means your eyes are playing one of the oldest tricks from the book!
When selecting paints, we compare our selected colors with shades and colors of the surroundings, and this is where your eyes trick you. That’s why you may see a beautiful shade at the paint store and a completely different shade when you paint your living room!
To avoid this situation you can make large single swatches before selecting a color.
Wrapping It Up
To jump to a conclusion, the colors of your wall may change a bit for various reasons as we have discussed before. The quality of paints matters a lot, plus the mixing of paints and techniques of application plays a very important role for a color that remains the same for years.
Another important fact is that the paint swatch that you choose on the hardware store may not dry while you apply paint. If that happens, all you will see is wet paint. As a result, you will find your painted wall different from the paint swatch of the hardware store.
So, if you don’t want any surprises after the paint dries, you may wait for the paint swatch to dry or you can always call the experts to make sure you get the color that stays the same for years.
