The problem of the Red Paint

If you've been following my blog you know I'm in the middle of moving to a new house. If you're new to the blog, I'm moving to a new house. We are supposed to start moving stuff next week (that would be the week of June 8) and everything has been on track until the Red Paint.

My kitchen in our townhouse is red and I love it. In fact, I love everything about our townhouse, except the size of the kitchen (small) and the size of the yard (non-existent). Because I love all of my colors, etc., I tried to exactly replicate everything in the new house. Enter the Red Paint.

Red Paint is a funny thing. You wouldn't think there could be so many different colors of red, but there are many, many, many. Lucky for me, I knew exactly what color red I wanted, because it's the color I have now, right? My painter even used the same brand of paint, KWAL, so getting the exact same color should be a no-brainer, right?

Ahhh...here is where the problem comes in.

On Friday I stopped by the house to see how the paint was coming along. I walk in the front door and am...confronted...by the two red walls in the front room. I look down the hallway and there is a red wall in the kitchen.

**Swallow**

I could be wrong...maybe the lighting isn't quite right...maybe it's late and my eyes are tired.

I walk down to the kitchen.

**Swallow**

This is not the right color red....THIS IS NOT THE RIGHT COLOR!

Now, in a different color, say the light beige I had the majority of the house painted in, it might not be a big deal if the color wasn't exactly what I'd wanted. But this was Red Paint. With red paint it's either a good color, or it's a gaudy color. To be fair, the walls aren't horrific, but they aren't good, either.

The next day was Saturday, and I went back to the house with the paint card so I could campare the two. Maybe I was wrong. Maybe I was remembering the color differently. When I held the paint card up to the wall there was no denying it. This was not the right color. So I called my painter, who, to his extreme credit, drove over to the house while I waited.

We stood in front of the Red Paint. Hummm...sometimes with a different sheen the color can be darker or lighter, he tells me. OK, this isn't just lighter or darker, this is a different color. He agreed (which was nice).

So this is what he says he'll do for me. He dipped his finger in the can of paint and put a dab on the paint card so he could show the paint store how they are not the same color. Then he said he'd take the paint can to the store to make sure the formula was right, blah, blah, blah... That's all great, but what's the bottom line? How are we going to get the color I wanted?

I mean, what's the point of paint cards if you don't get the color you agonized over? The color you carried around with you, matching to tile and carpet and everything else?

Fast forward to Monday (yesterday). My painter calls and says the store gave him the same story about an "acceptable amount of variance in the actual paint color compared to the paint card." Apparently, the store thought the different between my walls and the paint card was acceptable. Grrrr. Well, my painter, bless him, knew I wouldn't be happy with that answer. So today, at 3:00 p.m., the sales rep for the store is going to meet me and my painter at the house so we can all stand in front of my red walls and compare the color to the color on the paint card.

I guess you can get used to anything. I guess after a while you stop seeing the things you don't like. But come on. I've done plenty of painting in my time (I hate painting, which is one of the huge reasons why I hired someone to paint this house for me), and every time, I could hold the paint card up to the dry, newly painted wall, and the paint card would almost disappear--*poof!*

Stay tuned. I'll let you all know how it goes this afternoon. I would really like to leave our little get-together a happy customer who is going to get the right color.

Sales Rep from KWAL, I hope you are going to have some good news for me.