Option : Remove A Sample From Your Wall & Have It Color
This is reasonably easy to do if your walls are drywall. You can use a craft knife to very gently cut through just the paper layer of the drywall. Choose an obscure area of your wall and cut out a square shape around 4 x 4 inches and take it to your paint store. They should be able to color-match it and tell you what the finish of the paint is.
The best case scenario is that you will wind up with a perfect match! Then all you have to do is use some spackle to patch the areawhere you removed the sample. Then sand it smooth, prime and touch up that area, as well as the other areas that need a fresh coat of paint.
Three: Priming The Touch
To aid in color blending and help the paint stick, it is always a good idea to prime the area that you will be touching up. Select a high-quality primer that is intended for indoor use with latex paint. Youll only want to prime the area that you will be painting avoid going outside of the touch-up area.
Using a small paintbrush to apply the primer will help you keep it within the affected area. Allow the recommended time for the primer to dry before you continue on with painting.
S Of How To Match Paint
There are many different ways to match paint. The paint can be matched to a specific paint you bought a decade ago or it can be matched to a piece of furniture. These are both considered matching paint.
Here are a few ways to match paint both from the walls and from objects. They are consistent for the most part with some of them being more reliable and others being more affordable. So lets get to them!
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What To Do When You Do Not Have A Sample
Things tend to get lost in everyday life. For instance, the paint swatch that was being kept for times when more paint is needed. Sometimes you are not the one who put the existing paint on there. So, what should one do to get a perfect match? Well, not all hope is lost. Just because there is no extra paint does not mean that the entire area should be repainted with a new color.
Below is some information on how to get a paint match of an existing paint color already on the wall. Take a look!
Here Is What I Do To Match The Existing Paint
Take a sample from the wall that you are working on. What I like to do is take the sample from an area thats not visible, for example behind the fridge or inside the closet.
I want to be able to conceal our patchwork as much as possible. Generally, I can take a little section straight out of the wall.
After experimenting with taking paint samples from different sections, I found that the best match is from the corner where two walls meet. The reason for this as explained to me by a specialist is that there is no dark color under the paint. When I cut from the corner I usually get paint color on top of drywall tape which is a light color and this evidently doesnt interfere with the spectrometer.
When you take the sample, you dont want to cut it all the way through the drywall. There is no need to repair drywall after you paint. Also taking a piece from the entire drywall can give you inaccurate results.
Take the sample down to Home Depot or your paint store and ask them to match it. Paint stores use a spectrometer that beams light into the sample. The light is reflected back off the sample and into a highly efficient color analyzer.
The key to getting a good match is having a good sample. Thats why cutting a piece of the drywall is not a good idea. The drywall has a darker paper behind the surface paper and for some reason, it influences the result of the color match.
You only need to cut the surface paper with the color of the paint on there.
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Option : Use A Paint Matching App
Lots of paint companies, including Behr, Valsparand Sherwin-Williams, now have mobile apps to help you color match paint. The apps are all different, but the general concept is the same for each of them. You simply download the app to your smartphone, take a photo of the paint you want to match and upload it. The app will tell you what the closest color match is. TIP:For the most accurate results, it’s absolutely vital to take the photo without any artificial lights on. Use natural light only.
Learn How To Match Paint From The Start
If you arent deadset on the paint color you had before, consider taking advantage of the situations and getting a fresh start. Add a coat of primer to the wall and then start painting with the new paint.
You may need a few coats of the new paint, depending on the color and how dark it happens to be. But in the end, it is easiest to start over and use a new paint for your project, which is fun anyway!
But if you are trying to match an object or piece of furniture rather than another paint then you are in luck. A slight shade difference wont be noticed and in fact will look even better with the extra depth added.
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How To Match Paint Colors To Print Colors Easily
The Spruce / Almar Creative
It can take hours looking for a specific color to paint a room in your home from printed colors. It can be frustrating to find the exact color you want, but you are unclear on how to translate that color to a paint match. Read on to learn about some common paint color matching issues and how to use technology to help you get the paint you need.
Why Is Learning How To Match Paint Important
Matching paint can be important for a lot of reasons. These reasons are not easy to see at first and will come across as more than a feeling than a fact. Accepting the reasons you want to match the paint is a huge step.
It could be a psychological reason, an aesthetic reason, or something else entirely. Only you can find out why it is important to you. Here are the reasons you probably want to match paint instead of getting new paint.
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Get A Real Sample From Your Wall
Bringing a real sample is always a better alternative to software recognition. Depending on the type of phone and setting, it can distort the right color. Thats why it is better to bring a real parchment with the color. Simply scrape off a sample with a razor blade. Then peel the paint off the drywall. Take the piece to the manufacturer or the local paint store and ask for that specific shade. They will be more than happy to help.
Is There A Standard Ceiling Paint Color
Ceilings are often painted white to create a brighter, more welcoming environment. This complements the walls while also being an easy solution for any colour scheme in your room. Painting ceilings can make them feel taller and wider than ever before!
White is the perfect shade of ceiling paint because it reflects light that would otherwise bounce off other surfaces such as furniture or brightly coloured items in ones home decorating theme. With this natural lighting bouncing around, everything becomes brighter, which makes colours pop out at you even if theyre not bright by themselves on their surface area like reds will typically be when put up against whites but still have some contrast with darker shades mixed into carpets or curtains among many others things people might use as part of a decoration.
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Can You Copy Paint Sheens Between Companies
The simple answer is NO.
There is no standard in the United States for paint sheens in the residential market. Sherwin Williams Satin sheen is similar to Benjamin Moore Eggshell. Benjamin Moore Satin sheen is similar to Sherwin Williams Semi-Gloss. And so on. You can see a huge opportunity for mix-ups when you tell a Sherwin Williams painter that you want to match a Benjamin Moore Satin sheen for some trim.
