Have you ever painted a room in your house only to regret you chose that colour, or are you thinking of repainting a room but are unsure what a certain colour will look like? This month we introduce an online tool that allows you preview your finished product!
Sherwin Williams is a famous paint provider and they have a tool on their website enabling you to upload a picture of a room, or even the exterior of your house, and use their visualizing tool to “paint” the walls and ceilings with any colour you can imagine.
First save on your computer a picture of the room you wish to test new colours on. Refer to the June 2014 issue for instructions on transferring photos from your digital camera to the computer. Now click here: www.sherwin-williams.com/visualizer/ and click on the “Upload your photo” button.
Select the photo from your computer, and click the OK button. Enter a name for this room, select “Interior Scene” or “Exterior Scene” and then tick the “I accept the terms of use” check box. Finally, type the letters and numbers that appear in the verification image into the box below it, and click the “Continue” button.
A pop-up window will open showing you how to use the tool. Click the “Get Started” button to close it down. Now find the colour you want to use by typing its name in the “Colour search” box on the left panel. The visualizer tool will display different shades of the colour you have searched for.
Click on the chosen colour, and hold the mouse button down while you drag the colour onto the picture. As you do this, the area to be “painted” becomes outlined in blue. Move the mouse around a bit until you get a good outline, and then release the mouse button.
Most likely it will not be possible to “paint” the entire wall with one try, so repeat this process until the wall is painted. Use the paint brush tool to paint the smaller areas that need painting. Click the Paint Brush dropdown list, choose the brush size, and click on the areas in the photo you want to paint.
If the paint is covering items it shouldn’t, click the “Surface Remove Tool” and then click the corners of that area to create an outline, clicking back to where you started to “close the loop”. To remove a few little spots, click on the rubber tool dropdown list, select the rubber size and click the areas you want to clear up. To save a copy of the image you have created, you will need to set up a free account on the Sherwin Williams website. Click the “Save Scene” button and then click the “Register” button in the top banner to create an account.
