Home stagers, redesigners and color consultants often look for jumping off points to develop a color palette. Many times I’ve found inspiration in a piece of art or nature. For example, the Staging Diva logo colors were inspired by cutting into a ripe papaya.

I discovered a new color tool for home stagers Sherwin Williams Chip It. This application allows you to pull an image from anywhere online and automatically turn it into a color palette of Sherwin Williams paint colors.

This is especially brilliant of them as a marketing tool, given the current popularity of Pinterest.

During an interior redesign or color consultation, let’s say a client has a beautiful piece of art and you want to turn that into the inspiration for a color palette for their home. You could upload a photo of it and then use the Chip It application to tell you what colors are in it.

Or if you spot an inspiring image on Pinterest, you could use the Sherwin Williams Chip It tool on it. Please note that if you photograph a piece of art and post it to your own Pinterest account, you are violating the copyright of the artist.

Check out this short video to see how Sherwin Williams Chip It works:

While you wouldn’t necessarily use all the colors as wall paint, it would give you ideas for not only wall colors but colors to paint some of the furniture or sourcing accessories like accent pillows, throws, vases, etc. Choosing the right accent color and using it repeatedly throughout the home provides great impact when decorating a house to sell.

Personally, I’m not sure I’d use the Chip It tool, this is one piece of “technology” I don’t feel I need.

Instead of using Sherwin Williams Chip It, I’d likely take the piece of art to a bright window and under natural light, I’d hold up my own Para Paint or Benjamin Moore color chips next to it and choose the paint colors myself. However, I realize that not everyone is able to discern the subtleties of one shade over another (something I teach in the Staging Diva Ultimate Color Guide).

Which reminds me of an important tip for shopping for home staging or redesign clients!

When I’m out shopping for a client for a home staging or redesign project, I’ll bring along a paint company’s fan deck for reference of the wall colors I’ve selected, or what colors I want to match for accessories.

That way you don’t have to remember the exact shade of red or blue you wanted for a house when you may have seen five others in between your home staging consultation and your shopping trip. When you’re shopping for multiple clients on the same day, this is also helpful!

I hope you’re getting paid for your time to go shopping for your clients (and shopping with their money that is paid to you in advance). When you combine more than one client’s purchases into the same store visit, you’ll optimize how much you’re earning. How to do this is explained in full in the Staging Diva Home Staging Business Training Program. Pay close attention to the instructions in Courses 3 and 5 especially.

Color is definitely one of my passions. How about you? Do you see yourself using this new Sherwin Williams tool or do you see it as something that would have more appeal for the general public (who are perhaps looking for a way to avoid having to hire a color consultant and do it themselves)?

Debra Gould, The Staging Diva®
President, Voice of Possibility Group Inc.

Debra Gould developed the Staging Diva Training Program to teach others how to earn a living doing something they love. There are now more than 7,000 students in over 20 countries. She is the author of 5 guides including the Staging Diva Ultimate Color Guide: The Easy Way to Pick Colors for Home Staging Projects.