Ben: Capturing Color

I've been having some difficulty pinpointing the exact shade, tint and hue of paint I need to decorate The Cool House but come June 1st my problems will be solved by Ben.

Ben, or more properly, ben® Color Capture™ is a free iphone app developed by paint manufacturer Benjamin Moore that digitally matches photos to to any one of the 3,300 or so colors in Benjamin Moore’s system. I'll tap the app and let ben do the rest.

Using the iphone camera, I'll snap my inspiration image and zoom in on any part of it.  A strip of colors will appear on the screen under the image, with the closest match highlighted, I can then save my preferred shade to my favorites. Shaking the phone will give me four co-ordinating colors or I can use the app to access the BM full spectrum color wheel. 

Then all I need to do is go to the nearest paint store (using the iphone's GPS system to locate it) and say "I want it this color". Ben should making choosing paint easy and fun, and I'll be downloading it from iTunes first thing Monday morning.

Hues, Tints and Shades

I've been pondering the difficulty in defining a color, an issue I illustrated while trending pink and chartreuse.

There is, of course, the dictionary definition:

   "color refers to the wavelength composition of light, shade is a gradation of color referring to its degree of darkness, tint is a gradation referring to its degree of lightness, and hue indicates a modification of a basic color... hue is the quality of a color that makes it possible to call it bluish green, etc. (the color of a color); shade is a color variation having to do with the value of a hue (lightness or darkness), and tint is a pale variation of a color". 

But that lacks the necessary visual clarity.

Now, thanks to a link from VSL, you can take the Munsell Hue Test and arrange colors in hue order to determine your color I.Q.

I scored 33, which while not bad is far from perfect. You?

Coral is still in?

According to Williams-Sonoma coral is the color of the season.

It's one of my favourite shades so I'll give them a pass but I can spot at least three trends that are passé or at least completely overdone, including the use of faux coral as an accent.
What about you?

The power of democracy

red & black
After I mentioned I had asked the internet readership to help us choose a new vessel sink, the Guy announced he has a definite preference and that he is a Super Delegate and therefore gets two votes. I have a different choice of sink but as I threw it open I will of course abide by the majority's decision.

red crackle
He is concerned that I didn't give you a choice to state you think all four were horrible. So if you hate them all, have a better suggestion or have a reason why you favor one vessel sink over another send me a comment.

red marble
Each of the above has at least one vote.

red spiral
It seems no one is into the Red Spiral, are the swirls too distracting perhaps?

red Imprint with a #50 Paintbrush
To help us with the decision we visited Color Chart: Reinventing Color, 1950 to Today at the MoMA in Manhattan. It was a fabulous show, possibly the best I've seen there since they expanded MoMA, but we are no nearer reaching a concensus. More about the exhibition over here.

Serious Ugly Revisited

Just as I'm getting rid of the fugly 1970 avocado green/pink combo in the girls' bathroom, HGTV's Design on a Dime has a great new idea for a "Pretty in Pink" bedroom using complimentary colors.
Either I'm behind the curve or have no taste because it still screams UGLY to me.