Each time sheen changes so does the paint formula because of the shift in reflectiveness. That adds another element of uncertainty to your match.
Step : Getting A Sample Of Wall Paint Colour
After you have determined the finish of your wall paint, you will need to get a sample of the paint colour that is on your wall.
Find an inconspicuous spot of the wall that you can cut into.
Using a box cutter, x-acto painter knife or sharp putty knife and cut into the wall and make a square
Cut deeply enough that the square wont break when you are peeling it off the wall.
Peel from the top right corner to the bottom left corner. Do this carefully, as you dont want to break the sample.
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You Dont Have To Cut From Behind An Outlet
While getting a sample from behind an outlet cover works and feels like youre DIYing like an undercover agent doing so isnt required. I spoke with a few pros in the Angi network, and they agreed that the best way to match paint is to carefully get a quarter-size paint chip from an area of the room thats less visible, like behind furniture or around the area you already need to repair, she continues.
How Project Color And Color Matching Works
Just take a picture of a room or choose live view, and then search from the thousands of paint and stain options. Find a color you want to try and tap a surface in the image to apply the color. Project Color automatically adjusts for any shadows, angles or lighting variances so you can see how the color would look in that particular space.
Project Color also allows you to match a favorite color from a photo on your mobile device, or a photo youve just taken. You click on a color in the image and the app provides the closest paint or stain colors available at The Home Depot.
You can save favorite paint colors in the app so you can remember them later. And, if you have some paint chips that youve picked up and want to see what theyd look like via the app, just use the Find It function to search for a particular color name or number.
So, no need to feel stressed about choosing paint colors anymore. Just open up Project Color and start experimenting!
Project Color can be downloaded for free through the iTunes or stores and is available for iPhone, iPad, and Android mobile devices.
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Or Invest In Your Own Color
If you dont have time to head to your local paint shop, you can always invest in a color reading tool to use at home. There are several readers available to purchase on Amazon including the Nix Pro 2 Color Sensor and Nix Mini 2 Color Sensor Colorimeter. Although these models are pricey, a handheld color reader is a solid investment for anyone who tackles several home projects a year and spends a lot of time color-matching paints.
Determine What Needs Touching Up
There are a number of common imperfections requiring touch-up paint, including:
- Scuffs: Whether its a mishap from moving furniture or general wear and tear, scuffed paint is one of the more common and straightforward imperfections to touch up.
- Patch marks: Maybe youve fixed cracks and small holes or repaired a larger hole in your wall. Perhaps your original paint job was a bit uneven, with paint streaks or drywall showing through. Whatever the case may be, it can be a simple fix.
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How Technology Reads Color
Color translates to computer via a series of values. Knowing those values for the shade you need can help you navigate sensors and apps, and match color accurately across brands. The most common values for color are HEX, CMYK and RGB.
Typically electronic screens and monitors that emit light use RGB color values, while CMYK values are the standard for printed materials like newspapers and magazines, which absorb light. The hex method of valuing color is used to communicate RGB values in computer programming, such as HTML. Once you know you desired color’s value, you’ll be able to find it in nearly every medium out there.
Can I Touch Up Ceiling Paint
Sometimes, touching up walls and ceilings painted a long time ago can make a finish more appalling than the old paint. To avoid this drawback, it is substantial to use the original colour, and only the actual colour, to touch up small surfaces of walls and ceilings.
If you are trying to fit a wall for a touch-up: take a quarter-sized portion of the plaster area to a paint store. Most stores can scan the display and match it, adjusting the colour until it blends nicely with the collection. On the other hand, they only can manage the colour, they do not have the opportunity to change the light, so it is feasible that you still work to see the retouching from some angles.
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Take It To The Paint Store
Take that sample to a paint store or home improvement store and the associate will scan the chip into an electronic device called a spectrophotometer. The device then reads the color on the chip and determines the custom pigments and how much to use in the paint base to create the color.
How Does a Spectrophotometer Work?
A paint store will have a spectrophotometer to help match paint color on walls. But, theres a caveat. These devices arent perfect and results run about 90 percent accurately, according to Allison Smith of Allison Smith Design. The accuracy of the match is based on the quality of both the device and the sample its reading. The same machine can read a sample in slightly different ways based on various factors in the environment, such as light or temperature. Using one is not always an exact science.
How does it work? The paint sample you bring into the store is placed into the spectrophotometer. A light shines onto the sample and each wavelength of light reflected off the sample electronically measures the color. This reading is then translated by the computer into how much pigment is needed in the paint base to replicate the color.
Paint Colour Matching On Walls For Touch Ups
Sometimes wall paint gets damaged or dinged and then you have to go about repairing them. After you have repaired the actual hole in the wall, you obviously have to repaint the area that was damaged. However, you painted that wall over 10 years ago and you cant quite remember the exact paint colour match for the wall to touch it up. In Toronto and the Greater Toronto Area , most of the walls are comprised of drywall and the older homes of plaster. So, there is usually a way to get this paint on the walls matched.
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What To Do If You Cant Find The Perfect Color Match
If youre struggling to color match paint, there are options that work really well to choose a complementary color for painting your wall.
Option one involves using a complementary color wheel. A color wheel goes through the entire spectrum and matches up colors with their opposites. This is a fun option for accent walls and adjacent rooms.
Option two is using a color palette. This option is similar to the color wheel, but youll get a range of colors that mesh well with your color. Instead of having one option, you have 5 to 20. Just search for a color palette generator on the web, and youll see a lot of options you can use.
Option three involves going neutral with a white or light gray. Although this option doesnt sound fun, using a neutral color in your home can really make other colors pop and stand out. Consider it a less-is-more approach.
Finding A Match With An App
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