Lowes started this thing a few years ago where they’d make you an 8 oz sample of any paint color so you can put it on the wall and see how it looks and IMO it’s such a game changer.

Those stupid little paint cards really don’t give you a good idea of what a paint actually looks like on the wall and painting a 1 foot square of the actual paint is a much better thing.

We are painting a playroom and put 3 big squares of paint on the wall; 2 blue and 1 green and the one I thought I wouldn’t like looks the best while the one I *thought* would look good really doesn’t! It’s crazy.

I got the same deal at Home Depot. The guy did an outstanding job using a literal tiny paint chip that I brought in. Perfect match.

most paint stores have that as an option, but its usually only a flat or semi-gloss. Sherwin williams stopped doing it for a while during covid, but I think they are back to doing it now.
Non-bedroom/bathroom areas of our house took 3 gallons of paint, wife paid for 4 with the 15 shades of gray she tried, then went with the same color in the kids room from 4 years ago.

Those sample containers have to be a money maker for the store. At over $5 a pop we spent a good amount of money before finding a color we liked.

The Sherwin Williams employee told me the samples are not the same paint you get in the cans. They are only to provide color and do not have the same properties as real paint. I was going to use a sample jar to repaint a drywall repair.

Not sure about currently, but Sherwin samples/pints were semi-gloss only.
We had touch up patches at our old house from the prior owners that were different sheen than the flat walls, only really noticeable in the right light.

Edit: It was satin I was thinking of, not semigloss.

Still a noticeable sheen difference on a flat [sheen] wall.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: P250UA5,

Lowe’s is satin only

Seems like the real thing to me, at least the Valspar