apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

I would assume that a spectrometer needs to be calibrated, just like a monitor. I can't help but wonder if all those paint stores were using the same spectrometer but not all were correctly calibrated. Does anyone know anything about this equipment?

I have! A few years ago my youngest son wanted his new bedroom painted in Orange and Blue (Illini colors!) and I brought a bright orange t-shirt in, which was perfectly matched. I think it was at Home Depot! I'd definitely do it again if I had such a need.

I redid a desk and lined the sides of the desk and the drawers with a blue and coral paper. To get the paint color I went to the ACE Hardware Store in Malden and had them use the spectrometer to match a paper sample I brought in. They were very acurate. Here is the finished product:
http://katyoh.blogspot.com/2008/11/photographing-furniture.html

It's may be hard to see the paper up close in these pictures, but it gives you an idea!

My wife worked at Home Depot paint dept. on North ave. (Chicago), land of the yuppies and snobs. She said people would come in there to get color matching all the time becuase Benjamin Moore or others could not get it right.

To be honest with you I like Behr paint over Benjamin Moore anyday.

(She worked there 10 years) ^

I have used (Madison, WI) Home Depot's matching many times, and it was amazing how great it was. The only item it couldn't match was a RL swatch I tried.

My local hardware store did a great job of matching a turquoise paint that I wanted. I got the swatch at Walmart but didn't want to buy paint there, so I took it to the hardware store and they mixed it for me. That paint is my favorite in the whole house.

I brought a Restoration Hardware color swatch into Home Depot and they matched it perfectly. I've always been impressed with the quality of service there. Wal-Mart on the other hand... the "technician" said they were out of a base color, but he could mix a couple others to get blue...um, blue is a primary color!! I won't go back again. Boo Wal-Mart.

I worked at a little True Value hardware store in high school, back in the mid-90s when the paint matching machines were a pretty new idea (or at least new in our rural town!). Ours definitely had some sort of calibration procedure. And it did pretty well on good samples - paint chips, flat smooth non-glossy objects - but we always warned people that fabric, for instance, was hard to match because of the texture.

I want to paint my bedroom in Ralph Lauren's Stonewall color but I need to use low-VOC paint and RL doesn't make any that I know of. Should I trust a spectrophotometer to match it (say at Home Depot with their low-VOC line) or is there a better way to get a good match in a different brand?

I've had it done at Home Depot and was very satisfied with the result but, the service at the one in Hollywood is so bad, I prefer to go to Lowe's in Burbank. They're much nicer.

Katilm81, your desk looks beautiful. Great job!

I had paint matched from a paint stir stick when I needed touchup paint before moving last time. True Value, perfect match. Very handy!

Mostly, though, I use paint swatches for one brand and have it matched in another brand! Cheat!!

Spectros have to be calibrated every four hours if you're being really precise. But I have a feeling big box stores probably don't do it that often. I don't mean that like "They suck!" but that the paint match doesn't have to be as spot-on as the work I do.

glad to hear that most people had luck with home depot. I had home depot color match a paint chip from lowes (b/c I was too lazy to drive an hour to lowes!) - they did great on the quart size for my wall sample, but the 2nd time I went back with both the chip and the quart, the gallons came out too light. so...I'm not sure what to make of color match at home depot...

I currently work for a paint store as a decorator where I have worked for 3 1/2 years (Porter Paints; not nationwide).

The difference between some stores and others is whether they simply mix paint for your from what the equipment reports or take the extra time to match a color by hand. In my store, we first scan the sample, then reduce the formula to 75%. We mix the reduced formula, then add colorant in increments, checking for accuracy in several lights after each addition, until the match is perfect. While you might get lucky with certain colors, a store that matches by hand is the only way to get consistent perfect matches.

Some more information: spectrophotometers require at least a quarter size sample and do not read well materials that are not solid. Many fabrics that are loose-weave or simply have too much texture or variation will not read well. Photos of colors (e.g., magazine clippings) almost never come out close based on the machine alone. Always look for a paint store that will provide the customer service to make a perfect match for you even if the spectrophotometer isn't up to the job!

Thanks Seaside!!

When we first moved into our first "real" apartment together, me and my boyfriend bought a white Expedit from Ikea. We brought the thing to Home Depot and had them color match the white so that we could paint another piece of pre-existing furniture to match.

Seriously.

Of course the Expedit is long gone, but we still have that other piece of "Expedit White" to remind us. And neither of us can even fathom why we thought it was a good idea in the first place.

liana: I matched an RL swatch with Behr at Home Depot once, and it didn't come out quite the same. It could have been the different in finish (I think the swatch was eggshell, and I wanted semi-gloss.) or just a difficult shade to match (a deep orangey red), but that's the only time it didn't work, so proceed with caution!