Colour matching is perhaps the most
misunderstood and most frustrating part of our business. Colour can be affected
by so many outside factors that it is almost impossible to have every colour in
your home matching exactly.
Usually a client will understand that a gloss
two pack finish will always look different to a matt painted wall, due to the
finished surface absorbing and reflecting light in different ways. We have success in educating clients to
understand that coloured finishes are affected by surrounding light sources and
surrounding décor, with the result that a panel can look different colours from
the top through to the bottom.
We can convince even the fussiest client that
the sun shining through vegetation in the garden can change the look of a
painted surface with one panel looking greener than it should when compared to a
nearby panel that is away from the window.
Would you believe we once had to paint a
kitchen in three different shades of the one colour so as to allow for the
green hue that a nearby hedge was reflecting through the window.
Usually a client will understand that a close
colour match is fine so that all painted surfaces generally match or tone in
together.
Where we sometimes run into trouble is when we
are trying to colour match an existing two pack finish with a new two pack
finish in the same gloss level. Clients assume that as the finish is the same
product and the gloss level is the same then an exact colour match is a fairly
straight forward process.
Unfortunately, it is not quite that simple.
Matching the colour is not too much of a problem, but ensuring the colour looks
the same when installed in the clients’ home is another matter. You see,
coloured finishes are viewed by the eye as a reflection of light coming off the
surface of the paint finish. The light will be absorbed into the paint finish
surface, it will pick up minute nuances of colour from the paint and reflect it
back to your eyes. So if we don’t use the exact same coloured pigments as the
original finish then the colour can look slightly different even though it is
outwardly the same colour.
As with automotive paint, industrial paint,
artists paint, and domestic and commercial paints there are many different
manufacturers. Each of these manufacturers has their own specific tinters to
produce the myriad of different colours required by the buying public. Two pack
polyurethane manufacturers are the same. In Australia, there is more than a
dozen different suppliers, each having their own tinters for use in producing
coloured lacquers.
Colour matching of an existing two pack finish
is usually completed as an eye match. In other words a highly trained tint
expert will look at the sample and endeavor to ascertain what pigments were
used in the original product to achieve the colour. The tint expert will then
mix in certain pigments and then add a little of this and a little of that
until such time as he believes he has an exact match. A sample is then
produced, dried and compared to the original coloured sample. If it requires an
alteration then again, a little extra tint is added and another sample is
sprayed out to compare with the sample.
All this process transpires in a controlled
environment under exacting lighting conditions as the tinter endeavors to
produce an exact sample. As each manufacturer has different coloured pigments a
colour may be produced that uses differing pigments in differing quantities to
produce the same colour as the original.
Unfortunately, when the finished surface
coating is installed into a home environment the surrounding décor colours and
the individual lighting conditions can interact with the specific pigment tints
used and in some cases, reflect back a slightly different colour to the eye of
the home owner.
