Have you ever moved into a home that needed a little paint touch up but had no paint? Every house should have a recipe box of paint samples! Once a room is painted, I take a piece of card stock and coat one side with paint. I then label the back side with the name of the paint, name of of the store, and date purchased. The cards are especially helpful to use when I need to match paint colors for decorating purposes such as accessory purchases, etc. When I move, I leave the recipe box and paint cans for the next homeowner to use.
By blasg1 from Indianapolis, IN
Here are the questions asked by community members. Read on to see the answers provided by the ThriftyFun community.
I have a new home and would like to buy some paint to touch up the walls from moving in. The builder didn't leave any touch-up paint. I know that I can go to Home Depot and have them mix the color I need but how do I get a piece of the paint off the walls? Should I go to a hidden area of my home and cut a small piece of paint off the wall?
---> Why not reverse the process: Go to Home Depot (and maybe a few other specialty paint stores) and get a bunch of paint swatch samples and use these to get as close as you can. Then when you think you are very near the color, go to a paint store called Rodda as they will sell you a sample pint for $5. (This is a good deal, because Home Depot charges 1/2 what a gallon costs for only a pint!).
---> If you have a Rodda close buy you can test your paint matching skills for $5 before you buy a gallon that might not match at all (& remember paint looks different during different times of the day, different angles, different light sources, some paint colors turn gray when they dry & when paint dries it's darker. Make sure the salesperson dries your color sample before you leave the store!)
---> Always take your paint sample outside to see it in a true light!
---> A worse case scenario is you may have to paint one whole wall if you can only get close in color. As all angles look a different color, if you're off just a bit, no one will ever know if you paint one whole wall.
---> Even if you take a paint scraper and actually gouge a piece out of your wall, the chances are good that the paint matching computers will be off slightly anyway. Usually people take a large paint flake that is pealing off. If your paint chip stretches, it's Latex. If it's brittle & breaks easily, it's an oil base.
Maybe you could take a picture of the wall up close with a polaroid camera? Myself, I have never had much luck with paint colors matching. When I painted my house I had all the paint mixed at the same time, by the same person, and it still was different between each can.
Maybe you can cut a piece of gyproc from behind a plug in. Just unscrew the cover plate, it usually covers @ 1/2" of gyproc. Try cutting a piece about
3' x 1/3". Be very careful when cutting, the wires are inside a box, but still be careful when cutting.
I am looking for a paint color that Glidden use to call Sunny Yellow, but cannot seem to find it. Has the name been changed to something else? If so could someone tell me what it is? Thanks.
Kelly
Go to-contact glidden's paint inc. You can get in touch with them, good luck.
I have had good luck taking in paint samples and having them match them. Maybe you could do that. Contacting Glidden is a good idea too.
I'm trying to match the white ceiling paint on our ceilings. The old owners didn't leave the old paint behind and I got some red from the walls on the ceiling and I don't want to paint all of it. Please Help - any tips would be great!
Debbie, here's what I would do, as paint changes over the years it is on the walls. If what you're using is a latex, water-base paint... just put some in a bucket and mix it about half and half with plain old water. Then take a really big sponge (you can get one at the dollar store, the ones they sell for washing cars) Dip in the paint mixture, squeeze out and just "wash" the walls with it...
I'm having the same challenge as well with matching up for touching up the walls where holes were and scuffs. I took a towel rack that had some of the original paint on it to Lowes...but the mixer said it was not enough paint on it. So he used the paint chart to get the closes mix possible. It seemed like a close match...but when I put the painton the results look like grease spots. So my adventure continues. I like the acyrlic paint idea.
