How to Find Home Paint Color Visualizers and Preview Tools on The Internet

Visualizing interior and exterior paint, in a virtual environment, can be an important tool when choosing the right colors for your next home project.

These web-sites allow access to every shade, tint and hue, while at the same time, some sites will offer the ability to see complimentary colors for fabric, trim, accents, and flooring.

Why waste time making trips for paint samples and swatches? Use these visualizing tools to preview your home painting ideas and you may just stumble on the perfect color to pull your project together for that cohesive, professional look.

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Computer with internet access

1. Sherwin Williams - www.Sherwin-Williams.com
   Click on "Color Ideas and Tools", then click on "Color Visualizer". You can pick interior or exterior options, and within those menus, there are many different rooms and architectural styles available.

2. Valspar - www.Valspar.com
   Start with a room, start with a collection from a designer or start with a color idea. Images you create can be saved and printed.

3. Better Homes and Gardens - www.BHG.com
   Under the column heading "decorating", choose "Color a Room". Select a room and experiment with paint, furnishings, flooring, rugs, and accents to see how different combinations suite your style. There is also an option for "Try a Window Treatment" that displays your selection of color for drapes, blinds and cornice moldings.

4. Behr - www.BEHR.com
   Use the "Explore Color With Color Smart" option that lets you choose your project. Brochures will open and take you to different rooms or exterior views in order to pick colors. The names and numbers of the paint will appear and you can save images.

5. Glidden - www.Glidden.com
   This site offers many different views of rooms and color families on tabs that appear from a drop-down menu. Handy tools also include a paint calculator showing how many gallons to buy, based on the dimensions put in the various fields.

6. Benjamin Moore - www.BenjaminMoore.com
   Home project options include interior and exterior, with the added benefit of commercial and home office projects. A sliding bar will guide you through color changes and pre-made room designs that give you the name and number of the paint used in that design.

Tips & Warnings

• These web-sites may be slow due to the vast amount of data they need to pull. Be patient and your project will turn out better than you expected.

[rockymtngrma]

on 6/18/2009 This article is just in time--I desperately need to paint the outside of my house. You've just saved me a ton of trips to the hardware store. Thanks!