Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Got the house painted and I hate it

I'm in the middle of choosing colors for a house, and man it's tough. The worst part is you won't know what the colors will look like until its too late. Sherwin Williams does have an app where you can take a picture of the paint on a house and it is supposed to match it, not sure how well that works but it would be worth asking the owner of the house which color you like if you can take some pics of the colors to get a color match, then run it through the SW app and see if they paint your painter used is the same or close to the match.

Suffice it to say I've painted a fair number of houses in my lifetime. I can tell you from my own experience that I would never have entered into a job like that, speaking from the painter's side, without everything in writing, and getting the homeowner's final approval on the color(s). A lot of stores, Sherwin Williams included, will sell you a small sample of the colors you are interested in to test. It's a little more time and money, but a drop in the bucket compared to whole house costs, and the frustration you are now going through as an unhappy homeowner. It can be extremely frustrating as a painter, (and many other trades as well), to try to work with customers that can't make up their minds, or change ideas mid-job, that's why I found it was best for all involved to have every aspect of the job in writing prior to starting. Part of the agreement, in writing, is that if the homeowner does change their mind at some point after the job had started, we would be glad to try to work with them as long as they understood there would be extra costs involved. That seemed to work pretty well, and even tho' there is no way to keep everyone 100% happy, we had a successful business for many years. Unfortunately for you, it sounds like good groundwork was never laid, and now the inevitable remorse. I surely hope this works out for you and you get a color you can be happy with, without emptying your wallet. Good luck to you, keep us posted.

Not trying to be a smart ass but wouldnt' you have known the color was not what you wanted as soon as he started applying it?

Suffice it to say I've painted a fair number of houses in my lifetime. I can tell you from my own experience that I would never have entered into a job like that, speaking from the painter's side, without everything in writing, and getting the homeowner's final approval on the color(s). A lot of stores, Sherwin Williams included, will sell you a small sample of the colors you are interested in to test. It's a little more time and money, but a drop in the bucket compared to whole house costs, and the frustration you are now going through as an unhappy homeowner. It can be extremely frustrating as a painter, (and many other trades as well), to try to work with customers that can't make up their minds, or change ideas mid-job, that's why I found it was best for all involved to have every aspect of the job in writing prior to starting. Part of the agreement, in writing, is that if the homeowner does change their mind at some point after the job had started, we would be glad to try to work with them as long as they understood there would be extra costs involved. That seemed to work pretty well, and even tho' there is no way to keep everyone 100% happy, we had a successful business for many years. Unfortunately for you, it sounds like good groundwork was never laid, and now the inevitable remorse. I surely hope this works out for you and you get a color you can be happy with, without emptying your wallet. Good luck to you, keep us posted.

Okay, take a deep breath here, and lets go over a few things, best to approach this kind of situation without the steam rolling out of your ears!

First of all, yes, you can paint stucco.

Secondly, if the clapboard on the house was supposed to match the stucco, a painter with any eye, would have/should have have known that it was not going to "dry down" to match, it's not even in the ballpark.

Third issue..
"(Sherwin Williams is part of the problem. We chose the colors based on one of their color palates in their Southwest Home pamphlet and the colors on the house don't even match the paint chip. Its not that it looks different when its on the house, the pain chip doesn't match the color)"

This is something I would discuss directly with the people at SW, assuming you know the store the paint was bought from. I've bought from SW for many years, and they have always done right by me. If you can show them that the paint they mixed for you does not match their color chip, I'd have a hard time believing they wont make it right. No paint company I know of will stand the labor costs, but on the occasions I've had an actual paint problem, the company will often stand the cost of replacing the paint. Again, my advice is free, so you get what you pay for :), but talk to them with a level head. Let them know that you are unhappy with the end product and why, without blowing a fuse in the store, and see what recourse they might be willing to take. Most companies like SW want good word of mouth advertising, and will work to obtain that, but not so much if someone comes in just complaining without having facts and specifics. (And as a side note to this, are you sure it was actually SW paint? I've seen some contractors buy a can of name brand paint then go get dept. store paint and dump it in the name brand can, it happens.)

Fourth and last for now, sorry to be long winded, talk again to your painter calmly as well, with a specific idea of what you want done, including any monies involved, and get it in writing. One can rant and rave, but it's not the way to start things off and rarely brings the desired results in this type of situation. You can always resort to that later if need be!

Best of luck.

I was assured it would "dry darker" and match the stucco. It didn't

I also told him to stop with the trim color. He didn't

The parts I see that look "off" are the garage door and the back door. The rest of the house looks good and the mis-match doesn't hurt the color scheme. It's not bad at all.

You have a very nice looking home.

That's just my opinion but when it comes to colors everyone has a different opinion.

I always try to keep decorating & painting as simple as possible myself...