Color Overview – Warm & Nostalgic

The trend towards warmer colors continues, balanced by cool blues and green-based hues. While the soothing, go-with-everything feel of neutral hues remains strong, there is a nostalgic shift towards saturated, muted hues that can work as more colorful neutral options. According to color forecasting experts, this trend towards nostalgic hues from decades past, reflects a desire to return to a sense of comfort in a pre-covid era.

Violet, an intrinsically balanced color (a combination of red and blue/warm and cool), is establishing itself more and more as a neutral hue, particularly with paler tints that can color shift, depending on lighting, from lavender to blue to grey.

Color palettes that reflect and complement nature remain strong. Not only are these hues comforting to live with, they’ll continue to work well with interior design trends, as the focus on sustainability has advanced from theory to practical application. According to Montaha Hidefi, Vice President, Color Forecasting at Color Marketing Group, “The shift in how designers are examining and selecting the source of colorants, and how companies are handling the manufacturing processes will have a major impact on materials, driving many to display colors that resemble those obtained by fibers blended during the recycling process or outsourced by plant-based strands.”

2023 Colors of the Year

Valspar

Valspar has created a palette of 12 color “moods” – exploring the idea that color is not only something that you see, but that you also feel.

Behr

Blank Canvas – a luscious, neutral cream that is the perfect “blank canvas” for any décor style. Warm, adaptable and timeless.

Benjamin Moore

Raspberry Blush – Enliven your surroundings while awakening your senses with charismatic color.  Raspberry Blush is a vivacious color that is unapologetic in its boldness as it encourages a confident color statement.

Glidden/PPG

Vining Ivy – This jewel-toned teal aligns with the trend of jewel-toned furniture popping up everywhere and affords a balanced, tranquil feeling to a space.

Sherwin Williams

Redend Point – This warm, earthy, mid-toned clay hue functions as a beautiful neutral that is both welcoming and soothing.

In research recently conducted by Behr, 92% of U.S. homeowners stated they want their home to be a space where they can completely relax and 90% believe it’s important that their home feels like an escape from everyday stress. Home as a haven – as a place of renewal and restoration – is a guiding factor in 2023’s warm and welcoming paint color offerings.

Pro Tip: Use your ColorReader EZ to explore these new colors and find coordinating colors and entire room palettes with just the touch of your finger!

Autumn is when paint companies come out with their respective Color of the Year for the next year, based on a number of different factors. In this Q & A, Andrea Magno, Director of Color Marketing & Development at Benjamin Moore, shares insights about the company’s choice for Color of the Year, and how to incorporate it into home décor.

Tell us about the Color of the Year – what it is and how do you define this color?

The Color of the Year 2023 is Raspberry Blush 2008-30, a saturated red-orange that enlivens our surroundings while awakening our senses with charismatic color.  This vivacious color is unapologetic in its boldness as it encourages a confident color statement.

How do you decide on a Color of the Year?

The Color team at Benjamin Moore spends months researching, recording observations, and sharing a wide array of ideas that are ultimately synthesized to guide the curation of the Color Trends palette and select the Color of the Year. Through this work, our aim is to analyze where the societal mood or inclination is headed for the coming year, and how we can use these cues to determine where the general color direction is headed. From there, we look at overarching color trends and how we can relate this to the many ways in which color is brought into the home.

If you had to pick a single overarching influence for this color being chosen as Color of the Year, what would it be?

We observed the impact that bold color has whether through energetic color used in art, the vivid colors of nature, and drenching spaces in color for an engaging, sensorial result. This brought us to a reoccurring theme around the willingness to be creative and expressive through color, even if it meant breaking away from the tried and true.

Why this color now? What do you feel this color brings to home décor?

While we love neutrals and our collection of off-whites with their subtleties that have been very popular over the past several years, we identified a need for an upbeat energy in rooms – a quality that color can surely deliver. This desire to bravely dive into color brings excitement and a new-found vitality that comes to life with Raspberry Blush and the rest of the Color Trends 2023 palette. For 2023, the time is right to take a confident step forward in our color selections to truly embrace the transformative power of color and paint. For some, bringing a saturated color into the home may be done in a small gesture of color, while for others the time has come to make a fearless color statement.

