Getting the closest color match is something that every DIY painter aspires for.
Have you noticed the disclaimer we put under any photo with a paint color swatch which includes the name and code? This is how it looks –
Disclaimer: These colors may not match actual paint
With 65 years of experience, Boysen is very sure about the colors of its paints. There are thousands of colors available and each one comes with a formula, which changes with the kind of paint being manufactured, like if it were oil-based or water-based, or if the paint finishes (sheen) change. Paint manufacturing is all about chemistry and accuracy is crucial.
Not only R&D, Production and the Technical teams, but also our Community Manager for social media is a stickler for accuracy. It must be because years of experience show that the closest color match is so important to people. Rightly so! I would be upset if the blue I chose from a photo is not the blue on my walls!
If you really want the closest color match, there are three steps you can take so that you can have the color of your dreams.
1 Find a peg of a room or exterior space you like
Most of us like to look at pictures when we think about decorating our homes. We find inspiration in magazines, online or otherwise. There is also Pinterest, Instagram or Google that offer a plethora of photos, or as one reader puts it, picspirations.
2 Check the paint swatches in a Mix & Match station
Bring your photo to the Boysen Mix & Match station in any home depot close to you. Click here to see where the one nearest you is located.
Talk to the technician first so they can give you an informed recommendation. Tell them if the paint you need is for interiors or exteriors, what kind of paint finish you want (shiny or not), what surface you’ll be painting (wood, concrete, metal, fiber cement board), if you want special features like easy-clean, odor-less, etc. The more details you give, the better the recommendation.
Fan out the swatches that will be shown to you. Have fun finding the one that makes your heart skip a beat. Hahaha.
Caveat: The nature of color is complicated. Here’s something I learned from a color course I took –
The way we see a color is constantly being influenced by lighting, the material or surface it is applied to, the neighboring colors, and how we feel about it. You could say that seeing color is not as much about what we actually see and more about what we think we see… Scientists long believed we all saw the same colors. More recent studies show that color occurs in our minds as a response to our experiences of the outside world. We each develop similar yet not necessarily the same ‘color vision’. But even if we did see exactly the same, colors can still fool our eyes.
With that warning in mind, there are other factors that can affect the closest color match. These could be the resolution of the photo, or configuration of your electronic device if you’re bringing a digital copy of your photo. To make things even more complicated, artificial light also affects the paint color on your walls.
3 Have your paint mixed in the Mix & Match station
Mix & Match stations are usually for (DIY) home painting or for small projects. Paint for big projects (usually commercial) are ordered via Boysen’s accredited dealers and mixed in the plant.
For the homeowner, it is good to order the quantity of paint you need and have all of it mixed in the station. It is best that you buy the number of liters you need in one go. It’s the same principle as buying all the balls of yarn you need for crocheting or knitting a blouse, for example. It is possible that you won’t get the exact color if you go back to the store and buy more. Chances are that if the additional yarn is not from the same batch, you will have color differences.
The most important thing to get from this post is that you need to see the paint swatches to get the closest color match. I suggest you dive right in and choose the color that calls to you. Then have the quantity of paint you need mixed in the station.
At the end of the day, if the tint, tone or shade is not to your liking, you always can change the color at some time in the future. Because that’s the one great thing about paint: It creates a lot of impact yet it is affordable and fairly easy to do!
Happy painting!
