Automatic color pickers for interior design

When Andy is taking his photographs on the beach, I’m behind the computer at home. He uploads them and I send them to various social media AND play with the colors in today’s images. As an ex-interior designer, I can’t help it. I want to imagine it as artwork on a wall. What color scheme can be achieved from that image?

In the old days, that meant getting out Pantone books and paint chips – getting fabric swatches and creating moodboards. Then along came various computer programs that made picking out colors as easy as falling off a log. And now, paint manufacturers are developing iPhone apps that do the job for you. Recently I’ve been playing with the Sherwin Williams app that allows you to take a photograph and then gives you the paint colors from that photograph. In seconds. It’s fun.

They also have a similar color tool online. By installing their ‘magic button’ you can get instant paint colors from anything you see on the web. I’ve been wasting far too much time with it

What’s interesting is seeing what a computer program or iPhone app ‘sees’ as being the important colors in an artwork. Let’s take the computer tool. See the image below. The tool automatically – in a matter of seconds – came up with a selection. But are they the colors I would have picked?  Interesting! Can a computer select colors better than a human designer? It’s a wonderful tool for selecting paint colors, that’s for sure, and Sherwin Williams aren’t the only company offering similar tools.

Here’s an example from one of my favorite almost-abstracts. The palm tree, the ocean and the sunrise are still discernible but I love the ‘dreamy’ look of this piece.