What other paint colors work well with (color of the year)? What other design elements?

To guide our customers through the color journey and make using bold colors more approachable, we feature four neutrals in our Color Trends 2023 brochure that will pair well with this dynamic palette. The colors included are White Heron OC-57, Etiquette AF-50, Gray Owl OC-52, and Onyx 2133-10. For example, a room with great millwork or moldings painted in one of the neutrals paired with Raspberry Blush would instantly energize a space, while creating a nice balance between bold color and reliable neutrals.

How do you best work with this color in various décor styles? (modern, farmhouse, cottage, Japandi, etc.)

Raspberry Blush certainly lends itself to the popular maximalist styles we are seeing in many inspiring and fun images, and it can also work its way into traditional or modern styles. For popular décor trends that have an overall softness or reliance on a neutral palette, Raspberry Blush may be used as a smaller accent to punctuate a space, inserting and energetic dash of personality. The character of a boho look also lends itself to Raspberry Blush, as this color can complement an eclectic play of pattern and color.

What’s your favorite way to use this color? If you could create a perfect décor setting for this hue, what would it be?

As we developed the Color Trends palette and selected Raspberry Blush as our Color of the Year, we thought back to the traditional red dining room of the past. We see Raspberry Blush as an opportunity to bring a renewed, fresh take on this idea to create a lively dining room that is sure to inspire a lively gathering. We also love this color as an entry color because this hue will set the stage with personality while welcoming guests in a confident and energetic manner.

How would you encourage people to try this color in their own home?

Taking the plunge into deep, saturated or chromatic colors can be daunting, especially when we’ve become so comfortable with all-neutral spaces. Moving back into color may require a leap of faith, but the results will be impactful and will showcase great color confidence. A way to move into using color may be through a small accent, or even painting a room such as a study, powder room, or another space where a standalone color will work well. Using samples is also a great way to test drive a color – sometimes adjusting to using a stronger color can be an important step to become comfortable with bringing a transformative color into a room.

Warmth, nostalgia, nature and sustainability are prevalent trends in paint colors for 2023 – do you feel (color of the year) follows one or more of these trends? If so which ones and how? If not, do you see it fitting into another trend?

We’ve been tracking the move to the warmer side of the color wheel after many years where cooler colors dominated, and we felt that 2023 is the right time to really make a statement with a warm color. Over the past two years we’ve included colors that fall into the red-orange family, but they had a slightly muted quality. For 2023 we wanted to a red-orange that captured the warmth and saturation that makes for a charismatic color statement.

When developing the palette, we noted many retro or nostalgic influences with designs that brought us back to different decades, whether the 70’s, 80’s or 90’s, resulting in an eclectic mix. Nature came into the story as well, but rather than focus on the softer or more organic colors in nature we looked at the bold or even fiery colors – think of a sunset or the captivating depth of color of the Mediterranean.

Another trend we are also leaning into the desire for self-expression and making a statement. We started this story in 2022, and we are taking it to the next level by bumping up the saturation for 2023.

How does this color work as part of overall color palette trends for interior décor for 2023 and beyond?

Raspberry Blush leads the way for the palette of saturated, uplifting hues included in the Color Trends 2023 palette. Each color has a distinct personality and can stand on its own for fantastic results. The confidence and charisma of Raspberry Blush is contagious, inviting us to push outside of our comfort zones and into an amazing color experience.

I finally finished the makeover of our new guest room on the ground floor. I completely redesigned it – a thorough makeover – which turned our house into a construction site for about a month. Here, you can have a look at the room before the renovation.

My challenge was not to change the entire decor of the room, but to refresh its look through color, in order to give it a warmer look and feel.

I was bothered by two things in particular: the white walls and black wax curtains. I was also missing decorative elements – such as bedside tables – that were needed in order to make the room’s color concept more coherent.

