The walls in our home take a beating as we go through life. From moving furniture to the kids playing hockey indoors, the paint on our walls are under constant stress. And unfortunately, if your walls haven’t been painted in a while, the touch-ups won’t match.
Your Paint Changes Color Over Time
It may sound crazy but your walls really do change color over time. As time passes, the paint on your walls change color from dirt, moisture, sun fade, and smoke. Dust and dirt settles on the surface that can change the color. If you burn candles or use a fireplace, soot can distort the original colors. Even the sun can come through windows and fade existing colors on your walls. So, even if you have the same paint, it most likely won’t match after a year or so on the wall.
Computerized Color Match
One way to combat these color changes is match the existing wall color with a computer. A small wall sample can be removed with a utility knife and taken down to your local home improvement store. The computer will create a paint mix that will come close to matching the existing wall color.
Corner to Corner
Another method for solving the touch up problem is to paint the entire plane of the wall. Basically, you paint from corner to corner on the wall that needs to be touched up in order to prevent the color mismatch. This works in most cases. You may even want to go with a different color entirely to create an accent wall. This way, if the wall color is noticeably different, it will create a design element instead of a question mark.
Blend It
Sometimes it just doesn’t make sense to paint a huge wall for one small touch up. If you have a large wall area like this that needs a touch up, try blending the paint repair with a brush. By feathering the paint out at the edges, you can sometimes ease the transition between colors. When we say feather or blend, we mean lighten up the thickness of the paint at the edges. This will allow some of the existing paint to show through making the edge between the different colors less pronounced.
