Someone please tell me that they have had success color matching BM or SW at a big box store.

good luck with that

I have used Behr paint lots of times and had it color matched to Ben Moore colors. It will be fine.

As always, it depends on the clerk doing the matching. I think that since Home Depot doesn't train their paint clerks as seriously as the paint clerks in real paint stores, the chances for you to get a good match are smaller, that is all.

In my experience, Home Depot paint counter clerks don't "eyeball" the colors. They use the codes in their computer to color match the paints from other companies.

I was hoping that by now - especially with the BM Classic color line, that they would have the codes. Not sure about the full spectrum Color Stories and maybe not even Affinity. I'm grateful that I didn't chose any of those!

I did find colors in their line that are close. If I get the match samples and see they won't work, then I'll just use those that were close. The Martha Stewart colors are very nice, as are the Premium Pro colors. Thanks for all the input.

BenM's formulas/color system recently changed, and BenM can't match some of their own colors. So, the color mixing playing field has been leveled albeit ever so slightly.

A budget is a budget. Be clear about what you want yet remain somewhat flexible and don't sweat it.

We had some sw colors matched at hd to behr paints. All they needed was the color code and name off the card, no scanning colors or guessing involved.

The folks at Home Depot can match BM or SW paints. However, sometimes an inexperienced person is working the paint desk, so be sure to check the color before you leave.

I switched from SW paint to Behr Premium Plus this spring. It goes on so nice and thick. Especially noticed the difference when cutting in, my edges are much more consistent and crisp.

SW and BM do a much better job of organizing their colors, especially SW with various palettes, but currently I get all my paint at Behr and having them match whatever color I want. Consumer Reports ranks Behr paint very high.

The folks at Home Depot can match BM or SW paints. However, sometimes an inexperienced person is working the paint desk, so be sure to check the color before you leave.

I switched from SW paint to Behr Premium Plus this spring. It goes on so nice and thick. Especially noticed the difference when cutting in, my edges are much more consistent and crisp.

SW and BM do a much better job of organizing their colors, especially SW with various palettes, but currently I get all my paint at Behr and having them match whatever color I want. Consumer Reports ranks Behr paint very high.

Consumer Reports ranks Behr paint very high.

no comment :-)

Thanks for all the positivity! I give the contractor the paint chips tomorrow. I did choose two Behr colors, so those shouldn't be problems.
And no, I'm not going to sweat it. If he even comes close to the Brittany Blue I'll be happy. It's that doggone Violet Pearl I'm worried about. It seems such an elusive color. I haven't seen anything near it in any store. If we wind up with some other violet, well, we will just paint over it when the budget allows.
I will certainly let you all know how it goes!

I think it was paintguy who talked about 'close enough' with regard to color matching. An excellent attitude and often the solution to moving forward on a project. But there are some colors, perhaps like Violet Pearl, that simply can not be produced so they are even remotely close enough to the relaxed color matching standard of 'close enough'.

Adopting a flexible attitude about color matching and flat out lying to yourself about what qualifies as 'close enough' are two completely different things. :-D May the color Gods be with you.

I recently took a piece of exterior trim that had fallen off into Home Depot. I had no idea what color the paint was or even who manufactured the paint. The paint guy used some device to scan the trim and came up with an almost exact match - based on paint that had been in sunlight for almost ten years! We had to replace a few pieces and I can't tell a difference in color. (The paint guy also said that Home Depot gave him almost no training and he clearly didn't know much about paint, so this match was the scanner/computer, not the specific employee.) Anyway, you have a painted sample, it might be worth sending that with the contractor to match.

I got home today and there were many cans of paint lined up in my hallway. They looked good comparing the chips to the dab of paint on the top of the can. But most of my light fixtures are covered in paper, so I need to check them out closely on Saturday.
I'll report back after I've tested a couple of them out. I get to choose two more paint colors tomorrow and paint the foyer and dining room this weekend. I'm actually happy about that!

So they started painting the ceilings - they scraped the popcorn, and primed and painted two coats of ceiling paint. I am very impressed with the scraping, and the application of a very light orange peel - it looks great.
I am not impressed with the ceiling paint job, and have a call into the contractor. There is one hand sized area where they must have painted some dirt in. Overall, it needs one more coat. It's really noticeably thicker and whiter on the edges. There are a couple of places in the middle where you can see they rolled it on thicker in two of the rooms.

And then to top it off, DH brought the ladder in the DR so I can start painting in there tomorrow. He gets the too tall ladder by mistake, and scrapes the ceiling! It's only about a half a fingernail size, but now they will have to prime and correct that. I'm hoping it won't be noticeable.

I chose a Martha Stewart color called Garden Shed. They had to color match that one since it's actually a Glidden color.

Almost done painting the DR in Martha Stewart's Garden Shed. I LOVE the way the Behr is painting on. It's looking beautiful!