The finished guest room after the makeover.

The Color Palette

This room is on the ground floor and receives no direct daylight. Only a tiny bit of natural light finds its way through a window, with brick-red painted struts, that borders the hallway towards the front door.

For the color scheme, I took my inspiration from the Le Monde Sauvage wallpaper (model, “Make Up,” made of rice paper), which was to be the focal point of this room. The wallpaper frames the headboard of the bed, which rests on the opposite side of the room, looking from the window. The idea was to give a slightly dramatic feel to this room that lacked character or any real design assets. When it comes to interior design, one should never be discouraged, because there is always a solution to every design challenge!

Why work with a color palette?

BECAUSE COLOR CHANGES EVERYTHING. I could have simply repainted the entire room in a bold color, but that wasn’t what I wanted. However, I did include some dramatic color in the form of curtains in a bold, theatrical red!

I scan my wallpaper’s color, using ColorReader EZ.

The scanned color is displayed on my ColorReader app.

Using the “Coordinate Colors” feature, I’m provided with different color schemes that coordinate perfectly with the color I just scanned. This is where you can see the bold red of my curtains.

ColorReader EZ as a helpful color tool

Using the ColorReader EZ which can scan and match colors from any flat surface, I was able to determine the exact color of this wallpaper and find coordinating colors. I simply placed the ColorReader EZ flat against the wallpaper, tapped a button and let the ColorReader app on my smartphone do the rest. You’ll get the top 3 paint color matches from your favorite paint brands, then tap one of those to find coordinating color palettes choices (Complementary, Monochromatic, Analogous and Triad).

MY MISSION: ENHANCE THE VISUAL IMPACT OF THIS ROOM WITH COLOR, BUT WITHOUT GIVING IT A DARKER LOOK

Before, my guest room was painted white, but this banal hue made it look kind of sad. The light oak parquet floor was nice, but also looked a bit lost. The ethnic-chic wallpaper in warm shades of brown and gray was all that was holding the room together, color-wise. I reworked the mood of the room with color, opting for a warmer white, as suggested by ColorReader EZ.

Why does it make sense to start with a decorative element to create an entire color palette?

Quite often, my readers ask me which color is best for which room. I could always give several tips on this right away, but the easiest way is to start with a colored object that appeals to you. This could be a color in a pattern on a pillow, a poster, or a wallpaper. When you select a color you love, you’ve created the starting point for a color palette. You can imagine how ColorReader EZ can help you with this task by simply scanning your favorite hue to find its perfect paint color match.

Cool white in the hallway vs. warm white in the guest room.

The photo above depicts the striking difference in the room’s look after using the warmer white. The pure white in the hallway – the guestroom’s original color – has a cool, bluish-gray tone. The blush-tinted white, now on the bedroom walls and ceiling, looks much warmer and more welcoming. This is exactly the look I wanted to achieve.

Paint the radiator or leave it as is?

Paint the radiator or leave it as is?

I debated whether I should paint the radiator in a color similar to the wallpaper or red to pick up the color of the hallway window. I opted for simplicity and kept it the white color of the walls so as not to draw attention to it.

How do I coherently tie in my furniture to keep a chic, ethnic style room?

This room already had a number of items that I wanted to use again in my makeover; the white leather chair, an old, rather dark, family chest of drawers, and the Lafuma collection with its distinct ethnic patterns in black and white, that Jean-Paul Gaultier had designed for Lelièvre Paris.

I added two small, light oak nightstands that matched the parquet floor, and thought long and hard about what fabric the curtains should be. Finally, I decided on a linen and cotton fabric from Thevenon, whose patterns and colors were quite bold. I stand by this decision – I love strong color accents. The room is rounded off by neutral walls, “nature” posters and dried, Bohemian-style plants.

A change of color, not style.

I hope you enjoyed the makeover of my guest room. There is still so much to do at our home – no room is perfect and here is no end in sight to my renovation and makeover projects. Still, I’m happy we are on the right track and at least this one room is done for now!

