My Samplize Review – Testing paint with peel-and-stick swatches
(This Samplize review is not sponsored and is my honest, unbiased review of the product. I purchased the paint samples myself. This post contains affiliate links.)
I’ve tested hundreds of paint colors in my life (you can see proof by reading my paint color reviews). I’ve owned six homes, and have painted all of the rooms in each of them myself. For each room, I usually test 3-10 paint colors. Yep. I like options. (Even so, about half of those rooms ended up being Benjamin Moore Simply White or Hale Navy, but still)
Usually, I go to the paint store and buy a bunch of tiny paint pots, which end up sitting in my garage for eternity when I’m done with them. But for our recent home renovation, I needed to find paint colors for the laundry room, powder room, and family room, and it felt wasteful to buy a few dozen tiny paint pots
So instead, I tried Samplize, which is a peel-and-stick paint sample company that found me on Instagram with some clever targeted ads. I’d been wanting to check them out for a while and mid-renovation felt like the perfect time!
What is Samplize?
Samplize offers peel-and-stick paint swatches, so instead of buying paint samples and painting your walls in 2-100 different colors to find the one you like best, you get these peel-and-stick squares that are painted in your chosen shades. Then, you just peel the samples off the backing and stick them to the wall to test paint colors.
You can order colors from Benjamin Moore, Sherwin Williams, Farrow & Ball, and PPG, and they carry most of the most popular colors from each brand.
I was intrigued by Samplize for a few reasons…
Why choose Samplize?
A few things made me choose Samplize to test paint colors for my current home renovation project:
It’s a less wasteful way to test paint colors
Like I mentioned, one of the main draws to Samplize, for me, was that the swatches seemed less wasteful than buying a ton of little paint samples. Usually, when I buy paint samples, I don’t even make a dent in the jar because I’m only testing a small area, and then the paint sits in my garage for the next 10 years until I take it to be disposed of.
With Samplize, there’s less packaging, I didn’t have to drive to different stores, and there was no leftover product that I didn’t need.
You can order paint from different brands
Another reason I chose Samplize was because I wanted to test seven different colors from three different brands: Sherwin Williams, Benjamin Moore, and Farrow & Ball. In the past, this would have meant driving to three different paint stores. I have three small children. There is no time for that. Samplize allowed me to order swatches from all three brands in one spot, so I could find the best sage green paint color without losing my mind. Convenience!
You can move the swatches around the room (and the house)
I had a couple of rooms I needed to choose paint for, and I was considering the same color for a few of the rooms. So, I wanted to be able to test the colors out in the different rooms easily, by just moving them from one room to another without having to paint the wall in each room. Peel-and-stick swatches also meant I could test the colors next to different elements in the room, like the flooring and fixtures.
True, it’s not that hard to paint a small area of each wall, but I wanted to avoid it for a couple of reasons. One, our floors had just been redone, so I didn’t want to run the risk of dripping paint on them. The more tiny paint pots you have to open, the more room for error.
Plus, our contractor had just hung fresh, blemish and brush-line free drywall, and paint brushes tend to leave visible brush marks unless you sand them off before painting the room, which makes more work for the contractors and slows down the job time.
It was faster than going to the store
Finally, Samplize offered overnight shipping, which made buying Samplize swatches a lot faster than going out and buying paint samples (even if I were only going to one store).
Order your own paint samples here:
Samplize Review: How it went once I got the swatches
Samplize review: The ordering process
Ordering swatches was easy. I typed in the paint color I wanted, clicked on it, and added it to my cart. I ordered the samples on a Tuesday morning, and they were at my house by Wednesday afternoon. I was pretty impressed with this because the paint samples are custom-made, so the fact that they arrived at my house a little over 24 hours after I ordered them was awesome.
One thing to note: Samplize doesn’t carry every color in each paint brand’s catalogue. It only carries the most popular ones. They offer hundreds and hundreds of options, but if you’re looking for a less-used color, they might not have it.
Samplize review: Using Samplize paint samples
Once I got the samples, it was time to test them out. The idea is that you just peel the paint sample off the backing and place it on the wall, and that’s pretty much how it went for me.
Overall, I found that Samplize paint samples were easier to use than regular paint and a paintbrush. For one, you don’t need any supplies. You simply peel the paint swatch off the paper backing, stick it to the wall, and give it a good press.
The only slightly challenging part can be removing the swatch from the backing. Once you get a corner started, it’s super easy to get off, but getting that corner started can take a few tries. Still, it was no big deal.
Some of my swatches had a tab at the bottom to make it easier to peel, but not all of them. I *think* the company is in the process of converting all swatches to be that way, because I got a note in my order email that some of my swatches may be different dimensions because the company was switching to a new standard swatch size.
Samplize review: Are Samplize colors accurate?
Because it was my first time ordering from Samplize, I wanted to see how accurate the colors would be. So, I ordered a regular ol’ paint sample of Farrow & Ball’s French Gray, and painted an area of our laundry room wall. Then, I put up the Samplize swatch right next to it to see how the paints matched.
Here’s a photo of the comparison.
The tones of the colors are basically identical – the photo on the right is just one coat of paint so it looks a bit lighter (I know, I should have done two coats!). According to the Samplize website, they use two coats of paint for their samples. It was good enough confirmation for me!
Samplize review: Can you re-stick paint samples?
Another thing I was worried about was how sticky the paint samples would be, since I wanted to test them in different parts of the room (and some in different rooms). So I was happy to find out that yes, you can re-stick Samplize paint samples. They’re designed to be used more than once, so I hung them in different corners of the rooms near different materials, like the flooring and lighting.
However! The one instance where the samples didn’t re-stick after a couple of uses was when I put them on new drywall that had not been primed. When I did this, the samples picked up a lot of dust, making it hard to re-stick them. On painted walls, I was able to moved them 5-6 times before I noticed them becoming less sticky.
When they stopped sticking, I just used painter’s tape to hold them to the wall instead.
I also have textured walls in some rooms (like above) and the paint samples worked just fine there, too.
What paint brands does Samplize carry?
One of the best things about Samplize, for me, was that I could get paint samples from so many brands in one place. As of mid-2022, you can order paint samples from four brands: Sherwin Williams, Benjamin Moore, PPG and Farrow & Ball.
Instead of running around to all the paint stores within 20 miles of my home, I was able to just order samples from all of the brands I was interested in in one place.
How much does Samplize cost?
Samplize costs about as much as buying old-fashioned paint samples. PPG, Sherwin Williams and Benjamin Moore peel-and-stick paint samples cost $5.95, and Samplize Farrow & Ball peel-and-stick paint samples cost $7.95.
Samplize also offers a buy eight samples for the price of 10 discount, which is nice if you’re like me and need all.the.options.
Overnight shipping is $6.95.
The final verdict on Samplize
Overall, I really liked using Samplize peel-and-stick paint samples. I liked that I could order samples from multiple brands from one website, and that the overnight shipping was free. I also liked that the samples were less messy than painting color swatches. And finally, I like that I won’t have small paint pots taking up space in my garage because I’m too lazy to dispose of them properly.
