Mixing Colours Yourself: Tips & DIY-Instruction

True to the motto "Variety enriches life", MissPompadour offers a wide range of different colour shades. All these colours are created by colour designers who put a lot of love and knowledge into each colour shade. But if you want to get creative yourself or have a specific colour shade in mind, here are a few tips on how and which colours you can mix.

Table of contents:

1. Preparing to mix colours for your individual colour shade
2. Mixing different colour shades
3. Mixing colour shades yourself: Instructions by MissPompadour
4. Which colour gives what?
5. FAQ: Frequently asked questions
6. Material and accessories for mixing colour

Getting Ready to Mix Your Own Custom Paint Shade

Got leftover paint at home, or found a shade that's just a little too dark or too light? Before you dive into mixing and adding different paints, make sure to follow these three essential rules:

• Only ever mix paints from the same manufacturer.
• Only ever mix paints of the same quality.
• Remember, you can never reproduce your custom-mixed shade exactly. So, to be safe, prepare and store a little extra paint for future touch-ups or a second coat.

Our shades are developed with a great deal of technical expertise, passion, and careful consideration. We often spend days refining a single shade, because individual pigments can appear differently depending on the light. Before you start mixing, we highly recommend taking a look at our extensive colour samples of wall paints and paints – you might just discover your perfect shade among them! The big benefit: if you run out of paint or need to touch up later, you can always reorder the exact same shade from us.

Basic knowledge about mixing colours: The little colour theory

Mixing different colour shades

You can mix different colour shades, but we do not recommend mixing different products from different manufacturers. Colours are chemical substances and how they react in a mixture cannot be predicted. Therefore, we cannot give any guarantee for mixing different products from different manufacturers.

Can I mix wall paints?

Can you mix chalk paints?

Mixing varnishes - is that even possible?

Mix your own colour shades: Instructions by MissPompadour

To mix colour shades yourself, you should proceed step by step. We will show you how to achieve good results with this short guide.

Step 1: The Base Colour

Step 2: Shade

If you want a pink shade as the final result, then for your second colour, choose a bold red such as MissPompadour Red with Cherry – The Functional Wall Paint!.

Step 3: Trial Mix

To get an idea of how the two colours behave in the mixing ratio, take a paint tray and mix only a small part of the colour. Note the mixing ratio - for example, three parts white, one part red. Now mix thoroughly and try out the colour on a white piece of paper.

Step 4: Mix the colour

Once you are happy with the result, think carefully about how much colour you will need in total. It is practically impossible to achieve exactly the same colour shade in a second mix. Therefore, this one mixture should be enough for the whole area, including possible touch-ups or a second coat

So use the same mixing ratio as for your trial mix and stir everything very thoroughly.

Of course, you can mix more than two colours of the same quality. The Functional Wall Paint is useful to know which colours produce which colour shade when you combine them. We have compiled the basics for you in the next point.

Which colour results in what?

The colour multiplication table consists of three colour shades: red, yellow and blue. From these three basic colours you can mix all other colours except white. Black is also not easy to obtain. If you mix these so-called primary colours, you get secondary colours:

• Blue and yellow = green
• Red and yellow = orange
• Red and blue = violet

If you now mix a primary colour with a secondary colour, you get a tertiary colour

• Yellow-orange
• Red orange
• Crimson
• Blue-violet
• Blue-green
• Yellow-green

Professional tip: Look at the " Itten colour wheel". This is the best known colour scheme and shows all primary, secondary and tertiary colours as well as the respective complementary colours.

If you mix complementary colours, for example red and green, the result is a rather muddy brown. Mixing these colours should only be done consciously, as they cancel each other out. If you want to get a bright colour shade, mix only colours that are next to each other on the colour wheel.

Our colours do not consist of basic colours, because a colour shade always has several different pigments mixed in. Therefore, when mixing our colours, make sure to use colour shades with the same undertones or the same temperature.

How do you mix the colour brown?

To get a rich brown, you have to mix red and green, or - if you start from the primary colours - red, yellow and blue. If you want your brown to be lighter, add a little white, if you want it to be darker, add a little black or blue.

The Perfect Blue-Green: Mixing Turquoise Colour

Turquoise is a colour that lies somewhere between blue and green. So to get turquoise, you should first mix equal parts of yellow and blue. This will give you an even green. Now add a little bit of blue to this green until you get turquoise. With a little white, the turquoise becomes brighter and more luminous, with a little grey, the colour mixture becomes a little more matt.

What colours do I have to mix to get beige?

To get beige, mix White with Brown. If you don't have brown, take the basic colours yellow, blue and red - as explained above - so that you first get a brown colour shade. You can now mix this with white and - to make the colour warmer - also with a little yellow.

Mixing the perfect pink & rose colour

The colours white and red generally make pink. To get a rich pink, use more red, to get a nice light pink, use more white. Again, there are endless shades, especially if you add different types of red, like cherry red or crimson.

Mixing petroleum properly

Petrol, like turquoise, is a mixture of blue and green. With petrol, however, the blue component predominates and it appears somewhat warmer than turquoise. Here, too, you can bring more freshness and brightness into the colour shade with a little white

Tip: If you are not satisfied with your mixing results despite all your efforts, you may still be able to find your desired colour with us:

FAQ: Frequently asked questions

Materials and tools for Mixing Paint

• Colour Cards and Colour Schemes: Use our colour cards to get an overview of our shades and see how individual colours would look on your wall. This will give you an idea of the wide range of shades we offer. If you want to mix your own, use Itten's colour scheme as the basis for all your paint blends.
• Paint Tray: It's best not to mix paints directly in the original tin, but in a paint tray. Our paint trays are perfect for this.
• Stirring Stick: One of our stirring sticks is ideal for mixing.