Perhaps the wall around it is dirty? Try washing the wall around the new patch of paint and see if it helps with the blending.

All about the kind of paint you're using. I've been using Ralph Lauren's metallic line ever since it came out (my favorite guilty pleasure lol) and it doesn't matter if I paint it all at the same time, unless I do all the brush strokes or rolling in the same direction, the paint shines in different directions, which is sometimes a cool effect, but some others it looks like sh*t. On the other hand, a flat paint will always hide all your sins, so choose carefully. I've never had to wash my walls, so semi-gloss or glossy doesn't even cross my mind when painting; for that same reason... sure you can wash it, but is it worth the hassle of not being able to just touch it up in case it scratches, nicks or needs a quick retouch after the frogtape came off?

We had dinner and drinks where someone managed to knock over a chair and leave a scratch on the dining room wall. A bit of a sand back and painting and it was noticeable, I thought I was going to have to mask off and repaint the whole wall.

A couple of months later though and it's dulled down to the same level as the rest of the wall. In our case though the whole house was only painted on the inside about two years ago.

The wall's probably shinier because it's semi-gloss on top of more semi-gloss and the gloss finish is additive. A primer coat before the touch up semi-gloss coat may prevent that. It doesn't happen with flat finish over flat.

I second Elaine's suggestion about the primer, as well as sanding down the undercoat before re-application. Another option might be to carefully use finishing grade sandpaper to lightly buff away some of the gloss.

Good luck!

It depends on the paint finish - are you working with flat, eggshell, semi-gloss, or something else? Each of these has different behaviors and will show paint marks differently. You may also need to expand the repainted area - a true "spot" paint doesn't blend well into the paint around it. Depending on the paint finish, it can be helpful to feather your edges using a dry brush because it minimizes any hard lines/edges in your painted area.

Paint quality is an issue too. We have used Sherwin Williams in the living room of our rental unit and no matter how many scuffs, scrapes, nail holes etc. we can simply patch and paint. We are not even using the same can anymore; the store has mixed a new batch, and it matches perfectly every time. It is worth the money to buy quality paint.

I've had the same issue in the past and consulted someone I know that used to be a painter. He told me that typically you need to repaint the entire wall even if you're looking to only touch up a few spots. I've seen the touch ups show through using semi-gloss, eggshell, and flat paint (using Benjamin Moore Aura) so I'm not sure paint quality or type has much bearing.

Looking straight on isn't ever the issue, it's when you catch the light off the wall that things show up. I haven't tried sanding down the wall prior to painting so maybe that suggestion is your best bet. If not, I'd suggest investing in another quart and just re-painting the hallway if it's driving you crazy. Best of luck.

I have seamless touch ups when I use Benjamin Moore Aura paint in flat. Anything else is a total repaint.

There are a couple of reasons that cause this, and a couple of ways to avoid the result. A lot of times like another poster said, after a couple of weeks/months the sheen will dull down to match what is existing-it takes quite a while for paint to actually cure after its dried.

A couple of things you can do to avoid this is to:
A)thin the paint with 10% of water (if its latex) or varsol (if its oil) and

B) paint the area with the same tool that you used in the first place-if its the body of the wall, its likely that you used a roller, not a brush. You will get a better result if you use the same type of roller on your touch up (same nap thickness, size etc). I know its more of a pain to clean up than quickly grabbing a brush, but it flows out and provideds a much closer touch up and you will get a closer end result.

Only sand the wall very, very lightly where you've already touched up with a brush to knock down the brush strokes a little bit (I'm sure you'd be fine without doing that at all though) before rolling.

The fresh new paint just has more gloss. You can try to gently dull the gloss of one of the touch-up spots down to the level of the rest, using ever more aggressive abrasives- as in, start with toothpaste, then try a powdered cleanser like Ajax, then maybe very fine sandpaper till you are happy.

Also don't forget to mix the paint really, really, really well before use. You've seen the mixing machines they use at the store, right? Well, just goes to show that a little hand mixing for a half a minute, which is realistically what most of us do, can't really homogenize a can of paint that's been sitting in the basement for a couple years.

If you've got a hand drill, I would buy one of those attachments that mixes paint for you. You can find them for less than $10, so it's not a big expense.

If you don't have a hand drill, then the best I can suggest is pretending that you're trying to whisk eggs into meringue fluff by hand. Mix until your arm falls off and then hand it off to someone else to mix it until their arm falls off!

When I owned my painting company this was a question I was asked and a problem I ran into quite regularly. There are a few factors at play and they have nothing to do with brand of paint or quality of paint. Those things do help but even the highest quality paint on the market will still show up in a touch up.

Whatever you do don't scrub it with abrasives like some of the posters above have suggested. You'll destroy the paint finish, which will make washing the walls impossible. Not that I would wash walls anyways, that's what paint is for lol. Don't wash any painted surface within 30-60 days after painting as you'll wreck the coating before it's cured, latex included. I can't tell you how many times I've had customers wash their walls the day after I just painted it because there was some construction dust on the wall. Then they would ask me why it was streaky and mottled.

Most of the time the touch up will go away with time. It all depends on how long ago you painted vs when you did the touch up.

Another thing I learned for an old time German painter was that temperature of when you paint can change the color slightly. So if your house was painted at 26C and you did touch ups in summer at 32C you'll have a slightly different color, even out of the same can. Weird I know, but it works.

When you touched up did you use a brush or a mini roller? If you used a brush then that could be part of the problem. A mini roller allows you to feather our the touch up to make it less noticeable. If possible feather out a larger area than the scratch and follow shadow lines so it becomes less obvious to a casual observer. *note shadow lines won't work well if there's a window shining along the wall. If there is a window along the wall the only way it's going away is by painting the whole wall.

Hope that makes sense. Best of luck with the touch ups.

Nick

I've got chips on my kitchen cabinets that have been touched up by the landlord and although the color is the same, you can see the outline of the original chip. Anyone know how I can repair and prevent that going forward?

Just paint the entire wall?

Most of the comments above are correct. It really depends on the sheen more than anything. In most cases, unless its a flat, eggshell, paint, you will have to re-paint, or sometimes reprime, the entire wall to get it to disappear.

No matter what paint I am using, to touch up I use a small sponge brush instead of a small paint brush - and I never get the "shiny" finish I used to get when I used a tiny painter's brush for touching up. Hope this helps.

I've always heard that it's hard to touch up paint jobs because the sun makes the paint fade ever so much... just enough to be noticable.

I recently had to do some spot touch up in my partner's mother's home. I found that what worked for me was to:

1. Paint over the affected area with a regular roller brush;
2. Then, using a cheap foam brush, feather the edges so they blend in with the wall as suggested above by commenter mcintyree.

Thanks for all of the suggestions! The paint is actually water-based (not oil) although I referred to the liquid that floated to the top as oil. I'll probably wait a few months to see if, as some suggested, the sheen of the patch lessens. If it doesn't I'll try some of these tips. Thanks! Ellen