What's a Color Match? Fall '21 One Room Challenge Week 2
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Low stakes means posting two ORC blog posts in one week because what's a deadline anyway? My progress this week has actually been plentiful! I painted our room, had some new lighting installed (that I can't tell you about because it hasn't been released to the public yet. Yes, I'm gloating!), and our new rug arrived. Tomorrow I have to shoot a big campaign, so I had to get things ready for prime time, ya know? My last big task for the room is trimming out the closets, which I now get to take my dear sweet time doing because I worked ahead. 🤓
This week, I want to talk about paint and color matching. I received a lot of questions after I shared that I had my local Ace Hardware color match a Farrow & Ball color in Benjamin Moore paint. I figure a little explanation is in order!
Farrow & Ball makes premium paint and wallcoverings. It's a British company and its products are designed to be high-end, with a price tag to match: a gallon of their paint costs $110 a gallon. For reference, Clare paint rings in at under $60 (it's also premium), and the paint I ended up getting, a discontinued line from Benjamin Moore called Natura, was on sale (because it's discontinued), so that was only $30 per gallon. I usually go for a higher quality paint because it tends to drip less, has better coverage, and is just generally a better finish.
Let me start by saying that I have never used Farrow & Ball, not because I don't believe the quality is superior, but because I. can't. afford. it! I have also heard that their pigments, in combination with their paint, produce a greater depth of color. (Thank you, Shaun at Wrensted Interiors for drawing my attention to this SNL skit!!) Do I believe this? Sure. Does this matter to me for my own home? Not in the least bit.
Moving on. It's pretty widely known that Sherwin-Williams and Benjamin Moore will color match F&B colors. What I didn't realize is that even my local Ace Hardware, a Benjamin Moore retailer, has the ability to look up the colors in their system. Meaning they didn't even need a color card! This was amazing because I was able to test out a few options on my walls before fully committing. I will say I did try to have them look up some of their Kelley Wearstler collab colors (the California Collection) and it seems like they weren't in the system just yet.
I had my friends at Ace mix up Joa's White and French Gray (after testing out a very intense mint green that wasn't exactly the vibe). After painting samples on my walls, it was instantly clear that French Gray is the winner. Joa's white is gorgeous though – thinking through where I might be able to paint that in the future.
When I get the wardrobes trimmed out (and like... add doors), I'll use a semi-gloss version on them, too. And that's about that! Are you planning to try out this paint color matching method in the future?
