Matching paint colours.

Paint matching. Colour matching. Matching existing colours.

You have a painted wall or a door or a window and you want to MATCH ITS COLOUR on another wall or door or window.
Or you want to touch up just a tiny bit of it.

Cant be that hard could it?
Sadly, yes. It is hard.

But fear not. After years of getting colour matching wrong, I can now tell you how to get it right (or less wrong). I’ll refer to your wall/door/window as the ‘surface’ (we painters call it the ‘substrate’ just so you know).

WHAT COLOUR DO I (REALLY) HAVE?
  There are basically 4 ways to match the colour of paint you have.

1. You have the can that the surface was previously painted with. ie. Left over paint.
2. You know the name of that colour. From either an interior designers notes, your notes, or a manufacturers colour card you’ve kept.
3. You do a test with small sample pots on the surface.
4. You take a sample off the wall and have a paint store match that.

All 4 methods have pros and cons. So lets go through each one below.
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1. YOU HAVE LEFT OVER PAINT

Yay! You can use that. Happy days!

Hold on!

IS IT FRESH?
You can use left over paint if it is FRESH and THE CAN IS NOT RUSTY.
Basically you’ve got about 1 - 2 years of life in any already opened can. After that it starts to lose its essential binding and sticking properties.
And often the rim rusts polluting the paint every time you open the can.

If your left over paint is old, smelly or rust contaminated, you shouldn’t use it. But you can use the ‘formula’ to make a new batch.

CAN YOU SEE THE FORMULA?
Printed on a small piece of sticky paper and slapped on the top or side of the can the paint formulas can be used to reproduce the colour in the can.

That formula can be taken to a paint store and mixed fresh.

Also MOST paint stores can match formulas from other manufacturers.

DOES THE OLD SURFACE STILL MATCH?
Before you get anything mixed though, you need to check your SURFACE hasn’t changed colour!

The colour on your surface may have changed, weathered, faded or even gotten darker!
(Strangely oil based paint, often used on trim, actually darkens over time, especially if its behind furniture and out of the sunlight. I know. Its nuts!)

Take a some of the left over paint (even if its rusted or off) and dab it in an out of sight area of your surface. Then let it dry. Wet paint looks lighter because it reflects more light.

If after drying It looks like a good match take the can to Bunnings or Inspirations or Dulux Trade Centre and get them to match the mix.

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2. YOU KNOW THE NAME OF THE PAINT COLOUR

You know the name of the colour. From either an interior designers notes, your notes, or a manufacturers colour card you’ve kept.
Take the name or colour card to the paint store to have them mix it up.

MOST paint stores can match formulas from other manufacturers.

IS THE OLD NAME STILL THE SAME COLOUR?
Bizarrely, some older colour ‘names’ are recycled but with different colours! So your old

And a surprising number of names have replaced with new, less um … troublesome names.
(I’ll miss ‘Congo Capture’)

3. YOU DO A TEST
If you have a white or cream colour and/or you have a vague memory of the colour name you can buy tiny testing pots. Using these testing pots on the surface you can eliminate your way to a good match.

I do this a lot because I have a whole bucket full of of these tiny colour testers.

Testing is a good low cost way to confirm what you might remember or have been told.

But the test pots are limited in colour range to the most popular whites, creams and greys.

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4. YOU TAKE A SAMPLE
Taking a sample is often pretty invasive. You either chip a bit out of the wall or carve a bit of wood off the window or door. Try to get at least 2cm x 2cm of clear flat surface.

You take this sample to any of the paint stores and they have a clever machine that matches the colour. They then dab a bit on the edge of your sample, dry it with a blower and you can decide on the match.

Don’t worry if the new paint is a bit shiny. Modern wall paints are made that way for ease of wiping. Just turn the sample in the light and make sure the dab matches. When it does buy the amount of paint you need.

And of course you’ll have those holes left in the surfaces where you dug out a sample for colour. I fill walls with Selleys Spakfilla and wooden trim with Turbo Builders Bog (both from Bunnings).

COLOUR MATCHING NOTES

AND SOMETIMES …
You have an out of fashion colour like purple. I was surprised to hear that tints (the strong dies they add to the base colours in cans) were not all the same, all the time. There used to be a particular purple tint, until people went off purple and now it’s discontinued.


ALWAYS PAINT CORNER TO CORNER/EDGE TO EDGE
Having done your best to get the best colour match one last trick is to paint corner to corner/edge to edge.

Don’t paint a small section in the middle of your surface.
Instead paint at least a full wall or the full length of a piece of timber or better yet the whole door or window. This hides any tiny differences between old and new.


IT’S NOT AN EXACT SCIENCE
As a professional house painter I’ve used all four methods of matching colours.
Each has its own early obvious benefits and draw backs. Chopping a sample out of your new plantation shutters is not a good idea. Paint dribbled over the formula sticker is a non starter. Colour names change. Some colours are just really hard to match.

* Take your time.
* Don’t buy litres of paint until you’re pretty sure its the right colour.
* Be prepared for ‘some’ variation.
* Paint corner to corner.

Good luck.

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