Paint matching - Home Depot / Lowes or paint store ?

Well I took a sample to Home Depot to match and the guy did his little computer thing, mixed the paint and tested it on a sample. It was sighly off, HE recognized it immediately and said "wait, that's not right!". He then added a dab of some kind of tint, mixed it, and it came out perfect. I was impressed (this was a young kid), and asked him how long it took to learn to do this, to which he replied "oh it took me a couple of weeks to get the hang of it, but now I can match any paint sample you can give me." He also printed out the mixture on a label attached to the can in case I ever needed more.

The paint was for extensive touch up, as I was selling the house and didn't want to get into a complete repaint job (thirty foot ceilings). I used it and you can't tell where it was touched up.

Seeing is believing. Selling paint is not rocket science. These people with many years of experience actually have a years experience repeated many times over. Give me a "big box" store anytime rather than pay the inflated prices of the small stores like Sherwin Williams.

Jim

How do they determine that it's perfect?

I watched the HD employee do it - they did nothing but put the chip in the sampler and the pigmented paint can in the mixer. I painted and couldn't see any difference. This in a room with bright sunlight. There are questionable brands at HD, but there are some good ones as well.

I realize that it's fashionable to dump on HD and others, but there are _few_ paint stores that are better. I live in a city of several million and there is _one_ paint store with an excellent reputation. Meanwhile, HD sells paint to me without me travelling halfway across town, struggling to find parking and paying a higher price. YMMV

Mike

replying to Truitt Bottsford III, Brillo wrote: About 80% of the times i need to get some seemingly common part, if i go to HD, they more often than not have a whole lot of everything, except for the one piece i need. True value/ ace and other real hardwares stores usually have it. HD ends up being a waste of time. I'd have quit them for good long sgo, but they're right around the corner.

what a dick m Ransley is. Who takes such a tone in a discussion about paint? Seriously. It is a nice thread and he gets all puffy 'woo hoo that you purchased over $300k in paint' you are dumb. I bought the same amount of paint at HD for $150k. Arrogant.

Yes, we kicked his ass out of here 17 years ago for just that

finally, someone that understands what computer color match does. comes out perfect every time. guess HD does not have.