This post is sponsored by ColorReader by Datacolor. There’s a discount code at the end of the post for our readers!
“Do you mind sharing the color of your walls?” is a question we get all day long! There have been so many times I thought the same thing while scrolling through instagram or flipping through a magazine or even walking through a high-end store. The truth is, paint color on a wall is highly affected by lighting, whether that be which way a window faces or what color light bulbs are used in the space (read our whole post about bulb color here!). But, still, so what’s that color?! (Am I right?)
Last month, we were introduced to a cool little portable tool called ColorReader by Datacolor that allows you to scan real life colors from any surface! Think walls, rugs, your favorite shirt, a magazine page, a cabinet door, anything! You then receive actual paint swatch matches on your smartphone instantly from all the leading paint brands – Behr, Benjamin Moore, PPG, Sherwin-Williams, Valspar, Farrow & Ball and so. many. more.
Of course, the first thing we did was scan all of the walls in our house like some kind of test! And then we realized you can create palettes from the colors you are scanning and even share the palettes with others. How handy is it to have your whole home color palette in your pocket with the formula to each paint color, too? So handy. Oh yeah, it has all the formulas, RGB and CMYK!!!Â
The dark plank accent wall in our living room we were especially curious to assign an official paint name to, because we used a color from a paint brand that has been discontinued completely.
We held the ColorReader up to the wall, opened the app and hit the “read” button.
Within seconds, it pulled up Mount Etna by Sherwin Williams as the highest match quality. It also offers two other close matches. In the case of this wall, Valspar’s State Court and Benjamin Moore Stonecutter. Because they have so many different paint brands, you can select which brands you’d like to see matches with. I opted to choose the 5-6 that we use and have access to.
After you scan, you have the option to add it to a palette (it also saves all your scans automatically so you can always go back and see them and organize them at a later time) so my first palette was our home, which I then shared with Chris. And now with all of you! Behold, all the paint colors in our whole house:
When we were planning our whole house palette, we really wanted to stick to a warm neutral version of any given color, keeping the larger areas lighter; and accent with deep, saturated pockets to keep things interesting and grounded.
The only space that didn’t scan correctly was our family room downstairs, which I always had a sneaky suspicion about. I guess I should say, it scanned it correctly, but the person who mixed our paint years ago didn’t. We painted it Simply White by Benjamin Moore, but we had it color matched at our local hardware store and it has always read SO GREEN and minty to me. I have told Chris a few times, “We have to repaint this whole room and I’m not looking forward to it.” But now I feel validated! The ColorReader brought it up as “Tint of Mint.” So, sadly, spot on. I noted the actual color should be Simply White in the notes…and will be as soon as we catch our breath over here.
I love the idea of being able to pull colors from area rugs, drapes or art! I’ve already put the ColorReader in my purse so I can whip it out at any time.
Such a cool tool, huh! You can learn more about the ColorReader by Datacolor (and get your own) right here!
UPDATE! ColorReader just emailed us with a discount code for all of our US based readers! Use the code CLJ for 15% off a ColorReader! (offer expires 5/31/18)
Came here to find your exterior house paint color, didn’t see it. Could you please share? Thanks!
It’s siding – not sure what the color is.
I also had simply white mixed by Sherwin Williams and it always looks kind of yellowish green to me!! Weird!!
The app does not give you the paint color formula. Nor can the paint store use the values as displayed on the app to convert to magically make it into a paint color formula. RGB and CMYK values have nothing to do with paint colors. RGB is red, green and blue channels of light. CMYK is cyan, magenta, yellow and black ink. Again, nothing to do with paint.
Can you use the device to scan a color and search the app’s database of paint colors? Yes.
It is going to give you the best match it can find within the limits of the database it has to search
No one is saying that answer or “match” is going to be a good one.
So interesting about your basement paint colour! In some pictures the colour definitely was reading “green” to me and I kept thinking it was my computer screen lol
Omg I would have died to have that app before smart phones and Pinterest were a thing! I love that the Color Reader can go right up to something to get an exact match. Kind of dying over here. This is so cool!