Visualize this: In praise of the Sherwin Williams Color Visualizer

Do you love it? Do you want to marry it?

I love the Sherwin Williams Color Visualizer. It is so much fun to click and drag colors and see what you can come up with. It also will suggest colors for you, which is pretty handy because it will offer suggestions you wouldn't think of yourself.

You know I've been contemplating (obsessing, actually) about exterior paint colors for the Marathon, Texas, retreat house. It's what I do. I think about paint colors. And then I also think a lot about that house. The poor thing has been quite neglected through the years. We have been lovingly encouraging it to be, if not a swan, then at least a really cute duck. The energy there is restorative. The view is magnificent. One day I hope to have other people enjoy and restore themselves there. Here's what it looks like now:

Well, I doubt it's snowing right now, but you know what I mean. One day soon it will get a new front porch and a little overhang over the back door -- and a new paint job, ASAP!!! I know, it could use some new windows but that's another project for another day. The goal here is to get the house to visually acceptable.


On the top photo, I was playing around with the Color Visualizer. I used my personal favorite, SW 6410 Brassy, for the trim. The Color Visualizer actually suggested SW 6496 Oceanside for the door and I have to agree that it's quite dramatic, especially given the Southwest blue-door tradition.

To check whether I was out of my mind with the Brassy choice, I enlisted Abbey at Design-Block to help me. She knows West Texas and I'm sure those in the know would say her design aesthetic is quite sophisticated -- whatever that means. I'm from Alpine.

Abbey suggested some other options:

This one has SW 6951 Cote d' Azur for the trim and SW 6607 Cherry Tomato for the door. All of these use SW 6165 Connected Gray for the base color, although the real selection is SW Crater Gray from way back in the day old skinny fan. It's still really similar to Connected Gray:

Pretty cool, right? But something makes me feel like it's a little too whimsical and cartoonish. I keep thinking Minnie Mouse is going to come out that door. I don't want the house to just stick out and stop traffic. I want it to stop traffic but in a more subtle way.



Ooooh! This one really blows my skirt up. Here Abbey suggested SW 6477 Tidewater as the trim color. And the Color Visualizer offered up SW 6342 Spicy Hue for the door. It's a toss-up. This one is probably the safer, less edgy option. It would be my second favorite, for sure.

Let's also mention, because I know you're thinking it: The house on the Color Visualizer is just a wee bit more visually appealing than the poor little thing sitting out there all by itself in Marathon. Very true, but let's just say you get what you pay for and they don't even have anything close to that adorable in Marathon. So we're working with what we have, such that it is.

So what do you think?