WHAT? You cannot match my paint color sample??!!!

[JDgreen227]

I painted the hallway walls and stairway to the basement a light ivory color with eggshell latex when they were new 12 years ago, and the paint is scuffed in many places. Decided to get a gallon of paint from Menards for touch up purposes, and I took along a sample of the paint on both wood and drywall for comparison. The paint on the walls has NOT faded but because it gets a lot of natural sunlight and is brightly lit at night, any color mismatch would be apparent but my samples were an exact match for daytime sunlight. The guy at Menards tried twice to match my samples, both gallons he mixed came out darker than the hue I wanted. He told me "There is something wrong with your color samples..." (!!!!!!) and suggested that I just buy a paint using one of their (Dutch Boy brand) stock colors. Or: "You can buy these two gallons and mix them together so they match and then repaint the hall and stairway. Problem is, the stairway requires a ladder and scaffolding to reach much of it, and the hallway color is the same as the bedroom it leads into with shared wall area.

Is it REALLY that hard for a store to match paint colors, or did I just end up with an incompetent and ignorant employee?

 

[RobertBrown]

If you really want a perfect match you have to go to Sherwin Williams, Benjamin Moore or a "paint supplier". This is expensive but you will get a better quality covering. With the shade you have it's going to be a crap shoot even still.
What did you use for a sample?

 

[JDgreen227]

If you really want a perfect match you have to go to Sherwin Williams, Benjamin Moore or a "paint supplier". This is expensive but you will get a better quality covering. With the shade you have it's going to be a crap shoot even still.
What did you use for a sample?

In original post it notes I took along a sample of the paint on both wood and drywall...about a 2 1/2" square of each. I don't have any problem with going to a store like Sherwin Williams, but as I was at Menards to pick up supplies like sandpaper, roller covers, spackling compound, etc. I thought it would make sense to get paint at the same time. The paint stores like SW or BM are NOT open on Sundays.

 

[MikePA]

We've gotten really good matches at our local Ace Hardware store. We took in the lid of the empty paint we wanted to match, a shade of red. They did a great job of matching and the only one who can see the difference is me, since I know where I touched things up.

 

[Duwop]

Seriously, you expect to get a match 12 years after the fact, manufactures blends,colors and tint are different not to mention batches. If you ever get a "Perfect" match it is by chance, luck or both. I know we want to believe that computers and spectrum analysis is so great compared to the complexities of color, but Come on for crying out loud!

 

[MikePA]

A couple of questions/observations...No offense meant, just trying to understand.

I took along a sample of the paint on both wood and drywall for comparison.

How were these samples created, from paint from the original can?

The paint on the walls has NOT faded but because it gets a lot of natural sunlight...

Just curious why you'd think 12 years of natural sunlight would not fade the paint?

The guy at Menards tried twice to match my samples, both gallons he mixed came out darker than the hue I wanted.

Did you determine this by painting the Menard's paint on the samples you brought and letting it dry?

I could understand the Menard's paint not matching the paint on the wall, but I can't see why they couldn't match the samples you brought.

 

[zzvyb6]

Why don't you just go to their paint swatch wall and choose a sample (with a name and a mixture formula) that matches the sample you took in? That's why I never paint with a 'neutral' color. Besides being boring, 50's -60's, dull , lifeless and cold, I believe its also hard to match. One dribble from the mixed sample done previously will screw it up. The ones mixed before me always seem to be the colors NO normal person would paint in a house, but are the ones they let their kids pick out.

My whole house interior is painted in a color spectrum we call mustard, relish and catsup. Every wall is painted a different one of these three colors. Nothing boring in here. Colors match those of all of our stained glass lights and windows.

 

[zzvyb6]

You know that fresh wet paint is darker than the dried version, right? As it dries, it lightens up. If it's just a hallway, you probably need to repaint it anyways. I'm not seeing this as a huge problem.

 

[aczlan]

Why don't you just go to their paint swatch wall and choose a sample (with a name and a mixture formula) that matches the sample you took in? That's why I never paint with a 'neutral' color. Besides being boring, 50's -60's, dull , lifeless and cold, I believe its also hard to match. One dribble from the mixed sample done previously will screw it up. The ones mixed before me always seem to be the colors NO normal person would paint in a house, but are the ones they let their kids pick out.

We did that but within 2 years, Lowes had dropped that sample, so they had to go by the mix code on the last can.

Aaron Z

 

[yelbike]

Seriously, you expect to get a match 12 years after the fact, manufactures blends,colors and tint are different not to mention batches. If you ever get a "Perfect" match it is by chance, luck or both. I know we want to believe that computers and spectrum analysis is so great compared to the complexities of color, but Come on for crying out loud!

