How can I get the matching wall paint colour to what's already in my house?

LiveOnce

Hi all,

How can I get the matching wall paint colour to what's already in my house?

The previous owners did not leave anything and I want to use the same wall colour paint as they did but there are no indicators on what paint they used.

How can I get the matching wall paint colour to what's already on the wall?

HouseBuyer77

Are you repainting the whole lot?

DIY stores can do you a colour match if you bring in a sample of the colour you want. You could take a photo and ask them to colour match off that. However the camera and phone screen/printout may not perfectly reproduce it. Maybe you could manage to chip off a square of the paint?

Probably easiest to just get a set of colour swatches and see what looks the closest. If you simply like the shade and want the same this will work fine.

If you want to touch up a corner it's trickier. Especially as paint fades so even if you found the exact shade the fresh may not match perfectly.

agrinnall

If it was painted a while ago then off the shelf paint won't match exactly anyway as it will have faded. You'll probably need to use a paint-matching service, as offered by most large DIY stores, but you'll need to take an example with you which might mean chipping a bit of paint off the wall. No idea how much they need to do the match though.

ellie27

I would just do it all again, the whole room or go for a contrasting colour on the other walls.

I dont think you could ever get a true match and it would be always that wee bit different and noticeable to you!

benjus

I just contacted the previous owner (I think I emailed my solicitor and asked them to forward a message including my phone number). He called me back and I asked a few questions, including the paint colour.

I bought the colour he said and it matches exactly - you can't tell where I've touched up the paintwork. But then it is a pale colour and quite recently painted.