When Paint Color Matching Goes Wrong
By DIY Maven
Think that if you take a paint chip into your big box or hardware store they'll always match it correctly? Wrong. I found this out the hard way last week when I handed over a paint strip containing Benjamin Moore's lovely Silver Fox to the paint mixer dude at my local big box store, indicating the color I wanted. While she was doing the deed, I ran a few aisles over for spackle. When I returned, the mixed paint was ready. The paint-mixer person put a smudge of the newly-mixed Pittsburgh (Grand Distinction) paint on the Silver Fox portion of my paint strip and dried it with a blow drier. Under the ghastly lights overhead, it looked fine.
When I returned home and started painting, things went from 'fine' to what the 'f&%#?'. Since paint dries darker, I waited, cheering it on. Ultimately, I realized this was not the color I picked. It was much lighter; it had no depth. Did I indicate the wrong color? Since there was no such color represented on the strip, the answer to that question was 'no'.
I took the offending can of paint back to the retailer. What up? they asked. That's what I'd like to know, I answered. This is what I found out: Apparently, some paint manufacturers supply color mix ratios for the colors of other paint manufacturers. The paint mixer dude simply enters the brand and name of the color--in this case Benjamin Moore & Silver Fox--into their computer and out pops the secret formula. Unfortunately, Pittsburgh had the mix wrong and I wound up with too light paint. The retailer graciously offered to re-mix the paint for free. Of course, they entered the brand and name again, which produced the same mix ratios. I declined that recipe and asked that they color match the old optical way. This time the interpretation added much more black and a smidgen of red. Already, I felt better. They mixed with the new, non-Pittsburgh formula, and voila, a perfect match.
So, the moral of the story for me is never trust the supplied color formulas when it comes to color matching. The optical decipher-er deal has never let me down yet. And it didn’t this time either.
P.S. A note about Benjamin Moore versus Pittsburgh's Grand Distinction paints. The latter is about 10 bucks cheaper than the former and rivals it in quality.
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DIY Maven
MHET--glad it worked. Like I said in the post, I've never had a problem before. Hope I never have one again.
ModHomeEcTeacher
I found the OLD can of Porter paint I had painted my stairwell with. Took it in to be matched. The guy at Porter suggested we try to resurrect the old remains since they've changed colors. It looked like gray cottage cheese--awful. He must have been their paint guru because he went through a process to match it that was almost perfect. He was matching to a piece of the drywall that I had cut out for a drywall repair column. Anyway, when you get the right guy who loves paint, you're golden.
kodia
There may actually be another issue. Read my blog post about color metamerism:
http://www.livelygrey.com/2008/08/lighting_and_metamerism.html
ModHomeEcTeacher
I'm taking a sliver of drywall with paint color on it right now into be matched. We'll see.
DIY Maven
Yes! They always put the formula they've used (even if it's wrong!) on a sticker on the top of the paint can. I like to put a piece of clear mailing tape over it to keep it clean. Paint wipes off the tape, which keeps the label underneath legible.
dewonangus
Interesting! I've had good success with matching Benjamin Moore colours, but I have always used Behr paint. I find their flat paint very forgiving and very washable (helps on the white trims). The only time I've run into a problem was buying the some colour about a year later ... BM had changed their formulas on the same colour! The message here is to keep a copy of the formula. Thanks for the heads up.
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