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.
Hi gang
If possible, I have them put the formula label on the BOTTOM of the can where it won’t get painted accidentally.
I took a painted 2×2″ chip from my drywall to four different stores, because they kept getting it wrong. I left it up to the clerk at each store to pick the paint and method of matching.
Lowes, The Home Depot, Walmart, and Sherwin Williams all got it wrong. Maybe my color, an off-beige tint, is the problem. I don’t know.
I ended up painting several walls with a different standard color, with the same paint from the same store. I’m inclined to believe that there is no way to actually get an exact match.
Let me help explain…….Benjamin Moore manufactures their own colorants, called Gennex colorants. All other paint manufacturers use a universal colorant system. Benjamin Moore colorants cannot be matched with 100% authenticity because no one else has the Gennex colorant system. If you like a Benjamin Moore color, save yourself the time and gas money having to go back and forth to hope someone can match it by eye. Get the real thing, get the authentic color you love. That goes for other brands too. If you like a Behr color, save yourself some trouble. Get Behr paint.
One other point, all paints are not created equal. There’s a very good reason some brands are more expensive and it’s called raw materials…..titanium dioxide, resins, additives, etc. Why do you care? Because higher quality ingredients matter. Do your walls get dirty from kids/pets and you need to be able to scrub your walls? Does it matter if you wipe the wall and paint comes off on your rag? Only one example of why you get what you pay for with paint……a $50-$60 gallon of paint is the difference in repainting in one year or in 10 years. The choice seems clear to me.