Paint the Color Chip

One of Mike's PM stories is about his experience on a San Francisco project where the painting contractor was having a great deal of difficulty producing a paint color sample that would satisfy the design architect from the Seattle office. Designers can be pretty fussy when it comes to colors. When the designer came to the job site the first time and compared the painter's sample with his own color chip, he told the painter that the sample was too red. When he returned to the site again, the painter presented a new sample for approval. This time the designer said it was not red enough. Time was getting short, and Mike had the feeling this process could go on for a long time with the designer visiting the site every few weeks and finding the painter's sample a little bit off one way or another. So, he suggested that the designer leave his color chip at the site to allow the painter to achieve a better match. After the designer left the site, Mike had the painter paint the designer's color chip with the same paint he had used for his last sample. When the designer returned to the site for his next visit, he found, of course, that the painter's sample matched his color chip perfectly.