Color Update: Easy Paint Conversions

Color sleuthing is in the air, all right.  

Part One:

Yesterday I received a comment from Jason about my May 15th post. He stumbled upon a site that translates RGB hex colors (those cryptic numbers they give you on Colorhunter) into actual paint swatches from a huge list of companies like Benjamin Moore, Pratt and Lambert and countless more (although no Farrow and Ball...yet).

Here's how it works. 

 I used one of my Colorhunter-generated palettes as an example and entered the first color, #5C7C7C ...

...into the site's "HTML color here" box and selected "Benjamin Moore Color Preview" collection.

Here are the Benjamin Moore paints it gave me...

...along with their names: "Caribbean Teal; Aegean Teal; Charlotte Slate; Steep Cliff Gray."

Jason helpfully pointed out that the site also shows you how to check the color resolution on your monitor (a good idea to make sure you're not surprised when you go to the store for swatches.)

Part Two:

And then this morning I opened the New York Times Home section to discover a brand-new iPhone application that allows you to zoom in on a color in a photo you've taken and match it to a Benjamin Moore paint chip. 

(Courtesy of NY Times)

It's called "ColorCapture Ben" and will be available June 1st. Oh, and it's free.

Also, I have to thank ex-Domino editor Nick Olsen for mentioning me in his latest post on his fabulous new blog, "Nick's Dream House." This makes TWO design blogs for him (talk about time management!). If you don't know about his eponymous one, give yourself a chic style fix and click here now.