How to fix slightly mismatched paint colour?

homeinmelbourne

Hello Workshop Community,

We’re in the middle of a powder room renovation and we’ve hit a bit of a snag with the painting. 

We purchased a 4L tin of Dulux Wash & Wear Low Sheen in the colour ‘Shaded Fuchsia’. It wasn’t enough to paint a 3rd coat in room so we then purchased an additional 2L tin of paint in the same colour/sheen/finish to do a final 3rd coat roll on the walls and panelling. 

It looks like the 2nd tin of paint we purchased is not an exact match (slightly lighter) leaving a distinct line where the paint from the 2nd tin was rolled on the upper walls and the lower wall panelling.

Any tips on how I can rectify this issue without having to buy a 3rd tin of paint which may or may not match either of the two paint colours already on the walls and panelling?

I have 1L left of the 2nd tin of paint to work with. Should I try to blend/re-cut-in with a brush around the edges and roll over it to blend in the paint brush texture? Or is that not best practice and should I just follow my gut and re-paint the whole hallway and powder room again?

Thank you in advance 🙂

MitchellMc

Hi @homeinmelbourne.

Sorry to hear you’ve run into that, especially as the room is looking fantastic so far. Do you have any idea why that visible line appears in that particular location? If you were simply applying another coat over the two existing ones, it’s a little puzzling that the line is just around the top of the dado rail and in the corners. It almost looks like a classic ghosting issue, which often happens when cutting in around edges or corners and then rolling the wall separately. You can end up with a slight colour variation because those cut-in areas get a double layer of paint compared to the rest of the wall. This becomes especially evident if we cut in with a brush.

When you did the third coat, did you paint right up into the corners and to the rail, or did you stop short and just paint the boxed-in area (lighter section) in the middle of the wall? There could still be a slight colour mismatch between tins, but if that’s the case, I’d expect the difference to show up across the whole wall, not just in those bordered areas. That’s why I’m leaning more towards it being a ghosting issue than a paint colourant problem. It might still be worth double-checking with the paint desk team to confirm that both tins were mixed from the same colour formula. 
 

Regarding how you'd solve this issue, I think in any circumstance, the whole wall would need another coat in one continuous layer from top to bottom to resolve the issue.

Please let me know if you have any questions.

Mitchell