I am inspired to write this blog because I received a letter from a consumer that told me a very common story of what happened to her when she had her room painted. She went into the paint showroom and chose one of the “Michelle Winick Color Collection” colors to paint her bedroom with. She chose the color, and told her painter what to purchase.
This email was written to me because she was frustrated that my color did not match the swatch she chose from, and she wanted to know if there was something that could be done (like get reimbursed for the paint perhaps?)
I told her to do her research and grab the paint gallon out of her garage that was used and take a picture of it to send me. Sure enough, it is labeled as one of “my” colors, but a color match of it. It was in a different brand of paint, hence not making it a “color match” one of my colors.
When I created my color collection, I knew that the knocking off of colors would be something that is a fact of this business, and I could never do anything about it. Company’s make colors and samples for their colors based off how the color looks when they create it. That is the main reason why the color chips in my color collection are made with real paint. When you “color match” it may be close, but the final result is not the color you originally chose. It is not authentic.
The paint industry seems to think that advertising color matching is a way to sell paint, but I think it is irresponsible advertising message to the consumer that does not know any better. When a company says that they can match any color, what they are not telling you is that the composition of the color is completely different when they do a “color match”. Do you think that they will back it up when it does not look the same on your wall as the original color you chose? Absolutely not. It is technically a match, it just doesn’t look the same, and there is a big difference between the match and what the authentic color you choose will look like.
I have worked many of hours tinting my colors for the collection, and when I do this, there is a lot of math involved as well as trade secrets that I have been fortunate to have learned over the years I have been in this business. I choose which colorants I want to go into my colors because I know the way the light changes the colors based off of how the color is formulated. The colorants that go into it greatly impact the overall appearance of the paint color.
Authenticity is important when making any purchase. Just like choosing a piece of designer clothing, or a fine bottle of wine, knowing how it is made is very important!
