It is hugely confusing to try to pick a paint color from the enormous selection that you are usually given at paint shops. Even if you take the teeny strip home, for most people it is hard to visualize what it would look like on a whole wall. How many of you had to repaint a wall or a room because you just could not live with the paint color when it dried?
Benjamin Moore has a solution. You can buy large squares (18″ x 18″) of the color from their designer collection series (CC) for only $4.99. Put it up and move it around to different walls in the room to see how the color will look in the morning or afternoon light.
If those colors are not what you were considering, then you can buy little (236 ml) tester pots in any of the colors for the same $4.99. Paint it on, let it dry and see if you like it. Easy.
In their new line of paint with the low VOC rating, you can ask for any of the colors to be made up in a larger sample size (500 ml.) for $8.99. This size is perfect for touch up years after you’ve done a room.
Tester colors are always provided in the egghell finish.
New this year are tester pots for Arborcoat deck and siding stains which are also a low VOC line.
For those of you who loved oil-based paint (which have been discontinued), you can buy the new Advance line waterbased alkyde interior paint which comes in a pearl and high gloss finish . Like oil-based paints used to be, it is very very scrubbable and more durable for those areas that need this.
You can get these testers at the two helpful paint stores below, The Hub in the West Island and City Paints downtown:
You can pick up these tester swatches at the Hub, a paint and hardware store that has an old-timey neighborhood feel outside and inside it reaffirms what shopping should be. Sure it’s a hardware store (some plumbing, gardening too) with personalized service but the raison d’etre these days is the bubbly decorating consultant who offers you a cappuccino and steers you through any decorating dilemmas (can even come to your house if needed). There’s Benjamin Moore paint, tons of wallpaper books, fabrics for curtains, blinds & shutters, Richelieu hardware, supplies to do the project, or even her little black book of experts to do it all for you.
Locations: 441 boul. Beaconsfield, Beaconsfield (514-695-3389); 3460 boul. des Sources (514-421-1454).
Hours: Mon-Wed 8:30-6, Thurs 8-8, Fri & Sat 8-5, Sun 12-5
www. hubhardware.ca
City Paints is is Montreal’s oldest paint store, open since 1898. Name brands sold here are Benjamin Moore and Mythic, along with stains and varnishes and tons of brushes. They don’t carry the squares from the designer collection but the do have ones for the Mythic line. Tester pots are here though.
Yes, they’ve got the color matching computer, and low VOC, no VOC and the only VOC paint without toxins (Mythic), but it is the service, the good old-fashioned kind, that has kept people coming back for generations from all over the city. If it’s good enough for the Mulroneys, it’s good enough for you.
Location:200 rue Rachel est
corner: Hotel de Ville
Tel: 514-288-8009
Hours: (Mar-Oct) Mon-Wed 7:30-5, Thurs & Fri 730-8, Sat 9-4, Sun 11-4; (Nov-Feb) Mon-Fri 7:30-5, Sat 9-4
www.citypaints.ca
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