"How Accurate Is Color Matching Paint?" Let's Find Out…
THE POPLAR COTTAGE
I get asked about the cabinet color at the Poplar Cottage a lot. The short answer is Farrow & Ball Old White, but we had it color matched by Sherwin Williams, so like is it really Old White…? Matching Farrow & Ball colors is notoriously tricky and I’ve seen other folks use this color online and it looks different. So I figured it was time to do a little experiment to find out how accurate color matching between paint brands really is…
knobs (unlaquered) | sconce | brass gallery rail | quartz | range hood | ceilings | wall color: BM Swiss Coffee
Let’s talk about the basics of color matching paint between brands before we start our experiment…
What is Color matching?
Color matching is when one paint company makes another paint company’s color. Say you like Farrow and Ball’s Light Blue but you’re at your local Sherwin Williams paint store, so you ask SW to make you a can of it. Color matching!
Why color match?
There are a few reasons you might want to color match a paint.
Local Availability - if you live in a small town in the US like we do, you probably don’t have access to Farrow & Ball paints all the way in England. Of course you can order them online, but that adds days to the project and so often we just don’t plan ahead enough to wait.
Discontinued Colors: Sometimes colors are discontinued, but you can often get old colors matched by other brands!
Brand Preferences: if you prefer the durability or finish of a specific paint brand, you can have them color match another brand’s color.
Cost Savings: Sometimes, a more affordable brand offers a similar quality paint, so color matching paint between brands can save you money.
Custom Projects: For unique projects or historic restorations, accurate paint matching can get you a seamless look.
Material Matching: You may want to match the paint on your walls to a fabric, tile, or other material.
How to color match
There are a couple ways to color match between paint companies.
Use the competitor’s formula - Often, paint companies have formulas for competitor’s colors on file. So you just have to ask the folks at the paint desk for “Farrow and Ball’s Old White” to get a sample of this color. That’s exactly what we did for this experiment at SW and BM.
Bring in a sample - Most paint stores have a scanner that will spit out a formula for any color you bring in. So if you bring in the competitors color card, they can match it. This is a handy option if you have wallpaper you want to match or a bit of painted millwork from your house that you don’t know the color of (more on that process here).
is color matching accurate?
We know that paint matching is not an exact science. Each brand of paint has their own colors, which they’ve designed to look how they look in that company’s unique paint products. Farrow & Ball, for instance, handcrafts their paint in Dorset with ingredients like minerals, pigments and resin so it's impossible to get the exact same look with paint made of different ingredients in the USA. But is it close?
a color matching comparison
To find out, we decided to do a little experiment! I went to three different paint companies for samples of the same color (FB Old White, the color of our cabinets) - Sherwin Williams, Benjamin Moore, and Farrow & Ball. I chose these companies because BM and SW are local to our small town and I ordered the FB sample online. Note that all of these are sample paints so there’s no specific sheen or special quality paint here - just basic samples.
For this comparison, I painted the samples on 18x24 watercolor paper (a tip I picked up from Rita Konig), that way we could move them around. I decided to paint them upstairs next to our south-facing window for good light. And I put two coats on each sample. Have a look…
is color matching accurate? kinda…
The big question: “is color matching accurate?” And the answer: kinda...?! While these samples are similar, they’re not exact.
From left to right: samples of Old White from Sherwin Williams, Farrow & Ball, and Benjamin Moore.
The Sherwin Williams sample on the left reads slightly green (as evidenced by our cabinets). And the Benjamin Moore sample on the right reads more brown. They’re all beautiful colors, but a bit different. I’d go so far as to say that the SW and BM versions look like two different colors - closely related, but different.
Here are the samples hanging up in the Poplar Cottage kitchen (painted in SW’s version of Old White) for another comparison:
From top to bottom, samples of Old White from Sherwin Williams, Farrow and Ball, and Benjamin Moore. Cabinets are painted in FB Old White, matched by Sherwin Williams.
And just for fun, here are some images of other spaces that have used Old White. There are a ton of factors that impact how a color will look in a space, so I never assume that a paint color I see online will look the same in my house, but it’s a good spot to start.
an Idea to improve color accuracy
Matching paint colors isn’t exact. We proved that. So what’s a gal to do? Of course you can order directly from the paint company that developed the color. And our paint guy at Benjamin Moore also told me that that FB paints are extra hard to match and suggested that we bring in the FB color card so they could use their scanner to match it, instead of relying on the formula they had on file. So that method of color matching appears to be more accurate. We’ll have to try that next!
psst: Farrow & Ball offers free color cards here
Of course whether it’s an exact match or not, if you like the color then that’s all that matters!
