Best way to match paint colors (Home Depot, Lowes, versus, square)

[coolcats]

What is the best way to match existing paint colors, when no remnants were left behind? The house we are moving into, has a few scratches and scuff marks I'd like to cover up. But the people did not leave matching colors left in the cans. Any ideas?

[mktavish]

find a fairly clean spot of wall near where you might allready be doing some spackeling , make sure its not near a joint , knock on the wall looking for an inbetween stud , cut out about a 2" x 2" square of just the face paper of sheet rock. then peeling it off carefully with a putty knife.
I recomend going with an actual paint store versus , Lowes/Home depot for getting it matched though.
Oh ya , and if you need to match a trim color , find a short peice you can pry off carefully , maybe in a closet?
Your probably still going to have to paint whole wall sections to get it not to flash though.
And make sure you pre prime your spackle spots ... atleast with 1 coat of paint , just dobbing with a brush.

[Paint Color Help]

mktavish gives good advice. I would throw in the following additional thoughts to keep in mind.

The bigger the sample you can provide, the closer the store can match it. Most stores now use a "color eye" and it can't read anything smaller than say, the size of a quarter. Stores like Sherwin-Williams have skilled personnel who can still match by eye, but they'll still do better with a bigger piece, because anything tiny can only be dabbed on once or twice to check how close the new paint matches, then it's covered up. And you're done, whether it's "there" or not.

Matches for touch-up using tiny pieces are therefore usually not possible.

Another place to look for a sample is behind a wall switchplate or outlet cover. Sometimes there's a piece of painted drywall that can be cut without marring the main wall. Again, bigger is better.

If you can't get a big enough piece to do a proper match, you may need to paint a whole wall corner to corner. If the color is pretty close, you generally can't tell the difference from the other walls.

Finally, sheen can vary from one paint brand to another. There is nothing the paint store can do to control the sheen, which may cause a color to blend exactly at one angle, but then look duller or shinier from another.
Thinning the paint slightly with water will reduce the sheen a bit, if that proves necessary.

[dad2jules]

Originally Posted by coolcats

What is the best way to match existing paint colors, when no remnants were left behind? The house we are moving into, has a few scratches and scuff marks I'd like to cover up. But the people did not leave matching colors left in the cans. Any ideas?

Not sure if you have the empty cans or not. If you do bring it to a store that sells that brand and have them mix to the formula on the can. If I finish a can of paint I always keep the top with the mixture so if I need more I can just go in and tell them to mix me a gallon of this formula. Keeping just the top saves on space and insures I can always match in case they discontinue color, they just mix to formula.