From hex code to real paint: the barn quilt color guide

Why screen colors and paint never match exactly

A monitor mixes red, green and blue light. A can of paint mixes physical pigments that reflect light from the sun, a porch bulb, or an overcast sky. Two completely different systems trying to render the same idea of "barn red." A few practical consequences:

• Lighting changes everything. A swatch can look warm at noon and gray-purple in the shade. Look at painted samples on the actual barn or board, in the light it will live in.
• Sheen shifts the color. Matte, satin and gloss versions of the same color read slightly different — gloss looks darker and more saturated, matte looks softer and lighter.
• Screens are not calibrated. The same hex code on your phone, laptop and the printed PDF will look a little different on each. Treat the designer's color as the intent, not a final spec.

Why two brands name the "same" color differently

Behr, Sherwin-Williams and Valspar each formulate paint with their own base pigments and tinting systems. Their fan decks are also organized by marketing teams who give similar colors very different names — Behr's Fire Cracker, Sherwin-Williams' Cherry Tomato, and Valspar's Cinnamon Sunset all land near our Barn Red, but no two of them are pixel-for-pixel identical. None of them perfectly match the hex code either.

Use the table below as a starting point. Order a peel-and-stick swatch from the brand's website (most are free or under $3) or pull a chip at the paint counter, then hold it up to your board in real light before you commit to a gallon.