Can anyone advise re (professional) paint colours?

[BIWI]

Our kitchen units were hand-built. Painted Farrow & Ball Hague Blue.

Not long after they'd been fitted, after I'd been cleaning, two of the drawer fronts started swelling/splitting at the seams/joints at the front. This was, apparently, water ingression.

The guy who built them for me, took the drawer fronts away and replaced them.

However, some time later - when the sun was shining into the kitchen and just happened to be shining on the specific drawers - I realised that the two new drawer fronts were a slightly different shade of blue from the rest of the units. It's only a slight difference - but now I've seen it, I can't unsee it!

I've contacted the guy who built the units, and have had this reply:

Having paint made up like that is subject to a slight variation in colour from batch to batch. And if you can only see it in certain lights then I'm afraid that doing it again might be futile. The colour scanners used by my supplier will pick up colours in the paints and mimic what the scanner reads. It does not take into account the natural light etc that occurs. I will contact the supplier and find out their opinion on it and get back to you

His explanation may well be true, however:

• he has always taken forever to even bother to reply to me (from the first instance when the drawer fronts swelled, and to return them to me)
• he took weeks to send the drawer fronts back to me, and one of his 'reasons' was that he'd had the wrong colour paint supplied
• he didn't bother to reply to my first email notifying him of the colour issue

... so I'm wondering if this is just an excuse to get out of doing anything for me, some three years after he's done my kitchen!

I'm pretty upset about this, as the cost of the kitchen units was not insignificant. The colour difference isn't massive, and - to be honest - most people would never notice that the drawers are a different colour - but I know they're different! And having paid so much, I don't think it's unreasonable to want them all to match.

DH is saying we should just leave it. But I really don't see why we should.

Dulux always advertise that if you take any scrap of colour, that they can match it, so I'm wondering why this should be so different when you're dealing with 'professional' paint colours!

Can anyone give me any advice - either to support his view or to support mine that it's not impossible to match the original colour?

TIA

I think what he is saying is correct about matching the colour. They can match colours 99.5% but not 100% and I think it’s that 0.5% difference that you are noticing.

If it was possible to colour match 100% then there wouldn’t be this issue with different batches being slightly different, as the manufacturer would simply ensure the new batch was a 100% match for the old one. But that definitely is a problem. Farrow & Ball’s website says that when touching up marks etc they advise using the same batch if possible, as there may be slight variations between batches.

However, I think you have a separate argument, as follows: the drawer fronts only needed replacing due to his manufacturing error. He ought therefore to ensure the colour matches, whatever that takes, even if it means repainting the whole unit (or even the whole cabinet run) in the new batch colour. Are they hand painted or spray painted? Spray will be a lot harder to sort.

Having said all that: We had a similar issue with some touched up drawers. After a few months I couldn’t see the colour difference any more. I think perhaps the colour changed and “settled” a little over time (with drying out/exposure to light etc) and so matched the original colour better after a few months. How long have the new drawer fronts been in place?

Thanks @minipie I really appreciate your answer.

The drawer fronts have been in place since October. Clearly this indicates that the colour difference is minimal, as I didn't notice it until recently. But also - presumably - that if the colour was going to settle, that it would have done so by now?

My problem, being honest, is that I no longer have any trust in this guy. He's messed me around and not bothered to reply to my emails until I've nagged him, so I'm suspicious that he's using this as an excuse. He may well be right, but because of the past history, I always think he's trying to palm me off.

As far as I know, they're spray painted.

I don't think I have any hope of getting him to paint the rest of the units to match. So I may just have to suck it up.

Hmm. Spray definitely makes it harder as it means it can’t be repainted in situ (well it can but only by a specialist) and also, the spray paint is often not the F&B paint itself but a match made up by the spray place.

So the only solution guaranteed to 100% match everywhere is dismantling that whole section of the kitchen, and sending it all off to be resprayed in one colour, then rebuilding it… or getting a specialist in to respray in situ… either of which is obviously a massive deal.

If was really off then I would say get him to try spraying the drawers again for a closer match. But sounds like it’s only slightly off, so you wouldn’t necessarily get a better result with a second try.

Yes I suspect any settling will have happened already, sorry. However I also think that in a few months you won’t notice it even if it doesn’t change any further… these things tend to be like that. I can totally understand it’s bloody annoying right now though!

Yes, you're right, it's not a F&B paint - I have a pot of paint that he's supplied me with for touch-ups, which is evidently supplied by someone else.

Sounds like I'm just going to have to suck it up, as trying to get him to re-spray (or re-paint) the whole run of units is clearly not going to happen.

Thank you very much for your advice. I'm annoyed with him (understatement!) because of the way he has dealt with me - all the way through the whole process, back from 2019 to now! - so I was instinctively not prepared to listen to him, thinking it was just an excuse. So having an objective opinion is really helpful.

A paint match mixed at different places, at different times in different machines will be very be an exact match. It will be a close visual match Exactly as you have experienced. Even with their scanners and mixers, dulux trade quote a possible variation if up to 10% in colour in their "identical matches' and between batches if the same colour. Your option is either to have the entire kitchen repainted or live with it. It is possible that given the paint is from two different sources therefore containing different pigment, one is less stable and fading faster in the light hence just noticing the difference, whatever the cause, your options remain the same. Unfortunately painted wooden kitchens are tricky to keep and in my experience need repainting relatively often to keep looking good.

Thanks @GlamGiraffe. Sounds like I don't have much of an option other than to live with. I certainly can't afford to have the whole kitchen re-painted.