touch up paint on wall

[Fred]

I did some touch ups with both flat and semi-gloss on interior walls that was painted 18 months ago. The paint were from the same cans that were used on the existing walls so you can't get a better match. The flat touch up didn't look too bad but the semi-gloss looks like a bad touch up job. The touch up the semi-gloss is glossier than the rest of the wall when viewed at different angles. I ended up painting the whole room due to a couple of bad touch up spots. Any tricks in matching with the existing paint?

[Jag Man]

I've heard that color matching with oil based paints is nearly impossible because the fade rapidly.

Ed

touch up

[m Ransley]

That is normal for touch ups to have a higher sheen, in a month it would have been less noticable but still different.

[3rd eye]

There are no tricks. Especially with darker colors & glossier finishes. It's common to have to repaint the entire wall.

[RicodJour]

Nothing foolproof, but I learned a trick from an oldtime painter years ago. You want to feather out the repair with an almost dry roller. Paint just the patch with the first coat, then on the next two coats expand the coverage area with a thinner (less paint on the roller) application - each coat covering a larger area. Essentially you're softening or spreading out the transition from new to old. It makes the patch less noticeable.

R

[Hopkins]

I agree with RicodJour, except the part about 3 coats. You can try to fade the touch-up into the existing paintjob by using a "dry" roller. A trained eye could find it but most people won't notice.

Typically, any paint with a sheen is impossible to perfectly touch-up. As you said, at an angle you'll always be able to tell. Even flat paints can be hard to touch up if the paint has been up for some time. Usually lighter colors are easier -- there's not as much colorant to fade.

[Baron]

Thin the touch up paint about 10% with water assuming latex.

Good Luck.

[RicodJour]

touch-up.

What?! Someone doesn't agree with me? Where's the newsgroup moderator....? ;)

The only reason I go with the extra coat is due to the thinner feather coat. Belt and suspenders, maybe, but it works for me.

I learned that trick from a 65 year old union painter. He was driven absolutely nuts by a punchlist and an overzealous architect. The architect set new standards in nitpicking and would attempt to get 20' walls painted due to a couple of pencil point nicks. Half the time someone would whip out a set of drawings and show that the blemish was behind a file cabinet or office cubicle. Guess he was trying to make points with someone...

R

[Hopkins]

I've been there. I don't think there's anything worse than a painter's punchlist.... nothing like following the other trades and fixing what they made a mess of.

Maybe part of the reason I disagreed with 3 coats is because I wasn't a union painter. :) As a contractor, or a sub-, you have to look for ways to do the same thing quicker [especially on new construction]. I would touch up the spot itself -- usually that covered, so I went straight to feathering with a dry roller.

Sometimes it would take more than that, especially on dark colors and especially on colors made with an ultra deep base.