Physical sample tracker
One row per candidate you have actually sampled: what it is, how and where it was tested, what you saw at which hours, and where the decision stands.
Candidates and observations
The "approximate screen swatch" column is optional and exists only so the printed sheet has a visual reminder beside the name. It is not the paint. The record is the brand, name, code, product and sheen, and the observations you wrote. Status: confirmed means the practical minimum was met and you chose it: real paint (or the real item) seen beside the main fixed things, once in daylight and once at the hours the room is mostly used, with a line or two noted; that is enough for most decisions, and more days or weather are optional; provisional means leading, but the minimum is not met yet, or you are waiting on something you decided matters; unresolved means a question is open (a strange cast at one hour, a trim conflict, a sheen doubt).
How to use this sheet
- Narrow before you sample. Module 8's shortlist is about five chips per surface at most; Module 9 brings two or three of them to sample. Each row here should be able to say why it earned a sample; liking it is a valid reason.
- One sample method per row. A chip, a peel-and-stick sheet, a brushed-out sample on poster board, and a patch on the wall tell you different things (Module 9 explains the limits of each). If you tested the same color two ways, use two rows.
- Say where the sample was placed. "Next to the floor by the window," "against the trim on the shadow wall," "leaning on the sofa," "held on white paper." A sample is always seen against something; say what, so the observation can be compared later.
- Log the looks, not just "day and night." The minimum is a look in daylight and a look at the hours the room is used, a line or two each: the time, the lamps on or off, and what you saw. Weather and extra days are optional, for hard or expensive choices. The light log holds the general observations of the room; this column holds what the sample did.
- Record the sheen you sampled and the sheen you will buy. Sample products are often one sheen only; if they differ, note it, because sheen can change the look.
- Promote, do not overwrite. When a provisional becomes confirmed, change the status and add the date; when it is rejected, keep the row and write why. Rejected rows are the reasoning you will want when someone asks "did you try a warmer one?"
- Confirmed rows go to the schedule. Copy the brand, name, code, product and sheen into the room-by-room schedule against the surface.
The example rows are Wren Lane: Joan's evening living room with the burgundy sofa, oak side tables and a cream rug. Joan looked over three days, more than the minimum, because she was unsure about one candidate; her rows show a fuller test she chose, not one you need. Brand names in the examples are placeholders ("Brand A", "Brand B") and the color names and codes are invented, so that the sheet shows the shape of a good record without pretending any real product behaved this way. Your rows will carry real brands, names and codes from the chips and cans in your hands.
This sheet records what you saw. It does not know what a paint will look like in your room, and the hex swatch beside a row cannot tell you a paint's undertone, its manufacturer's light reflectance value, or a match in another brand. A manufacturer's technical data sheet and the can govern product facts; your own observation at the hours you use the room governs the color decision.