Tenants had some good times at the expense of your walls?  Little Miss Artist created her latest piece?  Did they use…decals?  When you want to avoid a complete paint job, you need to become an expert in colour matching in your rental property.  

Colour Matching – the basics 

To colour match means to find the exact shade of paint to match with the existing wall or cornice so that the repair job is as seamless as possible. When you consider ALL the shades out there, this potentially proves to be a more arduous task than one would first expect, but the answer is relatively simple.   

Your best bet? Take a sample in 

It’s easy, it’s straightforward, it’s a classic for a reason. Take a sample of the paint colour in with you. To achieve this, you’ll want to take a basic Stanley knife and carefully slice out a very small selection of paint from the wall. Aim for it to be big enough for the colour to be noticed by the paint store but small enough to be easily painted over when you repaint. Keep it shallow and keep it sharp. You can then take this sample with you to a paint store, but make sure they’re reputable.  

What about taking a photo or using an app? 

The problem here is that you’re at much greater risk of not getting an appropriate match. Photos are notorious for not providing a true representation of a colour. And apps are fallible, too. It stands to reason that the real thing is better than a copy. The best technology in the world is no match for the trained eye of a paint professional.   

What if I take colour palettes home? 

When it comes to finding colour to match over a repair, this is a kind of backwards approach. While this is a great way to freshly paint a new space, using it to retrospectively figure out what colour you’re looking for can complicate matters.   

We’ve got a match! Now what? 

Congrats on finding your match! Here are some pointers for painting over those repairs.  

• High traffic area? You might want to consider repainting the whole wall. The small patch up may be noticeably more glossy so it might be worth your while considering having professional house painters pop over and look at that wall for you.   
• Happy to paint just the patch? If it’s a small area, dab it on rather than employ big brush strokes. This will help maintain the integrity of the finish and you will not be left with a huge glossy patch that looks out of place.   
• You can use a mini roller for a larger area.   

Being a landlord is never simple.  Paint matching is one of those tedious jobs, that once perfected can save you a fortune before your next lease.