Our local distributors all just sell sample pints that are just intended for color matching, they don’t offer the returnable quarts, unfortunately. Great suggestions... fairly sure I still have the original sample board so I’ll paint another one with the real paint & compare against the chip and then bring it all in.

I would check your lighting too you need LEDs in 4000K to get true colors at all times of the day. Sample cans are good , you do need 2 coats on the poster board and you do not paint the walls you move the poster boards around. Make sure they are large enough too. I sure would not want a can of paint someone else has already used you don’t know what might have been added to it , who knows. IMO you choose wall color after elements are installed every thing you put in a space affects the color evry color has “undertones” they can be quite obvious in some spaces . I am trying to figure why you continued to paind several rooms with a paint thet did not look right. Sample cans are a bit tricky because the formulas are made for larger cans so they can be a bit off. I find whites , beiges and gray to have the most issues with those “underones” I actually find a very soft grayed/ green a more meutral color and especially if my clients are forced to choose wall color before all the elements are in place, many builders do this. Healing Aloe from BM is really nice.

Good question re: the painting... if I had realized it wasn’t right we would have stopped! We just had a limited amount of time and I just assumed it was because the paint was wet, it never occurred to me that it might be different from the sample (rookie mistake #1000) . I did paint and move poster boards around originally, I only painted on the walls after narrowing it down... and even then I picked locations that were going to be hidden.

In this case my husband is the builder and he wants the walls painted before putting cabs in :-). But I’m definitely going to wait on the other rooms... of course now I’m not sure how to select a color if I don’t have confidence in the samples being “true”.

Check the samples against their paint chips. Everything should match the paint chips.

Is there a formula on top of the sample as well as on top of the gallons you used? Take them both back to the store and have them compare the formulas to see if something was added out of proportion for either formula.

I’m not sure how to select a color if I don’t have confidence in the samples being “true”.

It can be hard to get store staff on board to help you manage this and sometimes you need to take charge.

Choose a new, clean paint chips and use that as your target throughout the process.

You need to measure a thoroughly dried draw down from the sample and the new, clean paint chip to see if it's a good match or not.

Order a Color Muse from Amazon or some Sherwin-Williams stores have them in stock.

Download the app and use the "Compare" feature - it's the triangle icon.

The app will tell you if it's a good match or not.

You can't compare the formulas.

Because individual colorants don't give you any clues about final color appearance.

That's surprising to many. But the fact is there are multiple combinations of colorants that will result in the same color.

It's not uncommon for the formula for a sample size to be different from a gallon - because of math.

Math ruins everything.

I can confirm that ... I got Raisin from Sherwin Williams, and the sample paint had a very different formula from the actual paint I got. I'm sure both formulas could make Raisin, though I only actually had the All-Surface Enamel mixed (piece of furniture took forever and day to cure, but that's a different issue).