Chip It! Sherwin-Williams’ New Color Tool

Photo: 2modern.com

Thanks to the Internet, there’s no shortage of inspiration when it comes to bringing color to your home. Ah, but the ability to pick complementary colors for the lovely image you’ve just found online; that’s usually hard to come by. But the new Sherwin-Williams color tool, Chip It!, could save the day. The free service loads through your Facebook or Twitter account and sits on your browser’s bookmark menu bar.

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When you see a picture with a color scheme you like, click on the Chip It! icon in your browser menu, and pull your cursor across the image. Up come five complementary Sherwin-Williams color squares above your cursor. Click on the accompanying Chip It! logo and you see a window with the image that inspired you, along with as many as 10 complementary colors. You can create a Chipbook, or a folder, in which to save your images. If you do save an image, you can share the picture and chips via social media.

Loading the tool is pretty painless. Using it could be more intuitive, but it works well. Disappointingly, the app doesn’t allow you to upload images from your computer; it only works with images that are already online.

For your edification—and not psychoanalysis—here’s what inspired me, and some of the complementary colors:

An alligator, jaws agape: Obstinate Orange, Canoe, Roycroft Copper Red

A losing New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady: Dark Night, Deepest Mauve, Solitude, Pink Flamingo

For more on painting, consider:

Eve Ashcraft’s 6 Inspirations for Choosing a Color Palette
Color Trends 2012: Top Forecasters Weigh In
Bob Vila’s Top 12 Painting Tips