# Matching SW colors at Lowe's



## Gymschu (Dec 12, 2010)

From my experiences dealing with the paint dept at Lowe's and their "abilities" to color match, well, let me just say, "Good luck, Ed."


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## chrisn (Dec 23, 2007)

Gymschu said:


> From my experiences dealing with the paint dept at Lowe's and their "abilities" to color match, well, let me just say, "Good luck, Ed."


 

+ the difference in price should tell you something:whistling2:


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## jeffnc (Apr 1, 2011)

Good questions. If you learn more elsewhere, please post back here again.

Even when I ask the SW and BM reps to explain how they match each other's paints, I get vague answers. Last I heard from SW was they had database matches for some BM collections, but not all. How that info got in their database, I don't know. HD's paint computer seems to be idiot-proof.

I can tell you several years ago, my local SW refused to computer match. They insisted on doing it by hand. They gave the impression this was a more highly skilled and "superior" method. It rarely worked, so at that time, I had to go to Home Depot and to use their computer matcher, which worked excellently every time. Unfortunately this meant my only choice was Behr paint (or some other HD paint). Now, my SW computer matches finally, so I can use them to match paint. I haven't used BM for paint matching.

I haven't tried Lowe's.


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## Jmayspaint (May 4, 2013)

I think you'll find that even with today's tech color matching is still a crap shoot. You might get lucky and rarely have a problem anywhere, then again you may run into a color that no one can get right. From reading some of your other posts, this seems to be the case with some of the historical colors you are trying to match. 

I'm just finishing a complicated interior done with all BM. Every color in the house (8 total) was matched perfectly except the master suite where apparently the original color was a slight miss tint from a BM stock color. My local BM is great at color matching, spot on nearly every time. But this time after four tries and two different product lines they could not match it. A rookie clerk at SW matched it on the first try. At other times it has been the opposite situation. 

Yes, lowes can match some SW and BM colors from there data base. Will it be perfect? Roll the dice....


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## Ed Ferris (Mar 14, 2014)

*An example of paint chip mismatch*

Here's a photo a took this morning of a paint chip against the actual paint. You just can't match Golds to fan decks, unless you know by experience what the difference will be. The color is Olympic B14-6 Mecca Gold.


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## jeffnc (Apr 1, 2011)

Doesn't look different to me - at least not accounting for all the glare, texture, etc.


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## ront02769 (Nov 28, 2008)

Went to lowes to get a quart of paint for a new half wall, needed color to match existing, eggshell finish, kind of a bit off of antique white. They did the scan and tint thing, got home, put one stroke on and it was bs. Let it dry and it was worse. Went to SW with the same sample, same process, got home and could NOT see where the old ended and the new started. Listening to others, paint matching is to some degree a crap shoot....but it appears more likely that you. Get. A good result at BM or SW as opposed to big box. Ron


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## Gymschu (Dec 12, 2010)

And, at least at my SW store, they give you a heads up if they think they can't match a color. For example, last week I had a very tough deep red to match to paint some flooring. They told me "it won't be exact because of all the colorant we have to put in the gallon to get that color of red, but, it should be close." Not only was it close, it was "spot on."


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## jeffnc (Apr 1, 2011)

Never tried Lowe's. Not sure for many things if it's related to the store in general, or the individual person or store you use. For example, Home Depot might have better computers than Lowe's, in which case it would be all Lowe's. Or, you might have gone to a Lowe's that didn't have its machine calibrated correctly for whatever reason. Hard to know.


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## chrisn (Dec 23, 2007)

How about this for advise?

Go to a real paint store for paint, not the big box stores that sell mostly inferior products.

That is all.


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## Ed Ferris (Mar 14, 2014)

*Gold color*

The color is actually named Gothic Gold. To me, it's obviously lighter (less brown) than the chip.
It was said that James McNeill Whistler could see color differences that nobody else could. I don't claim to be an artist, but I have noticed that some people are slightly color-blind. Funny how they end up working in paint stores.
Gold is the dark tone of yellow-orange. So it is also the dark tone of yellow, which is olive, plus the dark tone of orange, which is brown. So you get olive golds, which are called old golds, and brown golds. There's a Victorian house in Bedford, Indiana which looks gold in twilight but an ordinary yellow during the day.


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## jeffnc (Apr 1, 2011)

There's so much glare and texture on that piece of wood, there's no way to tell from here. I suppose if you actually painted half the piece, then you could tell.

There are many colors that look different depending on where on the wall you're looking, the surrounding colors, time of day, type of lighting, etc.


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## Jmayspaint (May 4, 2013)

If you want to be sure paint half of the color chip before you leave the store. They will do it for you most places and dry it with a heat gun if you ask.


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## 95025 (Nov 14, 2010)

It stands to reason that the manager at the SW Store is apt to do a much better job of color matching than the kid who works part-time in the paint department at Lowes or Home Depot. But it can go the other way too. A couple months ago a SW employee tried to match Glidden "Polished Limestone" that a lady insisted was the perfect color. Not even close, but he did do his best to make it right.


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## princelake (Feb 19, 2012)

The only place i go for my matching is my local dulux store. I've never had a problem with a wrong color ever. They have a large data base of colors. I work in restoration and i went into alot of homes that are old and people dont like change. They've matched colors that havent "existed" in 30 years. If what the computer told them isnt exactly right they'll match by eye using a heat gun. I've gone to the BM store where i swear they are color blind. I get homewners that only want BM and they want color matches and its a nightmare. I just want to get it matched at dulux then dump the paint in a BM can and show up at the house haha!! So you shop find a paint store willing to go the extra mile that'll take the time to match it correctly.


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## Ed Ferris (Mar 14, 2014)

*No, it's not the same*

Here's an answer to my first question. At left, SW 2824 as Lowe's made it in Valspar base. At right, from the SW store.
We don't have Dulux paint in the US.


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## jeffnc (Apr 1, 2011)

Not a very close match. Matching by formula across companies has been very iffy at best, for me. Last week I tried to get SW to match a Behr color, and they said they had the formula in their system. Nope, not the same. I honestly don't even know why they bother. I mean, if they can get a better match by simply using the computer with the Behr paint chip, then why not just do that with all the colors? Makes no sense to me.

Glidden Professional is basically what Dulux used to be in the US.


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## Will22 (Feb 1, 2011)

Color software generally gets you in the neighborhood, depending on the color you are trying to match. Adjustment from the software match is best if it is done by someone with experience, and it is not simple to accomplish. I remember working in stores, before we had color matching software (no, I did not walk barefoot to work, either!!).


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## chrisn (Dec 23, 2007)

Will22 said:


> Color software generally gets you in the neighborhood, depending on the color you are trying to match. Adjustment from the software match is best if it is done by someone with experience, and it is not simple to accomplish. I remember working in stores, before we had color matching software (no, I did not walk barefoot to work, either!!).


 
Not toooo many years ago, my local Ben Moore guy matched all samples by eye. Those days are long gone, unfortunately.


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