How can I figure out what color my wall is?

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ManBearPig

Diamond Member
Sep 5, 2000
9,173
6
81
I wanna repaint my wall but have no idea what the damn color is...any easy way to find out?

Thanks bros.
 
shortylickens

shortylickens

No Lifer
Jul 15, 2003
80,287
17,082
136
How long ago was it painted?

If its older I can almost guarantee that color isnt made any more. Paint companies make subtle variations every few years so if you wanna repaint something you have to start over from scratch, thereby purchasing more product. Carpet companies too.
 
Pulsar

Pulsar

Diamond Member
Mar 3, 2003
5,224
306
126
It's fairly simple. First, go to your local Lowes or Home Depot and ask for a color swatch booklet. Or they should have shelves with thousands of little color cards. Pick a couple dozen that are really close to your color and take them home.

Next, go through and hold those swatches up to the paint in different lighting. Pick out the 2 or three that are the closest.

Go back to the store and have them mix up those two or three into paint samples. They are usually like $8 a sample.

Go home a paint areas on your wall using each of the three samples, then LET THEM DRY. Now, pick the sample that matches the closest.

You will never get a perfect match, but you can get close enough that no one will ever notice as long as you paint entire walls. You can't paint half a wall though.
 
T_Yamamoto

T_Yamamoto

Lifer
Jul 6, 2011
15,007
795
126
Pulsar said:
It's fairly simple. First, go to your local Lowes or Home Depot and ask for a color swatch booklet. Or they should have shelves with thousands of little color cards. Pick a couple dozen that are really close to your color and take them home.

Next, go through and hold those swatches up to the paint in different lighting. Pick out the 2 or three that are the closest.

Go back to the store and have them mix up those two or three into paint samples. They are usually like $8 a sample.

Go home a paint areas on your wall using each of the three samples, then LET THEM DRY. Now, pick the sample that matches the closest.

You will never get a perfect match, but you can get close enough that no one will ever notice as long as you paint entire walls. You can't paint half a wall though.
Click to expand...
what i just said
 
C

conehead433

Diamond Member
Dec 4, 2002
5,569
901
126
If you want to match the existing color take a razor knife and score a 2 or 3 inch square on the wall somewhere, then use a spatula blade or chisel to just remove the surface. Take to your favorite paint store and let them scan and match it. Use some sheet rock mud to repair the patch you removed. Or an easier method is to bring home some of the paint card samples, hold them up to the wall and pick the closest color. Or just pick a color you like and paint that color. It's not rocket science.
 
IronWing

IronWing

No Lifer
Jul 20, 2001
72,992
34,198
136
If the room has a south facing exterior wall use your gun to shoot a hole through the wall. Hold a prism to the newly made hole such that the sun shines onto the prism and casts a rainbow on one of the other walls. Carefully measure the rainbow made by the prism and mark where along the rainbow that the color of the wall best matches the rainbow. Look up the wavelength in an optics reference (you do have an optics reference, don't you?) and write it down. Go to the hardware store and give the wavelength to the guy at the paint counter so he can mix the paint to match that wavelength.
 
WaTaGuMp

WaTaGuMp

Lifer
May 10, 2001
21,207
2,506
126
IronWing said:
If the room has a south facing exterior wall use your gun to shoot a hole through the wall. Hold a prism to the newly made hole such that the sun shines onto the prism and casts a rainbow on one of the other walls. Carefully measure the rainbow made by the prism and mark where along the rainbow that the color of the wall best matches the rainbow. Look up the wavelength in an optics reference (you do have an optics reference, don't you?) and write it down. Go to the hardware store and give the wavelength to the guy at the paint counter so he can mix the paint to match that wavelength.
Click to expand...

Its really this simple?
 
SandEagle

SandEagle

Lifer
Aug 4, 2007
16,809
13
0
conehead433 said:
If you want to match the existing color take a razor knife and score a 2 or 3 inch square on the wall somewhere, then use a spatula blade or chisel to just remove the surface. Take to your favorite paint store and let them scan and match it. Use some sheet rock mud to repair the patch you removed. Or an easier method is to bring home some of the paint card samples, hold them up to the wall and pick the closest color. Or just pick a color you like and paint that color. It's not rocket science.
Click to expand...

this works. i tried it at Home Depot and they matched it perfectly
 
MikeyIs4Dcats

MikeyIs4Dcats

Lifer
Nov 5, 2001
18,366
3
0
conehead433 said:
If you want to match the existing color take a razor knife and score a 2 or 3 inch square on the wall somewhere, then use a spatula blade or chisel to just remove the surface. Take to your favorite paint store and let them scan and match it. Use some sheet rock mud to repair the patch you removed.
Click to expand...


THIS. I matched 10yr old paint at the old house and Home Depot matched it perfectly. I was able to use it for touchup and you could not even tell.
 
Red Squirrel

Red Squirrel

No Lifer
May 24, 2003
70,669
13,835
126
www.anyf.ca
Even if you had some left over paint in a can, chances are after a few years it wont match 100% because of fading over time. Well maybe a couple years you'd be ok, but over time it changes.

What I'd do is as suggested, try to match it as close as you can, but when you repaint, just do that whole wall. Don't have to do the full room, just that one wall. Even if it's slightly off it should look ok. In fact now is the good excuse to cut up the wall if you need to change electrical wiring, add a network jack, or do something like that.

Some paint companies also have codes and they always have the same system, so if you can match it to a code you should be able to be rather close, if the same.
 
W

weadjust

Senior member
Mar 28, 2004
636
0
71
I painted all the interior of my home 10 years ago. I kept the color mixing code and left over paint. I did some work in the kitchen a couple of weeks ago and needed to repaint a small area. Perfect match on the small area I painted.

I also have rental property. I always use the same color/mix on the walls and buy 5 gallon buckets. I can paint a 900 sf 2BR/bath house in an hour or two using spot painting and it will match once it's dry.
 
P

Pardus

Diamond Member
Jun 29, 2000
8,197
21
81
take a pic, use photoshop eye dropper tool to pick up the exact color or an average of the colors around it.
 
edro

edro

Lifer
Apr 5, 2002
24,326
68
91
conehead433 said:
If you want to match the existing color take a razor knife and score a 2 or 3 inch square on the wall somewhere, then use a spatula blade or chisel to just remove the surface. Take to your favorite paint store and let them scan and match it. Use some sheet rock mud to repair the patch you removed. Or an easier method is to bring home some of the paint card samples, hold them up to the wall and pick the closest color. Or just pick a color you like and paint that color. It's not rocket science.
Click to expand...
That's what I did recently. Worked great...except I got the sheen wrong. :(
I had to go back and get another quart in semi-gloss. (previous owners used semi-gloss in the bathroom)
The sheen can be hard to discern from a 2" square.
 
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