Paint Color Discrepancy - how to ensure color accuracy?

[ciac]

Hi There:

Please see the attached photo. The color to the left was Benjamin Moore Gray Wisp 1570, the soft beige to the right is Benjamin Moore Alaskan Skies 972.

The boards to the bottom are unprimed sheet rock, while the test patches on the wall are painted on Benjamin Moore primed surfaces.

The color came out quite different on the primed surface than the swatch card, while the bare sheet rock actually looked closer to the original color on the swatches.

I thought with the primer applied, I was supposed to get a more accurate color from the paints. Can you tell me what I am doing wrong, and what can I do to ensure color accuracy?

Please note that lighting conditions, reflection angles, layering and other factors have all been considered and tested. The problem persists, and this kind of color discrepancy makes the color swatches rather useless. It has just become impossible to select BM colors based on swatches.

Please help. Thank you.

Dan

picture location:

[Karl S]

I have mixed and sold many brands of paint, including Benjamin Moore, since

1965. Most of the time the paint does not exactly match the chip. In fact, chips of the same color but from different manufacturing batches usually don't even match each other.

Even though computer color matchers usually just approximate the color instead of matching it, sometimes you are better off trying to match the chip with one and using the resulting formula instead of the one that the paint company says you should use.