For more interior design and decorating ideas, check out my blog at https://www.turbulences-deco.fr. Stop by and take a look!

About the Author – Clémence Perceval-Motte

Clémence Perceval-Motte has been running the French-language blog Turbulences Déco for more than 10 years. In her blog, Clémence shares her love of interior design, crafts, travel, sustainability, and fine craftsmanship, along with some helpful tips for DIY design projects.

She discovered her passion for interior design while working in a home decor store. Clémence loves contemporary art, and attended art school herself for six years, but is now more interested in the creations of other designers and artisans.

She loves to collect objects in need of repair, scraps of fabric, balls of wool, and whatever else she can get her hands on. With her talent for craftsmanship and eye for detail, she frequently ends up creating beautiful decorative pieces from these items.

In this blog post I would like to show the exact color correction in Photoshop using Lab values. Lab values are color space-independent and therefore suitable as a reference value for recoloring product colors in Photoshop. But these Lab values I want to use have to be measured somehow. With Datacolor’s ColorReader EZ, Lab values can easily be measured directly from even surfaces and these values can then be used in Photoshop.

The ColorReader is controlled by an app that has to be connected to the device and then the measurement can start already.

For this tutorial, I have measured the colors of a silkscreen image (painting/silkscreen: Sabine Landgraf, panama-berlin.de) and will match a photo of this image using the Lab values. Then I will insert the picture into an interior design photo and adjust the furniture and wall colors using Lab corrections as well, so that the painting fits in well with the surroundings.

I started by measuring the two dominant colors of the image. The ColorReader app provides me with RGB, hexadecimal and also Lab values which I can use later for image processing – in addition to the “real” colors in RAL specifications or from palettes of color manufacturers.

In addition, I measure a wall color used in my home in order to be able to check later whether these colors would work well with each other.

For the image editing part I need a photo of the image, in this case taken with my iPhone and this is of course not the accurate color. And I will use a stock photo of a new interior (Stockfoto: Fotolia_83964629).

Beide öffne ich in Photoshop und ändere sogleich den Farbmodus über das Menü Bild > Modus auf > Lab-Farbe.

I open both in Photoshop and immediately change the color mode by accessing the menu Image > Mode to > Lab color.

The actual correction then takes place using the gradation curves, which I open using the Corrections palette. Here you see the individual channels appear directly from the pop menu:

• The L channel for the brightness (luminance)
• The a-channel for the magenta-green balance
• The b-channel for the yellow-blue balance

With the integrated “hand tool”, first I select the L channel and in the image I click on the light beige color tone that I have measured and change the output value to the one I measured before.

I’m repeating this for the a and b channel as well.

We perform the same procedure again for the red color tone that I have measured before.

The curve and the image already change significantly.

I combine the result of the Lab corrections in a Smart Object and place the corrected image into the interior shot. Now it’s time to adjust the color of the environment.

I select the wall in the picture with the quick selection tool and do another correction of the gradation curve and adjust a recoloring according to the Lab values I measured. In order to do so I use the Lab value of the wall measured with the ColorReader app.

Now the picture and the wall color already go well together. As for the other elements in the picture – the sofa and the carpet – I want to try out new colors, but of course they should also be in harmony with the existing ones.

Again this is where the ColorReader app is a big help. Using it, I can check out the Lab value I measured by using the measurement history and then clicking on “receive data” to check the closest color matches. Three suggestions are made and if I select on I can choose a function called “coordinating colors”. This will select matching colors according to different color harmonies. Each of these new colors can then be displayed again as a LAB value and can be the basis for a further Photoshop correction.

As a result, we have a great suggestion for furnishing the room that is adapted to the colors of the original print and makes a great match.

Maike Jarsetz from Hamburg/Germany is a trained photographer and works as a trainer, author and consultant for photography and image editing, print and publishing.

Maike is an Adobe Certified Expert and is considered a proven expert for Adobe Photoshop and Lightroom, as well as the entire Creative Cloud design portfolio. She gives presentations and talks at many photography and image editing related events. In her lectures, books and articles, she combines current software know-how with her professional roots.

