Matching Paint

[mcp6453]

How do you match a paint color on drywall in a bedroom? Cut out of piece of the wall and take it to the paint store? Is there such thing as a portable color analyzer?

[Retired]

I did that one time. I picked a spot next to a window that was always covered by a drape. Carefully cut just into the paper on the drywall, about 2 in square, carefully peel off the paper. After getting the paint matched, (which turned out perfect), glued the square back in place, a little spackle, and painted over. You have to know where to look to find it now.

Have fun........

[Frank]

Once had this problem in the dining room. Got a very close but not exact match with the color swatches from the paint store. Painted the whole wall with the close match. Cannot tell the difference from the rest of the room.

[Stormin Mormon]

in a bedroom? Cut out of piece of the wall and take it to the paint store? Is

Have your wife go buy the paint, and then she owns the results.

[Pico Rico]

ask the wife if she wants to do it, or if you should send your girlfriend.

[Mayayana]

| How do you match a paint color on drywall in a bedroom? Cut out of piece of the wall and take it to the paint store? Is | there such thing as a portable color analyzer?

A couple of points that haven't been mentioned:

1) When you take the wall sample to the store you'll also need a store with a talented paint mixer. In some stores they'll try to discourage you from getting a computer match because they don't want to be responsible. Even at a store where they will computer match, the matching is no miracle, especially with darker colors. To really get a good match usually requires that the person mixing the paint be very experienced.

2) After painting, be sure to save the can, even if it's empty, so that next time you won't have to go through all this trouble. It's worthwhile to keep a list of all paints used. Even if you have to use a different brand next time. Many companies have formulas for other companies' paint colors.

[Guv Bob]

piece of the wall and take it to the paint store? Is

I always take a chip to a store with large swatch selection and take home all that are close. Hold them against the wall at various places. Mark the ones that are closest with the time of day. Then do it again with the light changes, shadows, by ceiling light, etc. You'll be surprised that some match in the day and other match better at night.

Unless you need to paint the whole room, you can try painting only one wall and see if that matches the others close enough.

[trader_4]

It's also worth considering if it's worth the drama. If it's a typical bedroom, is it that difficult to paint 4 walls? If the spot is someplace that's not noticeable, you may get away with not painting the whole wall. But if it's someplace visible, good chance to make it right you have to paint a wall or most of a wall, ie up to some break point, anyway. At which point with brushes, rollers wet, how much harder is it to just paint the whole thing? With the matching thing, it's almost always multiple trips back to the store too, until you get something that works.

[mcp6453]

It's a 700 square foot bedroom loaded with crap. It would be a major operation to paint all of the walls.

Thanks for the suggestions!

[nestork]

A 700 square foot bedroom? Wow, that one bedroom is almost as big as my 2 bedroom apartments. which are 20 feet by 40 feet!

Even if you had the original tint formula, you'd find that the original paint wouldn't match now. That's because airborne dirt gradually causes the paint on walls to get dirty, and that causes the paint to darken. Even cleaning the walls will not get them back to their original colour. So, matching the existing colour will give you a paint formula that includes a bit more dark pigments than the original tint formula to allow for that gradual darkening.

So, your best bet is still to try and get a decent colour match, and then just paint one wall.

[bob haller]

or paint the one bad wall in a different but complimentary color as a accent wall......

or clear out everything and do the job right once, so it wouldnt need done again for a long time.

or hang a picture to cover the bad spot

[BonnettDecorating]

There are portable analyzers out there. Ben Moore dealers used to sell one. A bit spendy and not particularly accurate. As others have advised, take a painted switch plate or cut a piece of the top drywall surface in an inconspicuous spot. Go to a real paint store, not a big box store. That being said, don't expect a perfect match that will make an invisible touch up mid-wall. You'll get very close but that is all. Plan to repaint the problem wall corner to corner.