I've had to do some replastering repairs on a wall and now have to repaint the bits. The original paint is no longer available , but I found a couple that are close - one lighter ,one darker. I can get pretty close to the original by varying the amounts in the mix by eye but it's a bit tedious.
I've notice that "apps" exist for smart phones to help. Has anyone tried successfully.
There's something called Valspar , from which you can get a paint mixed from a digital photo, but I don't think I trust it.
My late wife, a competent artist and house decorator, used to get her blends correct by mixing small amounts in yoghurt pots, teaspoon by teaspoon, in a methodical series: 3:1; 2:1; 1:1; 1:2; 1:3; that sort of thing, then mixing adjacent blends to get the intermediates: 2:1 +
1:1 = 3:2. Didn't take her long to get the blend she wanted. Failing that, you can just take a sample of the colour you want to match into a paint supplier, Dulux centres come to mind, and they'll measure the colour with a machine and mix up the correct blend for you.
I've found that even if you keep some of the old (coloured) paint it will be a different colour to what is already on the wall after a year or two. Time, UV, wear and tear. washing down the wall etc. will change the colour over time.
Mixing a paint by eye is possibly not going to work too well as paint tends to lighten/darken as it dries. Further, after patching and painting over a different coloured background you may not get a match until a second or third coat of paint has fully dried.
You may be on to a loser anyway if the surface texture of the repair is different to the rest of the wall.
In my experience if it is critical to get a match on something that was painted more than a year ago its easier to to repaint the whole wall. If the paint is a close match you will not notice if one wall is slightly different to another that has been painted with the original paint.
I haven't used the app or photo method but wouldn't the final result be very dependant on the colour calibration of your camera and the calibration of the mixing machine, and probably the colour temperature of any artificial light used to illuminate the wall whilst taking the photo?
One of the issues I've usually found is that it often seems to be a different shade from the wet mix after it's dried, and an even more different shade from the original paint!
Many years ago I painted a bedroom in a fairly strong colour.Using a roller I left the top edge clear so I could finish with a brush. I let it too long and there ws no match (same paint)
Even different batches of the same colour can be different, as I found when I was sighted. Even the lustre of the finish can create a colour mismatch. In defence equipment they use a little device on a sample plate painted with the new batch to check its still the same colour, if not then they have only wasted a wee bit and can tweak it by mixing so it is guaranteed to be the same. I'd not think such care is ever taken with domestic paint. Its often better to do a complete repaint. Brian
One option is, go to a paint mixing place, and collect a set of swatches. Bring them home and find the one that matches, and go back to get that mixed.
In message snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com, Chris Hogg snipped-for-privacy@privacy.net writes
That's the sort of thing I tried using kitchen measuring spoons and the closest I got was 1:0.75. The intermediate mixing I didn't think of.
Taking a sample is not an option unless I hack a chunk of the plaster off - not impossible.
My original question was about using phone apps. As others pointed out, fading over time may make my task impossible . I'll try with what I've got and if it fails, then a re-paint
Not in my experience. All paints change colour once they have been on the wall/wood for a year or two. You may not notice the subtle change until you try and touch up the paint from the original can that has been left sealed and the paint has not been exposed to light.
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