Canadian Hardware Store Prepared for Ban on Oil-Based Paints With X-Rite

Posted on | August 15, 2011 | No Comments

Homeowners and apartment dwellers in Canada are finding that oil and water DO mix when it comes to matching the colors of solvent-based interior paints that are being phased out under Canada’s news laws.

Neil Slater, owner of Arnprior Home Hardware in Arnprior, Ontario says that new color matching equipment from X-Rite now makes it easy for customers to find latex-based paints that match the colors of alkyd oil-based paints that contain high amounts of volatile organic compounds (VOCs). VOCs typically come from additives, organic solvents and resins used in paint formulations.

While paint retailers in Canada can sell existing stocks of oil-based paints now, they will be banned from selling oil-based paints and stains in Fall 2012 if they do not meet current government limits on VOCs.

Slater says a majority of what his store sells now is latex-based and compliant oil-based paints. “If they have color on a wall that is an oil-based paint and they would like to match the color, they can bring in a sample for color match using a latex-based paint or use a primer that goes over the oil-based paint,” he says.

The MatchRite® iVue color matching system can match the colors of paints, fabrics, and objects with curved surfaces such as lamps, bowls and other inspiration items. “We’ve color matched a table leg, a piece of a dresser, all sorts of things,” Slater says. “It’s amazing. And the color matching is extremely accurate.”

“A paint department without an iVue isn’t a paint apartment, in my opinion,” says Slater, owner of the 8,400-square-foot store that sells home improvement, hardware and seasonal items. “It’s kind of like a grocery store being out of milk, it’s just not acceptable.”

The iVue spectrophotometer proved itself as an indispensable tool for matching just about any color in the Beauti-Tone family of interior and exterior paints, which are made at a Home Hardware Store’s Limited – Paint and Home Products division in Burford, Ontario.

“Before our iVue, if a customer came in with a Pratt & Lambert or a Benjamin Moore color, and said ‘I like your paint, but I want this color,’ we could offer any of the 3,500+ colors in our Beauti-Tone color system,” Slater says. “But if they didn’t match to one of those, the customer may go somewhere else.”

With the iVue color matching system, “we have literally millions of colors that we can choose from,” he says. “Because whatever you imagine, we can do now.”

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