I have a new home and would like to buy some paint to touch up the walls from moving in. The builder didn't leave any touch-up paint. I know that I can go to Home Depot and have them mix the color I need but how do I get a piece of the paint off the walls? Should I go to a hidden area of my home and cut a small piece of paint off the wall?
Maybe you can cut a piece of gyproc from behind a plug in. Just unscrew the cover plate, it usually covers @ 1/2" of gyproc. Try cutting a piece about 3' x 1/3". Be very careful when cutting, the wires are inside a box, but still be careful when cutting.
Maybe you could take a picture of the wall up close with a polaroid camera? Myself, I have never had much luck with paint colors matching. When I painted my house I had all the paint mixed at the same time, by the same person, and it still was different between each can. I used a bucket and mixed paint from each can to get one uniform color. Good luck to you and your project!
---> Why not reverse the process: Go to Home Depot (and maybe a few other specialty paint stores) and get a bunch of paint swatch samples and use these to get as close as you can. Then when you think you are very near the color, go to a paint store called Rodda as they will sell you a sample pint for $5. (This is a good deal, because Home Depot charges 1/2 what a gallon costs for only a pint!).
---> If you have a Rodda close buy you can test your paint matching skills for $5 before you buy a gallon that might not match at all (& remember paint looks different during different times of the day, different angles, different light sources, some paint colors turn gray when they dry & when paint dries it's darker. Make sure the salesperson dries your color sample before you leave the store!)
---> Always take your paint sample outside to see it in a true light!
---> A worse case scenario is you may have to paint one whole wall if you can only get close in color. As all angles look a different color, if you're off just a bit, no one will ever know if you paint one whole wall.
---> Even if you take a paint scraper and actually gouge a piece out of your wall, the chances are good that the paint matching computers will be off slightly anyway. Usually people take a large paint flake that is pealing off. If your paint chip stretches, it's Latex. If it's brittle & breaks easily, it's an oil base.
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