A paint color may appear restful on the display, luscious on a lid, and a million miles away once it gets applied to a drawer front. Furniture gets its color by means of texture on the surface, the previous surface of finish, primer, the light source, and the final coat of seal. Testing the color isn’t a break in the decorating process. It is the time you need to prevent having to repaint the most conspicuous surface in the end.
You can start with a sample board, a small bit of scrap, cardboard designed for test colors, and/or the underside of the piece if it is spotless and relatively unobtrusive. Prepare the sample in the manner you will prepare your actual piece. If you plan to clean your furniture with mild degreaser, sand it very lightly, and prime it, you need to treat the sample the same. If you paint a sample on bare scrap, and the furniture you will color is to be primed over, covered in a layer of old paint, or has a veneer or sealed top, you won’t know much about the color.
You should apply the paint in a thin coat rather than a thick, heavy layer. When the brush becomes too loaded, it will build up ridges in the paint that will make the color look thicker, heavier, and darker than it will when applied carefully. Try one area with a brush and another with a small foam roller if you haven’t yet chosen between them. A brush can give off slight texture; a roller is more likely to create a finer, evener surface. You need to let the color dry before you view it. Fresh paint is more often glossier and brighter, and darker, than it will be when dry.
Lighting can play an unexpected role in the outcome. Position the sample board near the furniture location and check it in the morning, evening, and mid-day light. A soft, subtle color might look dingy in the shadows of a corner. A punchy color can look harsh against the background of a wall, a rug, or curtain. Keep the sample next to current or replacement pieces of hardware, including knobs. Drawer handles, hinges, and other metal or wooden accents can make a color appear warmer, cooler, heavier, or lighter.
The topcoat needs to be applied to a sample as well. You should test the wax, the matte sheen, the semi-gloss, and a water-based poly topcoat in the same way. Each can alter the surface in subtle and important ways. Some will darken the color, and others will give it a gloss. Some will make brushstrokes more obvious. Paint a second section of the sample and apply the type of topcoat you plan to use, so you can compare it to the unpainted area. This is especially useful for chalk-style paint, dark colors, pastel colors, and dry-brush techniques since the topcoat can affect the overall appearance of the furniture.
You can also balance the colors with a sample. If you intend to stencil an accent color on the side or the trim of a drawer or a chair leg, you want to try the sample color next to the color you will use to paint the furniture first. A combination that looks good in a small paint swatch will likely seem too busy when you paint a whole drawer front. Use a patch of the color and view it from several feet away. Are you choosing a color because you like it, or because it is the right color? Is the furniture going to look relaxed enough with those colors?
A test will do the job best when you use it to make at least one choice. Maybe you will paint a lighter base coat. Maybe you will use a satin-finish topcoat instead of a semi-gloss. Maybe the stencil color is too close to the furniture color. Those decisions are much easier to make on the sample board than the actual furniture. Before painting your furniture, keep the test sample on hand. You will be able to refer to the sample for color tone, finish gloss, and when to stop painting as you finish your furniture.