Antique White USA - Oops, not really

Hi Folks

Our kitchen cupboards are going to be a shaker style painted door in Dulux Antique White USA. There are a couple of end panels (fridge etc) which will need laminate on them so we need to get a colour match.

Has anyone managed a perfect colour match of a laminate colour with Antique White USA?

Thanks
heaps

Laminex have a colour called Antique White (I just got a sample in Vinyl Gloss which you can do via their website). IRL it is probably a bit darker than Antique; definitley in the same palette though but *perhaps* a bit closer to Chalk USA than Antique USA

Sorry, this probably hasn't actually answered your question

No matter how perfect the match, it will always look different, even slightly. They are simply different products/surfaces

Yea - the fact they're differet surfaces is less than ideal.

The only laminate will be the side of the fridge recess (of which most is behind cupboards), plus the underside of the overheads. I'll speak with the cabinet maker and let them know the fridge recess end panel needs to be painted as well - the underside of cupboards don't really worry me.

Well

The kitchen is in. Laminex Parchment was a good match, and we used it in the fridge recess and kicks. The side panels were painted.

HOWEVER

The Antique White USA has come out a lovely shade of pinky/bandaid white. I have done up board using a Dulux sample and it doesn't match. Builder agrees, but kitchen guys don't seem to want to change it, and think it's close enough (even suggested changing our wall colour).

Handover is Friday.

Ohhhh gee what I can I say.

This is a tough one, when someone is painting a colour, it will depend mostly on what brand of paint they used.
Even though, most brands should be reproduced well.

You need to ask the kitchen guys whose paint did they use? Which brand.

Not sure which brand. Dulux doesn't make a 2-pack enamel for residential purposes, so a company called Mirrortone did the matching. They seemed to imply they utilised the Dulux Directions in White brochure to match. I seriously hope this was not the case.

I called Dulux and they don't offer a service to verify colour correctness.

As the side panels were done as well, it's not a simple matter of removing doors and drawer fronts. Half the kitchen needs to come out, and cornices etc will be trashed. I suspect the glass splashback will be stuffed as well.

To demonstrate the colour discrepancy, we have Hog Bristle 50% on the walls. The cupboards nearly match this colour, with a touch of pink. Waaay too dark. What really annoys me is that I called them a couple of months ago when the side panels went in and let the know the colour didn't look right. They said they compared it and it matched. Apparently they didn't even comapre it to the 30cm square sample board I left them, but rather the Dulux 4cm x 4cm brochure swatch.......

Who told you that?

I have used Dulux colours for residential 2 pack application many times.

There has never been a problem, the colours always come out exactly as the Dulux colour.

The kitchen guys told me, and the Dulux technical help guy told me as well (I called the 132525 number)

I beleive the issue here is that Dulux themselves do not supply the two pack paint...

I (like Michelle) have frequently specified painted finishes quoting a Dulux colour - these colours are actually mixed by the painter from other paints to match a particular colour.

How close this match comes depends on the skill and or care factor of the person doing the painting.

Unfortunately there does not seem to be any uniform system of specifications in place that a painter can use to exactly match a supplier's colour - this would be a propietary issue i.e. Dulux don't want people to be able to just look in a book and mix up a colour that is the same as theirs.

Your kitchen guys don't seem to care enough about your particular situation; it is also quite likely that they are not the people doing the actual painting, they often use third party specialty board painters, so even if they did provide the correct specification (which doesn't appear to have happened) the painter/kitchen supplier interaction was not dilligent enough to make sure you got the result you wanted.

As Dukeamaya said, different finishes will look different, which can sometimes make it hard to get different surfaces all looking the same, but a good painter should be able to come quite close - this can however depend a lot on how much attention is paid to your particular job by the kitchen supplier.

Cheers,

Earl

The company is called MIROTONE

The mob that mixed the paint have compared the paint to the Dulux sample, and according to them (in writing), it is within 0.21 microns of the Dulux sample. Apparently a deviation of 0.30 is acceptable.

It sounds like they have used the Dulux brochure as the reference point.

Not sure what to do at this point. Everyone who compares the painted sample board to our cupboards agrees it's different (and the board matches the two bedrooms and the exterior cladding we painted in the same colour).

Questions:

1. Does anyone know who decreed that 0.30 microns is an acceptable deviation?
2. Is it appropriate to use Dulux's "Directions in White" brochure as a reference point for testing?
3. Any other advice from paint experts out there?

We're now post-handover, but the builder will go after the painter if we can show the colour is incorrect.

The paint used in the colour brochures is the real paint; it’s been painted onto the samples.

IMO, they should have bought a cheap $7 sample pot of the real thing and charged that onto you, that’s no biggy and a no brainer to get the paint right!

This is a tough one!

I think I have a sample of the Antique White USA in an A4…..it’s the real paint!
What you see with Dulux is what you get, that’s why I use them.

Do you want me to send it to you?
It will be the perfect sample for you!
PM me your address if you want the sample, I’ll get it off to you ASAP.