Top 5 Reasons You May be Picking the Wrong Paint Color (And How ColorReader EZ Can Help)

When it comes to painting a room, picking a color is supposed to be the fun part. The reality is it’s often anything but. We’ve all been there – agonizing over paint chip strips, turning our walls into a patchwork of paint color samples and when we finally do decide on a color and paint the room, being disappointed with the results. It’s little wonder that surveys show that over 56% of people take months to decide on a paint color and 40% of paint sales are generated by repainting after a “wrong” color choice. What’s going on here? Why is it so hard to pick the right paint color?

Here are 5 common factors that play into paint color selection and how using the ColorReader EZ color matching tool can help.

Reason 1: Light – We all know the paint color chip in the store can look very different when we get it home. And even when we get it home it can look different in natural light during the day and artificial light in the evening. That’s because color is a function of light. Certain colors (particularly taupe, tan, celadon, mauve, lilac, blue-grays and grays) have a greater impact on our perception based on the light in which they’ve been seen in – a phenomenon known as metamerism.

Light intensity also affects our color perception. In very low light, blues and greens can appear brighter than reds (known as the Purkinje Shift) and in high intensity light, colors can appear less red or green and more blue or yellow (the Bezold-Brücke Effect).

ColorReader EZ Solution: The ColorReader EZ is designed to block out all ambient light so you get a true color reading when you scan a hue. Simply place the device on the flat surface of a color you want to match, press the button and you’ll get the top 3 paint color matches taken from all the leading paint brands on the integrated free phone app.

Reason 2: Color Adjacency – A color next to a color affects how we perceive it. For example, red and green are at the opposite ends of the color wheel, so when they’re placed next to one another, they intensify the color of each other. (That’s why in the supermarket, red meats are placed in display cases with green backgrounds, so meat appears more red and fresher.) Color adjacency is something to be aware of when picking a paint color for the walls in a room. Consider the color(s) of elements that will be next to the wall such as trim color, ceiling color, floor color and the colors of any window treatments and furnishings.

ColorReader EZ Solution: ColorReader EZ can help answer the “What color goes best with this?” question in seconds. You can scan elements like your floor, window treatments and trim (pick a flat, solid color area about a ½” large for best results and save them so you always have them handy!) along with the top 3 paint color matches, you’ll also get coordinating color options so you can eliminate any guesswork about finding the best color choices to complement your room. Simply tap the closest color match on your phone app, then tap the “Coordinate Colors” option to find several coordinating color schemes.

Reason 3: Undertones – Unless they are pure pigments, colors have undertones. Even a white paint color can have an undertone that is gray, green, pink, yellow, brown or blue. Determining an undertone is important since it can make or break how the color works in a room. If you have wood cabinets in your kitchen that have a cool undertone and you want to paint your walls white, choosing a white with a cool undertone will help pull the look of your space together, while picking a white with a warm undertone can make it look “off.”

ColorReader EZ Solution: Just as you would with Color Adjacency, take a reading of room elements such as cabinetry, furniture and window treatments to find the closest color match on the device. Then select a color match and tap the “Coordinating Colors” option so you’ll find the coordinating color schemes. You can check the Monochromatic color scheme for an easy way to identify what color undertone you have.

Reason 4: Color Memory – A study at John Hopkins University has shown that although we can distinguish millions of colors, we have trouble remembering them because our brains tend to organize and categorize them into far more limited, language-driven categories. So, an aqua hue can get stored in one person’s mind under the general category “blue” while someone else will remember it as a “green.” Accordingly, we’ll tend to “remember” the aqua hue more blue or green based on how our brains categorized it.

ColorReader EZ Solution: A lot of things can influence how we perceive color – not only our external environment but our internal one as well, such as memory, our associations with colors, medications we may be taking and fatigue. That’s why a device like the ColorReader EZ is invaluable for precise color matching to get accurate color matching results via color science technology.

Reason 5: Phone Images – You want to match or find a color to go with your couch, so you take a picture of it with your phone and head to the paint store. While our phones were designed to make it simple and easy to take photos, they don’t include the best parameters for color accuracy. In fact, each smart phone manufacturer has its own proprietary software and algorithms in place to automatically adjust their own camera settings. If you and your friends had different phones and took the same picture, at the same time, you would notice color variations between your images.

ColorReader EZ Solution: One of the things we all love about taking pictures with our phones is that they’re so portable we have them on hand to instantly record the people, places and moments we want to remember. The ColorReader EZ has that same portable convenience, which means you can capture color wherever you find color inspiration. With a simple click you can capture a color you love with the same ease as using your phone – just with a lot more accuracy!

The ColorReader EZ device is a great way to build color palettes from all the colors that you love. Create a color palette that has the colors of your favorite vacation spot, or one based on a beautiful table setting that caught your eye, or one from your go-to outfit that always makes you feel good. Its uses are only limited to your imagination. The ColorReader EZ is an amazing color tool that not only helps take the angst out of picking the right paint color – it helps put back fun back into it, right where it belongs!