Vignettes play an interesting part in interior design. A vignette is simply a small collection of items arranged in a visually appealing way that tells a story. What constitutes a vignette can also help define its function in a space and determine what story it tells.

Types of Vignettes

A vignette can be a grouping of objects you collect, such as candlesticks, salt & pepper shakers or decorative eggs. In this instance, the story behind the vignette is one of self-expression, displaying something in your home design that brings you joy.

A vignette could also be about objects that reflect your design style, such as a grouping of mid-century modern objects atop a dresser from the same time period.

Vignettes can function as both a visual resting place for the eye and a focal point in your space. A collection of mercury glass placed on a mirror can function as jewelry does for an outfit – “accessorizing” a space for a more finished look.

Color can play a strong role in creating a vignette – from tying together seemingly disparate objects to adding a pop of color to a space, highlighting a room’s accent color, or even further defining its design style (organic farmhouse, modern beach cottage, etc.), enhancing the room’s overall style ambiance.

Curated Color with ColorReader EZ

The ColorReader EZ can be a particularly handy tool to have when creating a color vignette with existing objects in your home. Simply scan the flat surface of objects you’d like to display to help you create a color theme/palette for your vignette that will look beautiful.

Tips for Creating a Stunning Vignette

Choose the Right Location – Pick a spot with adequate illumination (from natural or artificial light) in a prominent place in the space for easy viewing. Vignettes are all about presentation, so you don’t want to have yours hidden in some corner.

Decide on a Theme – Create a visual story – do you want to go with color, a favorite collection or a seasonal feel? The great thing about vignettes is that they are easy to change according to your design objectives or personal mood.

Consider Spacing – A thoughtful approach to selecting and grouping objects in a vignette is key – think curated, not cluttered. Each object should be able to be viewed and appreciated both as a single item and as part of a larger group or story. Crowd too many things together or space too few items apart and you’ll lose that sense.

Adding Interest – Include objects of varying heights, visual weights and perhaps, textures to keep your vignette dynamic. And don’t be afraid to try out an item that may be an outlier but has an interesting story that ties it into your vignette. Along with visual appeal, a great vignette can also be a jumpstart to some stimulating conversations.

Fresh Color to Beat the Winter Blues

While looking through her photo box of vacation pictures, Wiebke found some photos from the Netherlands, with her husband in a small apple orchard last spring when everything was in full blossom. The fresh colors and beautiful shades of green looked and felt nice, so Wiebke decided to use them to bring a little color and a touch of spring into her home.

She wanted to create a wall slat that could be changed with new accessories depending on the season and mood. She used a simple wooden slatted bed base from Ikea as her starting point. You can see how she upcycled this frame step-by-step in her blog and on Instagram.

This is how the wall slats originally looked:

Since these rather plain wall slats were to be painted in colors that coordinated with the hues in the photo from the apple orchard, as well as work well with various shades of green, Wiebke used the ColorReader EZ to determine the exact colors in her photo.

ColorReader EZ is a handy, compact color scanner that works with its ColorReader app and allows you to scan the flat surface of an object to instantly get its accurate color match as well as coordinating color options and color palette suggestions. You can create your own custom color palettes as well, easily save and organize them by project or room and share them with family, friends, contractors – anyone!

Once you’ve found your color match, tap it to bring up the “Coordinate Colors” option in the ColorReader app which will provide you with coordinating colors in Complementary, Monochromatic, Analogous and Triad color palettes for additional color inspiration. Wiebke used this function for her project

Wiebke chose the “Complementary” color palette suggested from her ColorReader EZ match and using the specific color data provided from the app, had her matched and Complementary colors precisely mixed at the hardware store. Check out her blog, Instagram reel or idea pin to see the project in progress.

The Finished Project

Wiebke’s finished wall slats created a beautifully color-coordinated focal point that offers plenty of space to house plants, pictures and favorite objects and that can be easily rearranged depending on the season and Wiebke’s mood, for endless creative possibilities.

