One of the most common questions I’m asked is “what do you need to match a color?” Say your teenager comes running down the stairs and goes flying… accidentally putting a foot through the wall on the landing! (Which may or may not be a true story from when I was younger… you’ll never know). Now you’ve repaired the hole but you need to touch up the paint… right in the middle of the space!
What is the best way to match the blue paint on the wall from 7 years ago? Well the absolute best way would be to have a record of that paint color… say with a free handy paint planner? That will give you a great starting point to finding the best color.
We have a couple options… you can take home a fan deck and try each color until your tired eyes finally decide that blue # 325 is the perfect color. You have it mixed up only to find that blue # 325 is nothing like your wall color and now you’re sporting a blue polka dot in the center of your wall worthy of Spot the dog.
The best solution is to match the color directly on the wall! Especially since over time your wall will lighten in color from the sun or darken with the dirt and grime of everyday life… either way your color today will not be exactly the same as the color directly off the paint chip 7 years ago. It will be similar but if you paint fresh light french gray over 7 seven year old light french gray you’ll end up with polka dots. Yuck!
Or you can take a tiny piece of your wall and bring it to the paint store… where they can easily color match it for you. I know what you’re thinking “Betsy that isn’t a revolutionary tip, I’ve known about paint matching for years!” Yes grasshopper… but here’s the tip:
Make sure your piece of wall/paint/color is as flat as possible and at least as big as a quarter!
It can be bigger than a quarter with a curved edge but you’d be surprised how many minuscule, teeny tiny, smaller than an ant sized paint chips that need to be matched.
Short of being put in some sort of paint matching chamber where the chip is broken down and analyzed molecule by molecule aintnowaytomatchthat.
Just saying!
Technology has come so far and paint can be matched fairly easily now-a-days… if you have a big enough paint chip!
Of course if you are just starting to paint your home you can save yourself the time and hassle of pulling a section of paint off your wall by printing out my FREE Paint Planner and writing down all of the beautiful colors you just spent weeks antagonizing over!
Go ahead and jump ahead of the powercurb by picking up your freebie at the bottom of this post!
Of course after so many years of being the paint lady I’ve learned a tip or two… and instead of keeping it all to myself I’m sharing it with you in a little eBook called Inside the Paint Can: Beginner Tips and Tricks for Interior Painting!
Get Your FREE Paint Color Tracker!
Ready to paint?
Make it a snap with our free paint color tracker! Never forget a paint color again!
Leave a Reply