can can of interior paint be retinted lighter color

[Jeannie in NJ]

we bought a couple of gallons of flat "bagel" color paint. We painted a sample section on our wall and it is too dark. Dh wants the walls to be as light as possible. We got the paint at Sherwin Williams. Can they retint it with white to make it a lot lighter than the yucky medium brown that it now is.

[Mommyof4ks]

They should be able to retint it, but it might not be white that they need to use. Mixing paint is a bit more complicated than that, but in short, yes it can most likely be fixed.

[KidsHappen]

We have mixed paint with white before and it worked just fine. For instance, in one room we wanted one accent wall and the other three walls to be the same color only much lighter. SO we painted the one wall and then added some of that paint to a white gallon until we got the color that we wanted. We have also mix a gallon or white with a gallon of color to get a color about half as dark as the original.

[Tap]

You can't usually go lighter. They start with a certain color base, and then add pigment to it. Once the pigment is in the gallon, you can't really go back to the base color.

 

You may be able to get a second gallon of base color and add the bagel color to it until it gets to a shade you like. I would talk to the paint store first though, they will likely be able to forecast what it will look like for you....not exactly, but they may give you a general idea. Depending on what you are working with, the base color may or may not be pure white. If you mix the bagel color, with pure white, you may get a funky color that you don't like.

[tennislady29]

We recently had a similar issue. Our local Sherwin Williams store told me they could lighten it a little, but because of the original base color it would not make much difference. It didn't. I mixed the amount we needed with an untinted quart of paint and we were satisfied with the color. It was not quite the color we had imagined, but it was lighter.

[gardenmom5]

you could dilute (you can't "retint" to a lighter color) the paint with white and depending upon how much lighter you want it to be, it might work. oth - it might be cheaper to just start over.

[LaxMom]

If you lighten it with white, dump both tinted gallons into a big bucket, then add the white to your satisfaction. Otherwise you'll never match the two gallons to each other. ;)