The hardware store guy made me rethink my whole paint buying strategy

I was grabbing some gallons of Benjamin Moore for a job last week and the old timer behind the counter goes 'you know the mistints in the back are half price right?' I always thought mistints were just messed up colors nobody wanted but he showed me a bunch that were perfectly fine shades of white and gray. Got 5 gallons for like $60 total instead of $200. Have any of you actually had good luck with mistint paint on real projects?

3 comments

3 Comments

terryk2823d ago

So you just kind of stumbled into being a mistint believer like the rest of us, huh? I've grabbed more than a few of those bargain gallons myself mostly for painting garage walls and fence posts. The color selection is definitely a grab bag but if you're not picky it's basically free paint. I once snagged five gallons of a pale green that was clearly a failed match for someone's living room and it ended up looking great in my buddy's workshop. That old timer did you a solid, most guys at the counter don't even mention the discount section.

vera_palmer23d ago

Hang on, I gotta gently push back on one thing. You said the gallons were Benjamin Moore, but most hardware stores like Ace or True Value don't sell Benjamin Moore mistints. Those are usually only at independent paint retailers. It's way more common to find mistints of Valspar, Glidden, or Behr in the big box stores. I've grabbed a ton of mistints myself and they're honestly a goldmine for primer and ceiling paint. Just don't expect to find your exact custom color match in there, it's more for utility stuff. Still a killer deal for $60 though, you can't beat that for primer alone.

skylerrobinson19d ago

Oh man, this whole thread is making me feel like I've been wasting money for years. I actually read somewhere that most paint stores throw away less than 10% of their mistints because people figure the color is just too weird to use. But I've had the opposite experience. I grabbed a five-gallon bucket of a light tan that was clearly a mismatched "greige" someone ordered for their living room and it worked perfectly for my basement ceiling. The old timer at my local place told me they even mix mistints together sometimes to make a neutral primer color. I swear, half the time you can't even tell the difference once it's on the wall.