Wiebke’s idea is a great upcycling DIY project that can be used everywhere in the house – in the kitchen with cookbooks, hooks for dish towels and baskets for cooking accessories or spices, and well as in the children’s room, maybe painted in bright colors, displaying the kids’ artwork or next to their desks to keep important things in sight.

For more upcycling DIY ideas, follow Wiebke’s blog or social media accounts.

Wiebke Schröder is a blogger and photographer from Germany with a passion for creative DIY projects. In her blog, she posts weekly inspirations on the topics of upcycling, handicrafts, Do-It-Yourself projects and plants. If you’re looking for decorating tips or beautiful DIY gift ideas, Wiebke’s blog is the place to go. She also shares her love of creativity, art and sustainability on social media via Instagram and Pinterest.

When a master carpenter needs a new kitchen, he builds it himself, of course. Paul Robben, the “Nerdy Timber” takes us along his kitchen refresh journey via YouTube videos, from planning his new kitchen to the finished product. He used hisnbright orange refrigerator as a starting point for creating a color-coordinated space, using the ColorReader EZ.

In the first video, Paul and his father, himself a master carpenter, show us how the planning of the kitchen area takes shape, how the concrete 3D planning is created from an initial rough plan, and which existing materials can be “recycled.”

You can see the video here:

The second part is all about craftsmanship, as Paul and his father build the base cabinets for the kitchen from coated chipboard. Step-by-step, they show how to build the cabinets and explain what to look out for.

Once the base cabinets are finished, the next step is to color them. Paul chose a blue – a complementary color to his orange refrigerator. He had already found his desired color in a manufacturer’s color chart, but they were very expensive and exceed Paul’s budget. This is where ColorReader EZ came in. Paul used the device to measure the color blue he wanted from the manufacturer’s color chart.

He immediately got a precise paint color match, along with the LAB color code he can bring to the paint store of his choice to mix paint to this exact shade.

He also measures other colors used in his kitchen (refrigerator, countertop, wood trim, etc.) and saved them in the ColorReader app as a separate color palette:

The cabinets are painted in the next segment:

The full video can be seen here:

You’ll find partial steps to Paul’s kitchen re-do on his YouTube channel. To view the full project, subscribe to Paul’s the “Nerdy Timber” channel.

Here’s a look at the finished kitchen:

Paul Robben is a master carpenter who loves his craft. This is evident if you watch his YouTube channel, where he always shares his wonderful building projects. Whether he’s making toys and useful accessories or planning and designing a complete kitchen re-do, you’ll find a lot of interesting content on his very popular channel.

Guest blog article by DIY / Interior Design blogger Sammydemmy / Samuela Heil

My daughter Luise’s nursery was well overdue for a transformation – after all, she is now already five years old and wanted a real girl’s room and no longer a baby’s room, as she used to call it. Her new kingdom was supposed to look like a magical forest glade – with the colors of her favorite bedding: pink, purple, green and bordeaux. And the motifs on it should also feature in the design: Fawns, floral vines and purple wild berries.

This is what her room looked like before – quite boring and not very colorful, let alone harmonious:

The kid’s bedroom before its transformation

And this is what it looks like after the creation of a magical little forest glade:

The kid’s bedroom after its transformation

As mentioned before, our starting point and thus source of inspiration for our color scheme Luise’s favorite bedding, which you can see in the following photos. Actually, it would not be easy to find the exact same tones as wall paints and varnishes in a hardware store. Unless of course one has this little helper I am totally thrilled about!

ColorReader EZ is simply placed on the color hue of your choice, scans it and the mobile app shows the exact data of the three closest color matches.

ColorReader EZ scans the exact colors of my daughter’s favorite bedding

The ColorReader app then displays the color value in all available codes and color spaces such as RGB, RAL or LAB. On top of that, a feature called “Coordinate colors” suggests various matching color complements – a very cool feature that points out color combinations you wouldn’t have thought of at all.

