Virtual Interior Painting: Behr Color Smart Paint Your Place

Have you ever painted your living room, only to discover you didn't like the way the color looked on your wall? Maybe the hue you thought would match those crimson curtains exactly was just a tad off, or the sea foam green you thought was perfect for your kitchen just made you sea sick. Ever wish you could see the color on the wall before you went through the time, energy, and cost of painting it first? Now you can. Behr.com offers a personalized virtual experience in interior and exterior painting. Use your own digital photo, click a few buttons, and voila! Your blah beige living room has been virtually transformed to suit your personal color palette. The process really is that easy. Go to Behr's home page and click on Color Smart Paint Your Place (TM). Make sure you turn off your pop-up blocker on your web browser, or the window won't open.

Virtual Interior Painting with Behr: Picking a Paint Color

The first step in virtually painting your room is to pick the colors. Behr offers three options: choose a specific paint color name or number from Behr's Color Collection, browse paint colors using Behr's Color Tool, or click on the Inspiration Library which offers theme paint color palettes.

Since I don't have a great eye for color, I chose the Inspiration Library option. There are 16 preset paint color schemes from which to choose. I picked the Yellows and Green paint category. In the Yellows and Greens, Behr shows six pages of various paint color groupings. Each paint color scheme includes a main color, two accents colors, and a white. The schemes are completely customizable. For instance, if you pick a scheme with a yellow as the main color, but you aren't sure about the moss green accent, you can change that moss green to a grass green paint.

Virtual Interior Painting with Behr: Choosing a Photo

Once you've chosen your paint colors, it's time to virtually paint your room! Behr offers a choice between using your own photo and using a sample photo. While the sample photos are somewhat easier to work with, in order to truly see how the paint color scheme will work in your room with your lighting and furniture, you will need to use your own digital photo.

Behr recommends using bright photos. Avoid using the flash as deep shadows won't work well when virtually painting your room. Instead, use your room's own lighting: turn on the overhead light, open the curtains, turn on your accent lamps. Also, make sure your room is clear from clutter, as this will make virtually painting your room difficult.

Virtual Interior Painting with Behr: Subscribe to Behr Color Smart Paint Your Place (TM) service

The cost to use Behr's virtual painting program is $4.95 per year for unlimited photos. If you don't wish to subscribe to the service, using a sample photo is completely free. Again, make sure your pop up blocker is turned off and proceed to subscribe. Behr accepts Visa or Mastercard payment.

You will have to install a Java script. When the box pops up, click on the Run option. Once the Java loads, and it may take a while depending on your Internet connection, choose the option to load a digital photo from your computer.

Virtual Interior Painting with Behr: Painting Your Photo

The controls take a bit to get used to, but if you watch the short demo movie, the process is virtually pain-free. Using the masking and painting tools, which are similar to Adobe Photoshop controls, mark off and virtually paint your room. It's easy to change the color once you see it on the wall.

Virtual Interior Painting with Behr: Saving Your Photo

When you are completed, Behr gives you the option to print your room or save the photo online in your Behr Workbook or as a .jpg for your computer. During all the steps, from choosing your color to the very end, there are options to print your paint choices to take to your local Behr paint dealer.

Virtual Interior Painting with Behr: Using Behr Color Smart Paint Your Place (TM)

Overall, once I got the hang of how it worked, I found this website to be very easy to navigate. I had difficulties with my photo, since it was dark. I lightened it using my photo editing program, and it was much easier to virtually paint. Behr's site allowed me to be creative without spending a lot of money on paint.