Q&A for How to Match Paint Colors

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  • Question
    What is a colorimeter?
    Juli Roland
    Certified Color Specialist
    Juli Roland is a Color Specialist and the Founder of PaintColorHelp.com, one of the first companies in Dallas, Texas metro area that provides in-home color consultations and helps clients create paint color schemes. Juli has over 15 years of commercial and residential color consulting experience, including seven years as a custom-matcher in the paint industry. She earned her certification in color strategy from Camp Chroma and is a member of the Inter-Society Color Council. She has a BA in Advertising from Texas Tech University.
    Certified Color Specialist
    Expert Answer
    A colorimeter is a device that "reads" the color on your wall and provides scientific data about the color, as well as which known paint colors are closest to what was just scanned.
  • Question
    How do you match a discontinued paint color?
    wikiHow Staff Editor
    Staff Answer
    This answer was written by one of our trained team of researchers who validated it for accuracy and comprehensiveness.
    wikiHow Staff Editor
    Staff Answer
    If you know the brand and shade, you may be able to visit a local paint or hardware store and give them that information. They can make a match for you using a mixture of newer colors, or may even have some cans of the discontinued color in stock! You can also use a matching service like Myperfectcolor.com or Colorcharts.org.
  • Question
    How big of a paint chip do you need to get a match?
    wikiHow Staff Editor
    Staff Answer
    This answer was written by one of our trained team of researchers who validated it for accuracy and comprehensiveness.
    wikiHow Staff Editor
    Staff Answer
    Ideally, you should get a chip that’s at least 1 inch (2.5 cm) square. Using a big enough chip will make it easier for the paint store to use a color sensor (spectrophotometer) to analyze the chip.
  • Question
    How accurate is paint matching?
    wikiHow Staff Editor
    Staff Answer
    This answer was written by one of our trained team of researchers who validated it for accuracy and comprehensiveness.
    wikiHow Staff Editor
    Staff Answer
    If you’re matching two different brands of paint, it’s going to be difficult to get a 100% accurate match. Spectrophotometer matching is about 90% accurate, which may mean that it will take some fiddling to get the exact shade you want.
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