Color scan result and matching color schemes

I went to my local hardware store, told them my precise RAL color values, and had wall paint as well as varnish (for the wooden parts that required painting) mixed just for my little DIY project.

These are the paints and varnishes that were mixed just for my DIY project at my local hardware store, based on the color values my ColorReader EZ mobile app had come up with.

I couldn’t wait to start renovating and turned Luise’s bedroom slowly, but surely into a little magic forest that seems to have jumped right out of a fairy tale. Flower vines, meadows and some clouds made her dreams come true.

Feel free to join me and come along… I’ll show you a few impressions of the new room and some matching DIY ideas.

With the help of ColorReader EZ, we were able to precisely implement my daughter’s color wishes – and are both totally happy with the harmonious color mood in Luise’s little glade in her bedroom’s enchanted forest.

Sammy is a DIY blogger from Stuttgart. She loves furnishing, decorating, crafting, DIY and creating something new! Her blog is about beautiful furnishings and DIY ideas – mostly for a small budget – because she loves to get a lot out of little! Since her little daughter Luise was born, she also started coming up with home decor ideas and DIYs for the little ones.

Guest article by DIY / interior design blogger Evi Jaschke / mrsgreenhouse.de

How do I find the perfect color palette for my home? Which colors go with my favorite color and how do I best combine several color shades? These things can be challenging, but now, with ColorReader EZ, you have a very practical tool that can help you find the right colors in no time at all.

Color harmony for your home

Once you’ve found a color palette you love, you’ll feel much more comfortable in your own home, since everyone responds to colors differently. While some people love rather strong colors, others may prefer hues that are more soft and subtle. Additionally, it’s important for all colors to coordinate with each other, regardless of the size of your project.

Finding the right color palette is especially important in creative projects – for example like in my upcycling project with old picture frames. They were much too good to dispose of! At the same time, I had beautiful pictures hiding in the closet for some time, just waiting to finally get their well-deserved place in our living room. Of course, I could have simply painted the picture frames in black or white, but how boring would that be?!

That’s where the ColorReader EZ comes into play. I used it to help me determine the colors in the picture, so I could match them with the color of our soon-to-be-painted picture frames. This way, I transformed our living room wall into a unique, personal and above all coordinated picture gallery. I can already envision my next project, doing the same thing with our vacation pictures. Here’s how you can showcase your favorite photos and create an exciting picture gallery in your own home.

Image 1 –These are the pictures I planned on turning into a coordinated picture gallery for my living room, with picture frames painted in matching colors.

Upcycling picture frames, using ColorReader EZ:

ColorReader EZ is a very small and handy device that connects easily to your smartphone via the ColorReader app. Its compact size makes it easy to carry the device in your handbag or pocket, so you have it at your fingertips any time you find color inspiration – at home or on the go.

Once your ColorReader device is connected to the app, you can start scanning. The device accurately measures your scanned color by simply placing it on the flat, even surface of the color you want to scan and pressing the button. Your results are displayed on your phone.

BILD 2 –ColorReader EZ measures your scanned color and instantly displays its three closest color matches from top paint brands.

By tapping onto the “Coordinate colors” tab, you can also see which colors coordinate with each other. How neat is it to have your own personal color consultant at your fingertips?

BILD 3 – Within the app, ColorReader EZ shows me which colors coordinate with my scanned color.

Additionally within the app, you’ll find the corresponding color fan decks of the respective paint manufacturers. The selection of RAL color shades is also available.

These watercolor paintings have quite a lot of different colors and shades that are pretty close to one another, so I used my ColorReader EZ on several places until I found the exact hue I was after.

Your scanned colors can be easily saved, making it easy to refer back to them at any time. The color fan decks available in the app also show variations of the color, which was very handy for my project, since I liked the dark green tone in the painting, but felt it was too intense for the picture frame. I was able to quickly find a lighter shade of the same color that turned out to be a perfect match!

With the color selected and saved, all I had to do was go to my local hardware store and have the paint mixed.

