Why is shopping for paint a mission for the brave?

If you’re feeling that shopping for paint has become a mission for the brave, you certainly aren’t alone.

$2.54 billion dollars!!! That’s what Canadians (home owners and contractors) paid collectively for paint products for use in their homes and other structures to beautify or protect surfaces in 2011. The marketplace is competitive and brand promotion highly visible! From celebrity endorsements to promises of one-step roll-ons, manufacturers are paying big bucks to keep their brands flowing, all with the assurance of course that their products will bring true home bliss!!

So why is getting paint right still so difficult for home decorating and renovating projects?

The days of simply picking either interior or exterior; premium or standard grades; in shiny; matte; or something in between, have given way to a confusing sea of multiple product choice, leaving even paint professionals scratching their heads.

For home owners, renovators and decorators alike, the challenge is even more daunting because the biggest unresolved issue still remains – How do I get the colour right? Paint companies today have the technology to produce almost any colour that can be perceived, but while colour is used as their major marketing tool, their primary focus is on selling an agent of colour, basically “chemical soup in a can” to deliver coatings for performance and wearability at a saleable price. Colour sells product.

Colour success really has less to do with formulation options and everything to do with your perception of it and totally depends upon the properties of light and the characteristics of the surface it’s being applied to.

But, that’s not how we sell or buy paint. I don’t know anyone whose home interior looks anything like a paint store, particularly when it comes to lighting, and while paint chips are a great facilitator, colour selection without the ability to interpret and anchor it to the space where it is being used – can end up feeling like a game of “pin the tail on the donkey”.

Getting colour right can be made easier. That’s why I wrote “Colour Sense-abilities”

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