For several months my wife has been on my case to repaint some of the boogered up areas on our walls. But, I can't figure out a way to match the paint without cutting out a piece of sheetrock and taking it to the paint store (which I'm unwilling to do).
Can anyone think of another way to get some matching paint?
Went thru this not long ago.
Best I could do was to pick up Behr tint examples (maybe 150 on a sheet) from Homey Depot, pick the closest match, take back to HD, have them mix a $3 sample (or a whole can if you need it).
Will
I don't know about that. I've touched up at the office several times over the last 5 years, using the original paint and the touchups are totally invisible.
Also have done some touchups in our hallway at home - painted over 10 years ago, and the touchups dissapear. The gloss level is iportant - both paints are "eggshell", applied with a roller originally and for the touchup.
You can't "touch up" a paint job .... it shows. The only thing you can do is what was suggested by someone else. Get the nearest paint samples you can find that look close and come home and compare. Then you have to repaint the whole room. If you chose right you only need one coat.
Pick up a color chart (couple/brands) from the paint store and compare that to the wall color. If the walls in a closet are the same color, cut a *small* patch of paper off the wall. A utility knife, and just score the paper so you can peel it off. No need to remove a piece of sheet rock out.
Inside the closet above the door...
On 2/13/2010 1:18 PM snipped-for-privacy@snyder.on.ca spake thus:
I've done the same with paint that's at least 15 years old at a friend's house. I cannot see where I touched up even if I look closely. This is flat paint; I imagine anything with more gloss than that might be more problematic. But it shows just what you can get away with.
Hmm . . . I wouldn't have guessed there were enough shades on a color chart to match a custom color. I'll give it a try.
How do you get boogers on walls, paint it the booger color then next time she cant complain, take yr boogers to the store and have them match the booger color.
On 2/13/2010 1:19 PM Dottie spake thus:
As myself and others have pointed out, that ain't necessarily so, to quote the old song. They *might* have to repaint the whole room, but they also might get lucky and be able to get away with touching up. It all depends.
Why paint the whole car, just to fix a dent?
If you have a color printer, you can print a Pantone chart. Here's one.
Once you converge on a best match, have the paint folks match the swatch.
If it was me, I'd paint the whole wall.
Instead of painting, you may get away with a damp rag, some 409 spray, and some gentle dabbing/rubbing.
Get a close color and paint each damaged wall. It won't look good to paint just an area of a wall, paint the wall up to all the edges. If there are walls in other planes that look good, leave those alone. Wall color tone changes at different angles due to lighting, so that may save you the work of painting the entire room. Repairing damage, spackle, sanding smooth, clean, prime are considerations prior to the painting.
You have 2 choices, get a close match, or repaint the wall. I gather you do not have any leftover paint in the garage from when the wall was painted. How big is the wall?
Even if you did take a chunk of wall with you, the paint would not be a "touch up" grade match. Even if you had the original can of paint, you could not just touch up a few spots. The change of gloss and the results of fading would be quite noticeable. You will need to paint from corner to corner to pull this off. You can get color chips at the paint store or borrow a painter's color wheel to take to the wall, but, again, this will only get you close - perhaps close enough to not paint the entire room.
Won't help for this job, but next time keep the paint can lid, with the sticker on it that shows what the base and the tint colors were.
What I've done in the past is to cut off just the surface layer of sheet rock from behind a door that's usually open (so you can't see the removed spot). Just cut it right above the baseboard and only about 1" by 2" so they can put it into the paint machine matching system window. The spot you remove it from can be easily spackled over and it won't even be noticeable.
for a computer color match you only need a piece the size of a quarter. Shave it out with a razor scraper and smooth over with mud. OR pull it from a spot that doesn't show.
I'll second that. I had some paint from several years ago that still matched the original good enough to blend. I usually do a dry roll to blend the old and new. Works pretty good most of the time. Just did that to the kitchen and slightly mismatched paint. Doesn't look too bad.
To whomever may care . . .
I wasn't able to find many closely matching samples at my local HD. I found more at Lowe's. I got about thirty shades of light yellow (light cream really). I held them against walls at different angles to the light -- the angle of light really makes a big difference. I culled down the near matches in three stages. Using the one that came out of the third culling I was amazed how well it matched. The enamel for woodwork based on the same tint and brand did not match as well, but it's almost impossible to find the touched up spots on the walls and then on only one wall. I think it was just dumb luck that it matches so well, but I'm grateful that it did.
To answer someone who asked why I don't just paint the whole wall, it wasn't 'a wall' is was 'an entire interior.'
To answer another suggestion, the original paint was a Benjamin Moore premixed (shelf) paint. I thought that was all I would need to match it. But they no longer stock this color. The BM people locally said their formula would not match the original primix color. I bought a quart to try and they were right. This is why I had to find a match another way. From now on I will keep samples/swatches of any paint I use. For a few years now I have been painting half of a 3x5 file card.
The way I handled this when it came up recently was to remove the cover plate of a phone jack. There was plenty of drywall hidden behind the cover plate so it was easy to cut a small piece off and take it to the paint store to be matched.
HomeOwnersHub website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.