Creating Colors That Charm

Mixing paint can be fun and a little addicting – and sometimes it’s just the ticket when you need that perfect color for your project. Let Woodcraft offer a few tips and tricks for getting just the shade you’re looking for.

Why Mix Paint?

There are a number of reasons to mix a color versus buying one. You may have a lot of “little bits” of paint that you want to get rid of in a “green” way and clean up multiple cans in your storage area at the same time. Perhaps you only need a small amount of a new color. Could be you are creative and enjoy it. Maybe you are having trouble finding the color you want in stores. Whatever the reason, get out those mixing cups and have some fun! 

Tips for Mixing

Start on a small scale until you get the color you want, measuring the paint as you go. If you mix up too much and it’s not what you want, you will have wasted it (but maybe you could use it for something else!).

Instead of randomly mixing colors until you get the shade you like, it is much better to have a formula or “recipe” in case you need to make more paint later.

Measure by ratios (or parts) instead of an exact amount of paint, since you may want more/less paint at a later time. 

Use a measuring cup with marks on the side – either snag one from your kitchen to use just for mixing, or you can buy products specifically for mixing paint. For mixing even smaller quantities, use measuring spoons for easy cleanup.

Treat your paint right: stir only, especially with Black Dog Salvage Furniture Paint. I’m a “shaker,” and old habits are hard to break. But shaking the paint will create bubbles. So don’t. 

The final color may vary slightly when it is dry, so make sure you see the end result before deciding if it’s exactly what you want. This would particularly be true if you are planning to paint a larger piece of furniture.

For Future Reference

Any paint left over can be stored for later use. Susan “Swooz” Hudson, resident paint expert at Black Dog Salvage, pours her paint into squeeze bottles to save for another project. It is way easier and less messy to dispense paint this way when it’s time to use it again versus pouring from a can.

Write the “recipe” on the storage container/squeeze bottle.

You could even make a recipe box if you plan to mix a lot of custom colors. 

Stir sticks are a great place to keep your recipes. Dip the stick in the paint, and write the ratios on the other end.

Swooz has a notebook in her studio where she writes her recipes, laminates them and attaches a painted stir stick to the sheet. 

Use your imagination, and see what colors you can come up with! Send your custom color recipes and photos to lori_haught@woodcraft.com. Who knows, maybe your color will make it into the regular paint line!

Actual colors may look slightly different than they appear on screen.

We hope you’ll be inspired!