Yes after twelve years you can seriously get a paint match. The sample is in front of the clerk.

To the op, I bet you'd get a closer match from the "likely" better trained staff from actual paint store. I use cloverdale, I don't know if they are in the US, only cause they give me a CAA(AAA) discount.

Try this set up if you have to paint all of it, just don't show the safety police.

 

[JDgreen227]

A couple of questions/observations...No offense meant, just trying to understand.


How were these samples created, from paint from the original can?


Just curious why you'd think 12 years of natural sunlight would not fade the paint?


Did you determine this by painting the Menard's paint on the samples you brought and letting it dry?

I could understand the Menard's paint not matching the paint on the wall, but I can't see why they couldn't match the samples you brought.

Paint from the original can, yes. The walls in question do NOT get direct sunlight...it's filtered through drapes and triple panes of glass. And the Menards guy painted his mix on my samples for comparison...after 15 minutes the new mix was dry.

And zzvyb6....I carefully planned so that EVERYTHING....carpeting, drapes, appliances, bedding, cabinets, woodwork, etc. would coordinate with the NEUTRAL color of wall paint I chose....SO MUCH easier to sell a house that way...I expect to leave here in about 5 years so I chose the colors I did when I did so not have to go thru the headache of repainting prior to showing. Your home interior is YELLOW, RED, AND GREEN???? !!!!!!!!!!

 

[MikePA]

And the Menards guy painted his mix on my samples for comparison...after 15 minutes the new mix was dry.

Since Menards can't match your samples, I'd try a paint store.

Your home interior is YELLOW, RED, AND GREEN???? !!!!!!!!!!

The colors are from the Sherwin Williams Traffic Light Collection.

 

[dstig1]

Whites and off whites are a big problem to match. The human eye can pick up tiny variations in whites, but on a lot of other colors, you can be "way"off and nobody could tell. I've been through this circus myself, and the only real answer is to get something close to the original off-white and repaint all the continuous areas at once. I had a pigment supplier at work who explained it to me a few years later and it all made sense. Try a better paint shop, as already noted, but don't expect perfection in matching an ivory...

 

[JDgreen227]

I appreciate all the feedback given here...when I originally purchased the paint I bought about six gallons and there was a half gallon left over...although it has been tightly sealed I have opened the can (plastic) many times for touch ups and for jobs like installing additional windows. Had I realized it would be so hard to match the color I would have purchased an additional gallon back then. Hopefully someone else will learn from my experience.

 

[mark02tj]

Where did you buy the original paint? Isn't there a color code label somewhere on the can from where they mixed it years ago? I can't remember the last time I bought mixed paint anywhere (Lowes, HD, Mennards, Sherwin Williams, etc.) that they didn't mark the color code on the can when they mixed it. You should probably go back to where you bought the paint originally.

 

[JDgreen227]

Where did you buy the original paint? Isn't there a color code label somewhere on the can from where they mixed it years ago? I can't remember the last time I bought mixed paint anywhere (Lowes, HD, Mennards, Sherwin Williams, etc.) that they didn't mark the color code on the can when they mixed it. You should probably go back to where you bought the paint originally.

They were a small local chain that has since gone out of business, sold high quality merchandise but could not compete with the big box home stores.

 

[RedNeckGeek]

Don't get me started on matching paint! Two years ago I painted the outside of the house. Took a chip of stucco in for matching, Home Depot got close, but since I was doing the whole house, it didn't have to be perfect. Ran short, went back for more two weeks later. "Oh, the manufacturer has changed the base paint, and that formula doesn't work anymore. We can match it though if you bring in a sample." So another week goes by and I bring in the lid to the last bucket. They use their electric eye thing, and it looks good in the store, but under sunlight on the wall at home it's not even close. Go back to store and another person comes up with an entirely different formula. Again, close but no cigar. Turns out to have something to do with fluorescent lighting in the store vs. natural sun outside. So they send me home with some white tint, and I experiment to get it close enough.

Last year I put in new flooring in most of the house, so I had to remove the baseboards. When I put them back on I had to touch up the walls. Only had a half gallon left from the year before when the interior was painted, and again ran out. Back to HD, same problem with bad match. Another can of tint, learned it takes a week or so for the color to really dry to final color. It's close, but not exact, but it's down at floor level so not noticeable unless you know what to look for. The alternative was to repaint five rooms; ain't gonna happen. If there's a next time you can be sure I'll buy at least a gallon extra, and it won't be at Home Depot!

 

[tcreeley]

I like cabot stains on my barn. When I went to buy another can of Virginia white I learned that it was nolonger stocked- 15 years. The owner, in his new location since I had last been in, went and looked up the old formula and mixed me some. He even wrote the formula and name on the can so that 10 years from now I can get another can. He was a good man.