A duo of Home Depot customers has gone viral for filming their request to mix coffee grounds into a can of white paint at the hardware store.
A clip of their coffee-and-paint experiment, posted by @bibixonioa, garnered 5.6 million views on the popular social media platform. It was met with criticism, but several online resources suggest they aren’t the only ones to add coffee to a paint can.
@bibixonioa they thought she was crazy but it WORKED! 🤩🤩
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“Why can’t you just have a normal paint color?” Someone off-camera asks the woman in the video, who is holding a red plastic container of Folgers coffee as she approaches the paint mixing desk.
The woman holding coffee replies, “I don’t like those colors.” The clip then transitions to her opening the top of the Folgers container before explaining what she intends to do with the coffee grounds. “So you’re gonna scoop this up and put it in the paint,” she says.
“You’re putting that in—this is just a plain white?” the person recording asks. The woman on camera confirms that the paint can to her left is indeed filled with plain white paint.
“Are you ready? Are you ready to see what’s gonna happen?” they ask the Home Depot employee after cracking open the lid of the can.
“I don’t know what’s gonna …” the worker says as the coffee customer begins to sprinkle coffee grounds into the paint.
“I think it’s gonna turn out the brown …” someone can be heard saying off-camera while the woman recording asks the worker, “Is she the craziest person you’ve seen, ever?”
Then, a gentleman wearing a hat asks, “What are we doing?” interested in the customer’s coffee and paint experiment.
“I don’t like the browns that are over there, so we’re gonna see …” the coffee woman explains before the woman working behind the counter says that they could’ve color-matched a specific shade for her had she brought one in.
The woman continues to pour coffee into the white paint can before the employee warns her that the can won’t shake properly enough to mix the paint if she puts in too much. The worker then closes the lid and takes the paint can to get stirred in the machine as the TikToker laughs, looks into the camera, and sips her iced coffee.
“Good luck,” the man in the hat says to the women. The final result isn’t shown in the video; however, in a follow-up video, the Home Depot worker opens the can in front of the women and reveals that the result of their experiment is a beige paint. “I love it,” the coffee woman says before thanking the worker and leaving with her paint and coffee cans.
Commenters who saw the initial video weren’t exactly thrilled with the woman’s custom paint job methodology. One TikToker wrote: “Why??? you’re just gonna have grounds getting clumpy when you try to paint the walls.”
Another mocked the customers for thinking they were quirky and subjecting employees to their experimentation. “‘Isn’t she the craziest person you’ve ever seen,’” they wrote, adding an emoji with its head tilted and tongue sticking out.
Someone else thought that their trick was a waste. “You know they can just color match the coffee with the computer,” they commented.
While there were many detractors in the video’s comments section, several online resources recommended that folks add coffee grounds to paint for various reasons. House Digest states that people who add grounds to white paint will end up with a “cream shade,” and if they have cream-colored paint, they’ll get a “deeper coffee-rich” colorization.
However, as some viewers mentioned, adding coffee grounds will also change the texture of the paint, which Digest says could ultimately affect how it spreads and sticks to the wall. It does have its advantages, though. “Depending on how much you add and the coarseness of your coffee, your paint can range from having a slightly sandy texture to a more gritty feel. This can be especially impactful when creating a rustic furniture look,” the outlet states.
The Daily Dot contacted Home Depot via email and @bibixonia via TikTok comment for further information.
