Why sampling is so important when choosing your colour

If we ever receive a negative review at Little Knights, it is almost always about colour from a customer who skipped testing a sample first. We get it. It is frustrating when the shade on your wall looks different from what you pictured in your head, and ordering a sample pot or swatch card can feel like an annoying extra expense or delay when you just want to get started.

But the truth is this: there is no substitute for testing real paint on a real wall in your real home. 

We’re doing everything we can!

Every colour displayed on the Little Knights website is painstakingly matched by colour experts against physical drawdowns of our real, dry paint, using high-end, calibrated screens (for example the latest MacBook Pros).

There is literally no reason for us to display incorrect colours online, it would only lead to unhappy customers, which is the last thing we want. So why do some shades look completely different on your device than on your wall?

The problem IS your screen!

A phone screen or computer monitor is not a wall; they shine artificial light at you. Paint sits on a plaster wall and reacts to the room around it. Relying on a screen to choose a paint colour is simply using the wrong tool for the job.

Your phone automatically changes its own colours. Features like Apple’s True Tone, Android’s Night Mode, or auto-brightness constantly adjust your screens throughout the day. Your phone is literally changing the paint colour on your screen without telling you.

Every screen looks different. Open our website on three different devices side-by-side. The same paint will look like three different shades. Factory settings on phones are designed to be engaging, not to show accurate paint tones.

The same colour shifted by your room

Even if we could magically standardise every screen in the world, the point remains that you can take a single tin of paint, brush it on three different walls, and see three different shades:

Room to room: The same paint will look entirely different depending on which part of the wall it’s on, and where you’re viewing it from.

Morning to night: A shade that looks soft and creamy in morning sunlight can shift to a cooler, grey tone by late afternoon

Sunshine and rain: On a bright, clear day, a room fills with crisp light. On a grey, rainy day, that same wall absorbs the dark sky outside and looks noticeably darker and flatter.

Indoor lighting: Warm yellow LEDs (2700K) add a golden hue to walls, white halogen lights will keep undertones neutral, and cool white bulbs (4000K+) will pull out blue or green undertones you didn't even know were there.

Reflections from surroundings: Light bouncing off dark flooring, green trees outside, or a bold sofa will cast a tint directly onto your walls, altering how the pigment looks.

The solution: test before you paint

We want you to love your finished room, which is why we’ve taken physical colour testing as far as humanly possible. But to be 100% sure, you need to see real paint in your actual room. Here is the best way to choose, from quick test to guaranteed result:

Good: our redesigned Colour Card Features real-paint chips with a clever fold-back design. Fold the card behind any shade and hold the painted edge straight against your walls, trim, or fabrics.

Best: See a large sample of the colour, in-situ by either using our new Colour Swatch Cards (A5 cards coated in actual Little Knights paint), or ordering a sample tin.

Ready to start your project the right way? Explore our range today…