The *Beige* Colour Adventure

So, I had decided for beige walls in the bedroom (or we had, but my intended was onboard the black walls-boat and the wallpaper-boat aswell as this my latest proposal..) Isn’t beige the beigest word in English! Sounds terribly blah and weak. Well it’s not, it’s the new white and a loved child is given many names the Swedish saying goes so how about tan, cafe latte, camel, champagne, khaki, beach, oatmeal, sand and almond to mention a few. Anyhow, it’s one of the most difficult colours to find the right hue of. We bought and tried 11 sample pots. From Farrow & Ball, Alcro and Måleributiken mainly. None of them fitted this specific room. Too dark, too yellow, too red, too beige. The Stockholm-White walls, in all light-directions, transformed into a patchwork of beiges:

OK, so you got 11 small paint cans of imperfect beiges on your table. What would Pippi do? Yupp, make her own blend! So, I took five generous table spoons of the best match, Joa’s White (“J” in the pic). Added a spoon each of the two second bests (lovely colours but not perfects here); Stony Ground and Savage Ground (“FB”, “SG”) I stirred briskly. To lighten this blend a bit and introduce some red to balance out the yellow I added a teaspoon of Måleributikens almost-white powder-rose (left overs from painting the xmas candlestick-lamp) and a teaspoon of Alcro’s Strand (“AS” in pic) I finished off with one more touch of Joa’s white. Stirred it and served the wall. Wait to dry and another layer. Next day: Perrrrrrfect! :) So we took it (painted on a stick) to my fav DIY-store K-rauta. They put my sample under a machine and the nearest shade as per the NCS standard was 1505-Y30R.

The visual blackness is 15 %, and the colour strength (chromaticness) is 5 % (in scale 0-100). | y30r | indicates the ratio between the two chromatic properties y (yellowness) and r (redness) on a scale from 01-99 (0 means that color alone is yellowness as indicated by only y and 100 means that the color has only redness as indicated by just an r). So it’s yellow with 30 % redness. Hence a light, warm-grey-beige colour with a reddish-yellow hue.

1505-Y30R is one classic Swedish “latte colour”!!! Recommended in several Swedish house & home discussion boards! Widely popular. That’s what happens when you go Pippi Longstocking with Farrow & Ball paint..:D Am I complicated or what?!

Now I’ve only seen this paint without daylight, but sofar I join the chorus of praise for 1505-Y30R – it’s an excellent choice :) Need advice on beige paint? Just ask ;) And as for our walls, case isn’t closed…yet.

Update: In daylight, in this particular room, 1505-Y30R was far too pale, almost lilac. Next step was to research the NCS-colour system – which (theoretically) lead me to the hues S1005-Y30R, S1510-Y30R and S1510-Y20R. The first-mentioned colour was too pale, next too yellow, third too red/warm. Conclusion: the NCS – Swedish colour standard system – couldn’t help us here. And all F&B paints are inbetween the NCS-picks; with only “Lime White” being close to a NCS, S1005-Y20R. Lesson taught? Go for a ready-mixed hue. So we’ll buy a few more samples to get the right one:)

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Doris

At least you can say that it’s ‘a special, custom blend – carefully put together’ rather than ‘Latte’. :)
Mia

Hah, yes! Though it seems all roads lead to Latte :)

Have decided now to give it another try, mix a new blend, because this popular Latte looks extremely pale, almost lilac in daylight….Wish me Luck Doris! :)
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=816943415 Lilly Jones

*LOL*! You’re a genius :) So what’s the next step?
Mia

I know….:D I ruled out 1505-Y30R (too weak) and made another blend, or two to be honest, painted test squares and will scrutinize it tomorrow in daylight. If it passes, I’ll go to paint shop for examination and test can/s.
Now the result *must* be worth the effort. (And if I get the “latte”-hit again I give up :))
Doris

Good luck! :) It would be nice if you post something when you get the final color! :)
Elif Ciceker

so which beige should i choose with Farrow &Ball ?
Mia

I can not recommend one single F&B-colour, as none of them were totally right for me, and all of them were beautiful colours in themselves. Some notes on my experiences:
*”Joa’s White” is very close to 1505-Y30R, “perfect beige” in dark and (too) pale in daylight.
*”Savage Ground” is a stronger beige with a very nice balance. It’s slightly warder/redder than..
*”String”, which also keeps its strength in daylight and has a yellowish tone with greyish/soiled feel.

Good luck on choosing! My only and strongest advice would be: try the paint in the room. The different angles and admittance of light (as well as the decor) considerably affect the colour. What is right in one room, due to light etc, might be the totally different in another room. And that’s particularly true for beige :)
Annette Dahlström

Such an interesting post!

My “perfect beige” is definitely S 2005-Y30R. It´s pretty close to your homemade blend, but more to the grey side. I once copied it from IKEA´s kitchen “Duvbo”, and I believe they also used it for their Gustavian range of furniture in the 90´s. It´s perfect, not only for walls, but also for furniture and woodwork, especially against white walls. Sort of gives the room a cosy, old fashioned feeling… This colour changes a lot with the light, and depending on the amount of gloss in the paint. It can be both gray and latte. Truly fascinating…:)

//Annette
http://trendey.com Mia

Thank you!

Wow, that’s interesting to hear! Maybe Iif I had stretched the process to S 2005 I would have found it too! I will definitely save this in my beige-notes. It is for sure a fascinating colour spectra! Crazy diffucult and magic when you get it right. Many thanks for your note.