Will Home Depot Mix My Paint for Curbside Pickup?

Home Depot store sells a variety of different exterior/interior paints with tons of shades – more than you can think of.

But still, if you want your space to look amazing, you may need to find the best color combinations and shades for it.

Sometimes the unique hue you have in your mind is not readily available in stores. Or you may want a color for your bedroom that is not too common.

In such cases, you may think it would be great if Home Depot could help you with that and mix your paint for curbside pickup so that you can easily take it home and get the job done without waiting for days.

Fortunately, Home Depot can instantly pour and mix the paint after the order is placed so your color match is spot on and is available for curbside pickup. Whether it’s an old satin color you used a decade ago, a glossy new color from another store, or just a matte/flat finish you envisioned, the team at Home Depot can make it for you.

The paint mixing process at Home Depot is straightforward. But still, you need to know a few things to make things go smoothly:

• What types/brands of paint will Home Depot mix?
• What are the matching and mixing costs at Home Depot?
• How do they mix the paint to match the shade you have in mind?

Not only should you know what colors to pick and use, but also if you want to mix and match multiple hues or stick with one single tone.

After over a decade of shopping at Home Depot for my own projects, I’m well-prepared to divulge all the knowledge I’ve accumulated – so let’s dive right into it…

Types of Paint Home Depot Can Mix

When it comes to mixing paint for curbside pickup, Home Depot can provide you with any type they sell in-store, including their top brands, such as Behr and Glidden. Some stores also carry PPG, Olympic, Martha Stewart, and Ralph Lauren paints, which can also be mixed, but they are rare.

Even if you purchased the paint somewhere else their expert team can mix any type of interior or exterior paint with ease and precision. This includes house paints in finishes such as flat, satin, semi-gloss, gloss, and high gloss.

Home Depot’s selection of color samples is virtually endless, yet if you don’t happen to discover the exact one you had in mind, simply bring in your own sample and request a custom match. Remarkably enough, there appears to be no color under the sun that they can’t precisely replicate.

The only type of paint that Home Depot will not mix/tint includes automotive paints and a few ready-to-use craft paints.

Paint Mixing Cost at Home Depot Store

Well, here, things get interesting because, at most Home Depot stores near you, they DO NOT charge you to mix the paint.

So, if you’re planning on buying a 5-gallon container of paint, it will cost the same price whether you buy it pre-tinted or have them mix it for you for customization.

This also means that if you are just purchasing the untinted base paint can off the shelf at Home Depot, and you plan to have them mix it for you; the price will be included. The staff will also help you with adjusting the color of your paint with an extra shot of pigment for free, just in case you want to tweak the hue further.

Moreover, if you want to bring your old paints to a Home Depot paint center (recently purchased from them), you can have them shaken up in their machines for free.

That said, Home Depot may charge you a nominal fee for the service (depending on the store you visit) if you want them to mix the paints purchased elsewhere or stir the old one lying in your garage for a couple of months for reuse.

Also, there may be some colors that require a certain level of expertise to match and deliver your exact project. These can be charged between $75 and $175 (or even more, up to $450) based on the complexity. You can often reimburse this matching fee if you buy the paint at Home Depot in large quantities.

The best way to determine the pricing detail beforehand is to call your local store and ask them about their policy on mixing paint purchased from other stores, along with any discounts you can avail for buying a larger quantity.

How Home Depot Mixes the Paint to Match Your Shade?

Home Depot stores near you have special machines and equipment that they use to mix the paint. These machines assures that the color will be mixed correctly and accurately to match the sample or shade you have in mind.

The overall process to match, mix and get custom paint color for curbside pickup at Home Depot is pretty simple and quick:

• First, you must find the color code for the shade you want.
• This can be done by finding a sample of the color or by using their ProjectColor color-matching software online.
• Once you have the code, call them and give them the code.
• Depending on the store, you may need to take it to the paint desk at your local store and tell them the container size of the color you need to get mixed.
• They will then input the code into their machine to tint the paint for you.
• Once it is mixed, they will pour it into the container and affix the label that will have the color name and code, as well as the date that it was mixed.
• You can then take the paint to your car and be on your way.

Home Depot can guarantee to match paints with virtually any code, such as RGB, Hex, and CMYK color codes, to help get you custom paint colors.

Moreover, if you have a shade sample in your iPhone as an image, they will also be able to match it for you as closely as possible.

The entire process should not take more than 10-20 minutes, depending on the store and other customers being served.

How Good is Home Depot’s Paint Matching Service at Store?

From my own experience, I would say Home Depot is highly accurate at paint matching for 95% of the colors. The other 5% of the time, they will be off by a shade or so.

This can also be verified by the mixed reviews Home Depot has for its paint-matching services from different customers.

In my opinion, this is not because of negligence but generally due to the fact that colors can appear different when they are in liquid form vs. on a paint chip.

• That said, if you bring in a sample of the color you want to be matched (like a piece of fabric, drywall, wood, paint cans, paint can lid, or chips of paint), they will be able to get it right almost every time.
• Even if you bring the readable size paint chip or swatch (in more than 3cm³) from other stores, Home Depot will be able to get a perfect color match for you with no issues.
• The same goes for if you use their ProjectColor software online. This is because the software uses a “digital image” of the color, which is more accurate than a physical sample.

Many of the color recipes and formulations of popular paint brands are included in Home Depot’s database, allowing the computer to provide a match for the majority of paints.

But let’s say you bring the photo of the color already on your old walls to get the exact match shade. In that case, it might not be possible to get an accurate match. This is because the aged color has already been mixed and has already been there for years facing different types of environmental conditions, so it might have changed shades.

In such a case, there is no way to know the exact recipe that was used to make the original color of the spray paint.

The bottom line

Home Depot is pretty good at matching colors, but there are always going to be some cases where they might be off by a shade or so.

However, if you bring in a sample of the color you want to match, they should be able to get pretty close and can even provide you with a free curbside pickup service.

So, if you’re considering using Home Depot for your next painting project, go ahead and give them a try – you might be pleasantly surprised at how well they do.