Dumb question - paint colors

[Maple Leafs]

I want to do some work on a wall at home that would require me to repaint an area when I was done. But the wall was painted by the previous owners and I don't know what specific color they used.

Is it possible to take a paint chip and get a matching color automatically somehow? Or do I need to manually check it against color strips until I find a close match?

(The wall is part of a larger part of the home and repainting everything to a new color would be a very large job...)

[John Galt]

After making tons of trips to various paint stores to get a paint chip match, I never got the exact color right. The biggest problem for me was that the paint had been on the wall for over 10 years so the color had changed. I got several tries close to right, but because I was painting in highly visible areas, it never looked right. I ended up repainting the whole wall (and actually the whole interior of the house). If the paint was recently applied or if you don't need an EXACT match, you might have better luck. Or maybe the paint people I went to just sucked.

[stevew]

I'm going to say that your chances of getting an exact match are very very small. I've tried to fix minor spots in a couple different apartments I moved out of, and I could never get the colors to match right. Very close, but not close enough. Any chance that they maybe left some paint laying around somewhere(basement maybe?) and you might get lucky enough to find it.

Good luck.

[John Galt]

Originally Posted by stevew

I'm going to say that your chances of getting an exact match are very very small. I've tried to fix minor spots in a couple different apartments I moved out of, and I could never get the colors to match right. Very close, but not close enough. Any chance that they maybe left some paint laying around somewhere(basement maybe?) and you might get lucky enough to find it.

Good luck.

Not to add more pessimism, but we even had old paint lying around from the previous owners. The problem is that 10-year old paint in a container is a different color than 10-year old paint on the wall. Sun and light have that effect. But, as I said before, if the painting was done recently, you won't have that problem.

[stevew]

Originally Posted by John Galt

Not to add more pessimism, but we even had old paint lying around from the previous owners. The problem is that 10-year old paint in a container is a different color than 10-year old paint on the wall. Sun and light have that effect. But, as I said before, if the painting was done recently, you won't have that problem.

Very true as well.

[Maple Leafs]

We don't know when the painting was done, but it's at least three years old. There's no spare paint to refer to.

Sounds like I need to find a spot to test on before I go ahead, which I'd planned for anyways. Is it as simple as taking a chip into the paint store and handing it to them? How big a chip do they need?

[John Galt]

Originally Posted by Maple Leafs

We don't know when the painting was done, but it's at least three years old. There's no spare paint to refer to.

Sounds like I need to find a spot to test on before I go ahead, which I'd planned for anyways. Is it as simple as taking a chip into the paint store and handing it to them? How big a chip do they need?

I generally took a 1" square to places. I took the chip from a less visible area and used it several times.

[timmae]

what's that??? You need a one line sig to post in this thread? Cool... I'm in....




and yeah, what they said. As an architect I assume from the start just repaint the entire wall.

[bulletsponge]

Originally Posted by Maple Leafs

I want to do some work on a wall at home that would require me to repaint an area when I was done. But the wall was painted by the previous owners and I don't know what specific color they used.

Is it possible to take a paint chip and get a matching color automatically somehow? Or do I need to manually check it against color strips until I find a close match?

(The wall is part of a larger part of the home and repainting everything to a new color would be a very large job...)

when was the wall painted last? what brand of paint? odds are you wont get an exact match if its been a while or if its crappy paint. if you take a peice of drywall that has the color on it you should be able to match it. but if its faded forgetaboutit

[Maple Leafs]

Originally Posted by bulletsponge

when was the wall painted last? what brand of paint? odds are you wont get an exact match if its been a while or if its crappy paint. if you take a peice of drywall that has the color on it you should be able to match it. but if its faded forgetaboutit

Yeah, the one bit of good news is that the area isn't in any direct sunlight so fading should be minimal.

[dawgfan]

One of my past jobs was working in a high-end paint store, and my last couple of years there I did the job of creating custom paint and stain color matches - that's all I did all day, so I got pretty good at it.

Some general answers: Depending on where you live, you may or may not have a local paint store or stores that have custom paint matching as a service. Chances are better at a higher-end store, like a Benjamin Moore dealer or a place that sells Pratt & Lambert, but I believe most of the big box home improvement stores have that service as well.

Some places use color matching "computers". It's been over 10 years since I worked in the business and the technology certainly may have improved in that time, but back then, the results from those machines was spotty at best. I'd be somewhat skeptical of a place that relies solely on an automated system like that.

To get the best results, you need to give them with the biggest sample you can reasonably provide. A 1" square sample is pretty small.

There are multiple factors to the matching process - first off, you need to get the paint mixed in a finish that matches as closely as possible the source. In other words, if the source sample is in a dead flat finish, you need to get the same finish in your paint match. Differences in paint finish sheen will influence how the color looks.

Secondly, once you get your paint match, dab a small sample on the wall in a spot where you can live with some experimentation and let it dry completely (color changes when the paint dries) and look at it in multiple different light settings (daylight, low-light, artificial lighting). If the match looks good, proceed with painting. If it's a little off, take the paint back and provide as much info as you can about what's different. Take digital pictures if you can to help provide them feedback.

One note in general about painting - always test the color first before going whole hog on painting a surface just to make sure the color mix was done correctly.