How to Match an Existing Paint Color

It happens all too often: you do some light home renovations, or unexpected repair work that only requires replacing part of the drywall, or your wall becomes stained or worn in a way that requires repair few coats of paint. you have no color left the original job, but you may still have a record of the color and brand, or you may bring a sample to the store to color match. Problem solved! Unless the new paint is just one hair from the original shade.

Even the tiniest differences in color and gloss are visible in dim light and make your wall look spotty and sloppy. Even if you bought the exact same color, This can happen if your wall has faded a bit over the years –and color matching, while incredibly useful, isn’t always 100% accurate. Now you need to repaint the entire wall – maybe the entire room – to make it look uniform and consistent.

Or are you? Maybe there is another way. If your paint can is just a shade or so off from what’s on your wall, you might be able to match it. Here’s how.

Bring it back to the store to tweak it

TThe store you bought it from may be able to lighten or darken a paint color for you. All colors start with a white base, and then pigments are added according to a formula to get the desired color. To make a slightly lighter or darker version of this color, all you need to do is use a little more or less of these pigments. Someone who has experience mixing color might be able to take it up or down a shade for you. You may want to start with a quart instead of a gallon, just to be safe before committing. If you are already buying a quart ask if they would be willing to make a tester size for you.

How to adjust the hue yourself

If the way back to the store is not possible (or if they’re just not interested in messing around with the color formulas for you), you can customize the color yourself with a little determination.

If you don’t have a beater attachment for your drill, you should probably get one. It makes mixing your color a a lot of Easier and faster, and you can end up stirring a lot trying to get an exact match to your color. When dealing with a gallon (or more) of paint, it also helps to have a large 5-gallon bucket—adding paint to a nearly-full gallon can gets messy. If you are trying to tint a smaller amount of paint, a 1 gallon bucket is probably a better choice.

Here is your procedure. Note that this is not a precise science, so take your time:

1. Depending on whether you lighten or darken your paint, buy white or black paint from the same paint family (e.g. interior gloss, eggshell, etc.) You probably won’t need more than a liter of this because you’re only using it as a tint. An alternative to black paint would be to look at the color chart or paint chips in your paint brand and choose a slightly darker shade in the color family by going down a selection or two – this keeps the ‘tint’ in the same color family, This can achieve a closer match, but it also makes mixing a more complex process. Rule of thumb: if you only need to adjust one shade, go for black. When you think it has to go a few shades darker, try a darker version of the same color.
2. Pour your half paint into the bucket – the whole can.
3. Add your “tint” (light or dark) in 5% increments. There are 128 ounces in a US gallon, so 5% of a gallon is 6.4 ounces. Resist the urge to use more to speed up the process; You want to go slow because you’re trying to adjust your hue by a small amount.
4. Mix well: Start the drill and go to town.
5. Apply a small amount to the wall and let dry. Wet paint always looks different than dry paint. Seal in your color and relax for a while.

If you still haven’t quite made it, repeat the process until you get there.

Note that using white and black paint has limited effects – you can lighten or darken your color by a shade or two with great success. However, after a few rounds of tinting, you drift too far from the base color and it doesn’t look right. Ideally, it’s one round of shuffling where you want to stop.

This process can also be used if you’re painting an entire room a fresh color and just decide you’ve picked the wrong shade and don’t want to just waste gallons of good paint – it’s even easier because you’re re-matching just to to please yourself and not to match an existing livery.