So what’s a ripped piece of paper on a board got to do with anything you ask?
OY Vey is all I have to say.
Well, the ripped piece of paper is a sample of Cotton Fluff by Behr. This is our trim color in the kitchen, mudroom, and family room. A company called New England Woodworking out of RI is supplying the built-ins for the mudroom and the paint they use is a special type of paint.
We needed the colors to match.
So Dave, the sales rep, picks up some of the paint we are using from the job site. One of the painters gave him a Coke bottle full of paint. They took the paint and matched it. They delivered a board and it was bright white. Our cotton fluff has a creamy yellow undertone. Not a match.
I called Dave and asked if maybe they matched it to the wrong color. We think they matched to the basement trim color which is bright white.
No bother, really. Our solution? Get the formula from Behr. So I called Home Depot, got the code, emailed Dave. Also I FedExed a piece chip with the actual paint of the cotton fluff. Paul ,the homeowner had made test boards when we chose colors. (Did you know most paint companies have chips that are printed, not made of actual paint? So when you are using those little chips from the hardware store, the colors are close, but not true.)
Take two. Dave had his finish guy color match based on the formula. They made 2 new boards based on the formula. Then he drove up here to deliver them the next day. Those were still not right.
We decided that clearly there was an issue with formulas and different paint chemistries. The solution? A custom, hand blended color. What we were after was not an exact match, but a close blending of the undertone of the Cotton Fluff. Our eyes seek our similar, so as long as it was close, it would be a go.
Third time was indeed a charm.
