Taking Color Inspiration Literally

By Mandi 09/26/2014

Happy Friday! Quite a few of you have asked about the paint colors in the Retro Diamond Wall project, and I promise I wasn’t ignoring the fact that they were left out, I just thought they needed a post all their own. Finding inspiration on Pinterest and online is simple, I mean, there are literally billions of beautiful images that are everything you’ve ever hoped and dreamed for in a color scheme. But matching those colors is an entirely different beast. How do you know that the colors on your walls will match the colors on the screen?

(Insert Sherwin-Williams Chip It stage left.)  Chip It! is an incredible tool for gathering data on your inspiration and turning it into something tangible. Its a simple button that you install on your browser toolbar. It works on any page that your browser has open. When you find an image that you love, hit Chip It! and by the magic of technology, you will have a swatch of colors that are found in the image.

My inspiration for Ashy’s room was this painting by Kenneth Noland. While I love the overall style and colors of it, I wanted to customize it a little more before I decided on the paint colors. I adjusted the picture in Photoshop and uploaded it to Chip It! to get a jumping off point. (Chip It! swatch before I made adjustments)

Screen Shot 2014-09-26 at 9.24.12 AM

 

After a few color adjustments:

Screen Shot 2014-09-26 at 9.38.16 AM

I took the best of both.

Then I headed to my local Sherwin-Williams store to pick up the paint I needed.

Because Chip It selects 5 colors, I had to go out on a limb and pick the orange in my palette. (It turned out pretty good!) I also went with a really dark navy, to match the fabric that I put on the walls here.

Desert Nomad Color Palette vintagerevivals.com copy

Retro Diamond Focal Wall Tutorial vintagerevivals.com

Pretty impressive right?!

If you are like me and you want to color match everything on the interwebs after this discovery, you can download Chip It! here!

Huge thanks to Sherwin-Williams for teaming up with me on this room makeover!

LoveYourGuts14

11 thoughts on “Taking Color Inspiration Literally”

  1. Quick question! Where did you get the greenish teal bracelet you’re wearing in your main photo where you’re pulling your hair back. I’m in love with it. Thank you!! 🙂

  2. Very cool feauture! It looks like a couple of colors weren’t picked from either of the chip it’s that you posted. How did you choose those?

  3. I think the effect is great, but I am wondering if that is legal to completely copy someone’s artwork? I think there is a difference in using a piece as inspiration vs replication. Did you have permission? I am not familiar with copyright laws, and there is a good chance you know more than I do, so I am quite curious to know what is ok to do and what is not.

  4. Mandy – I have to let you know that I did this – on a piece of ply wood because I move furniture too much to commit permanently – and I love it …… thanks for your great ideas

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