Oops paint, you've heard of it, so what is it? Explained here!

[berlinsmommy]

I have moved on, back in the day, I used to be the queen of diapers, but now that Berlin is potty-trained, I have become the queen of oops paint. We have almost done the whole house with it, and the rooms that are not done, I've already purchased the paint for.

What is oops paint?
Oops paint is paint that was mixed (color added) for someone else, but for some reason it was either never purchased or it was returned. For example, I went with a friend and she wanted a VERY specific (full price) color for her family room, so we went to the paint counter and ordered a gallon of this color. For some reason, the clerk made 2 gallons, so my friend bought one and the other got tossed in with the oops paint. This frequently happens when a person wants semi-gloss and the clerk mixed satin, or the clerk misunderstood which color the customer wanted, or even though paint is non-returnable, I'd guess that in the name of good customer service, some times they allow returns.

Why do I want oops paint?
THE PRICE!!!!! These paints are drastically discounted. For example, at Home Depot, a quart is $1, a gallon is $5, and a 5 gallon is $15. Other stores use similar pricing. I have been able to purchase LOTS of gallons of Behr Premium Plus (normally $19-22) for $5, several faux products, like Ralph Lauren Texturing Glaze and Behr Bellagio Faux, which run in the neighborhood of $30/gallon for $5, I have also gotten various quarts of texturing glazes and paints in quarts for $1 that are great for little projects, like repainting a set of mismatched picture frames to all match. Also, you can stretch a $1 quart pretty far, I painted a small accent wall in a bedroom with one. At these prices you can afford to experiment a little.

Where can I get oops paint?
To my knowledge, Home Depot is the only store that calls it "oops paint", everywhere else I've shopped calls it "mistint paint". I've seen it at Home Depot, Sears, and Lowes. I also met an interior decorator who told me that she buys mistints at Sherwin Williams. I'm sure many other places that sell paint have it.

When is the best time to look for oops paint?
Most people tend to paint in the spring and fall, so that is when there are the most returns (this may differ based on your climate, but generally when the weather is appropriate for leaving windows open). I also tend to find the best selection right after a 3 day weekend or after a sale. Over Memorial Day weekend this year, Home Depot did a big paint sale with rebates, so right after that weekend there was a huge selection of beautiful colors of oops paint!

What else should I know?
Well, the biggest thing that has helped me find awesome paint is knowing which stores try to retint the oops paint into more attractive colors. Most of the Home Depots near me do this, but one particular store is my favorite, they have a paint guy that is a whiz at remixing. For example, whenever he gets back a somewhat light neutral paint, he retints it to a beautiful taupe color, and then you can find several gallons that match. I got 6 gallons of this taupe (I love it, my DH was stunned when we went to Restoration Hardware and it is one of their designer colors). I did mix it together just in case there were slight differences. The stores generally will not retint by request because retinting really is just experimentation, they just retint before they put it out to be sold.

[Jusk]

I have experience with oops paint. DH and I flipped a few houses a few years ago. We also ran a handy man business which should have just been called a painting business because thats what everyone seemed to want to hire him for!
We had an account at the local Porter Paint Store. We got to know they guys in there very well......We purchased OOPs paint from them for the exterior of the houses that we flipped. We got it practically free. They have a hard time disposing of oops paint.......we have a chemical recyling plant in our community but businesses cannot "donate" unwanted chemicals. They are charged a disposal fee. We also have a Habitat for Humanity store here where you can go in and buy paint.........I'm pretty sure that there are some rules and regs on both sides that prohibit them being able to donate paint because it isnt done.

It would never hurt to just go in and talk to them and ask.....is mis-mixed or oops paint available for sale?????? You might be surprised at how little it will cost

[sds74]

I love oops paint. I painted both bathrooms, the kitchen and dining room ceilings and still have paint left for other stuff. I found oops paint for $2/gallon for 4 or 5 gallons of the same color white paint ( someone wanted a different shade of white). Great deal, usually over $20 a gallon. I once found some Martha stewart Bright white semigloss for $2/gallon and just added some tint to it to get the color I wanted for the bathrooms. Usually they will add color to it for you, if you ask. :)

[susysnshn]

I love Oops paint, too. I am a fan of neutral walls . . . warm, creamy colors. Evidently, this is a hard color to get right because I'm always finding it. We are startled sometimes that someone didn't want these colors because they ARE so neutral. We wonder what colors they thought they were getting!

Most of my house is painted in Oops, too. It's cheaper than the cheapest stuff at Walmart and really nice to work with.

I buy the paint when I find it and store it. The one thing that you can't do is expect to find the right color on demand.

[MrsPinecone]

I know that my local Ace hardware has a bin of mis-mixed paint. Not sure of the prices, but I do know it's there!

[shrup]

This would work well as primer paint too but how do you know that you're not getting a color that's totally way off? Do most of the paint have color sample painted on the outside of the can?

[berlinsmommy]

They all have a bunch of the color painted on the top of the can. If not, they will open it and paint the lid for you at the paint counter.

[queenofthehivemomof5]

My quick 2 cents on opps paint.

If you like neutrals (browns/tans) it is quite easy to find these colors. If you need more than a gallon of the neutrals, what you can do is find gallons of multiple shades of tans and mix them together in a big 5 gallon paint bucket (HD sells these). A little of this and a little of that color can yeild you lots of the right color.

From talking with DH the opps paint can be the wrong tints made (as mentioned above) or the staff farting around (shhh) or teaching a new employee how to mix paint.

You can also get opps paint re tinted. a little darker or somthing.

You have to check and check often the opps sections to find the right colors. At our HD the paint is located in the paint department at the very end of the paint aisle way down at the very bottom. You can also find oops deck stain too.

[jonjaktez]

We bought oops stain for your deck. We got 10 gallons for $20 bucks. If we had bought it at full price we would of been paying $10 bucks a gallon.

[marmis]

I always have a white paint sitting around at home, so if I find a can of oops paint but want it lighter I just add a little white.

Also, when I worked at Walmart we had a lot of customers that came through and showed what they wanted. They said they would shop and then come back to pick it up and we wouldn't see them again. So it's not always that they don't like the end result but that they changed their mind or decided they didn't have the money after finding some extra items to purchase.