BILD 4 – The paint color mixed at my hardware store turned out to be a perfect match with the darker green in the painting of the leaf.

I absolutely love the light green in combination with the darker green! I am thrilled!

Without ColorReader EZ, I would never have been able to select such a beautiful color, because perfect color coordination requires knowledge of the exact shade.

Now all that’s left to do is for me to select which of my beautiful pictures make it onto my living room wall.

I finally decided on two different colors, focusing on the light shade of green. One of the picture frames received a two-colored paint treatment for this purpose. To recreate this yourself, first paint the frame with the lighter of the two colors and let it dry. Then mask the center with masking tape and paint the other half of the frame with the second color.

ADVICE: If you are unsure on how the arrangement should look like on the wall, simply lay out the pictures on the floor beforehand. This gives you a good overview and you can still move your pictures around quite easily.

It turned out that the green of my picture frames even matched my favorite pillow perfectly, which is something I hadn’t thought of before – it was as if ColorReader EZ had known… Maybe some other accessories will end up being painted in this beautiful shade of green, too!

BILD 5 – My upcycling project is done and I am very happy with the results.

ColorReader EZ is simply a very handy, little device and I am very happy to have such a color helper in my house from now on. At the same time, the device helps me in my creative work and I’m sure, with many future DIY projects.

I am very happy that these old picture frames were given a new purpose with this upcycling project and didn’t end up in the garbage.

DIY blogger Evi Jaschke lives in Hamburg, Germany, and focuses her blog ideas on her garden, kitchen and craft room. Upcycling is especially close to her heart and whether it’s made of paper, fabric, wood or concrete, she likes to incorporate elements from nature.

Earlier in her career, Evi worked as an interior stylist and decor consultant. She loves to create things from existing materials, share ideas with people and – most of all – to inspire others. Upcycling projects are especially fun for Evi, who wants to show her readers that making something yourself shouldn’t be expensive or overly complicated.

Most of the major paint companies have announced their color(s) of the year, and there is a clear favorite – green.

There’s good reason for this. During unpredictable times, colors found in nature are intrinsically soothing to us, and the color green plays predominantly in nature’s color palette. Plus, we have more green cones in our eyes (which help us discern colors) and these additional cones make it easier for us to see green, putting less stress on our eyes, upping its calming factor even more.

You only need to look around outside to see how well green goes with the rich array of nature’s other colors; bright flowers, muted wood tones, earthy clays, soft sands, neutral stones, crisp snow-whites and even other greens.

Whether it’s a soft, mossy shade, a clear sea glass or an autumnal green-about-to-go-gold, you’ll be seeing a lot of green popping up in interior design, especially in kitchens. Here are some ways you can expect to see the color being used and perhaps, inspire you to try it in your own home.

Warm or Cool

While many Color of the Year greens include the added warmth of a touch of yellow, cooler, oceanic greens are also in the mix.

Bright or Muted

From citrusy lime, to soft, mossy sage, your favorite shade of green can be incorporated into your kitchen in many ways – cabinetry, islands, appliances, chairs, tables, backsplashes, flooring, curtains – even cookware and accessories.

Retro or Modern

Green has appeared in kitchens for many decades, from the post-depression, optimistic, minty hues of the 40’s and 50’s to the avocados and acid limes of the 60’s and 70’s, the deep forest greens of the 80’s and 90’s, all the way up to the soft mosses and smokey sages of recent Farmhouse fame. Green is a perfect balance between working as a neutral shade in design as well as a color in its own right, making it easy to pair with any range of other hues and fitting in to any décor style.

A Little or A Lot

Whether you decide to embrace green as a statement color for your kitchen and go all in with verdant cabinetry, flooring and walls or simply add touches of it for a quick and easy kitchen update, ColorReader EZ can help. Use it to scan the flat surface of any color green you like to get its top 3 paint color matches instantly. Then tap on your color choice to find coordinating colors, complete color palettes (e.g., Complementary, Triad, Analogous and Monochromatic) along with digital color fan decks for a total exploration of color options.