Using AI to Visualize Paint Colors at Home

Some people are quick to adapt to new technology and some are more resistant to these kinds of changes on our lives. In terms of things like software, I tend to be slower to adapt, but for gadgets I like to try new things. AI has been on of those areas where I have been slow to start adapting. Maybe it is because I suspect that AI and technology is marching towards a Terminator movie style of dystopian future and AI is just training computers on how to over throw us humans. But, until then, there seems to be some potential uses of the technology for homeowners as they plan their painting projects.

I tend to be a very visual person, so when selecting colors it helps to be able to accurately visualize a room before painting. Color decks only go so far since it is hard to visualize an entire room from a small 1” by 1” paint square. Larger sample sheets and sample size containers of paint help this process along. But, it appears that AI has matured enough that it can help with the visualization process. By the time you see this, our Christmas decor will be down but I promise at the time photos were captured, it was seasonally appropriate.

For this trial run, I have selected three of my favorite colors from Benjamin Moore’s 2026 Color of the Year brochure. AF-655 Silhouette, CSP-310 First Crush, and 1572 Raindance. At least on my monitor, the photo with the sample sheets and brochure looks reasonable accurate in color.

For the pictures below, I have requested that 1572 is applied to cabinets and CSP-310 to the walls. I am impressed with the ability of the AI programs to apply paint to the correct surfaces, but the color accuracy is not great without helping the process along. There seems to be two keys to getting more accurate photos. First, upload a photo with color chips on something like the counter top that is not getting modified to provide a color reference for calibration. The second is to dial in your prompts to get the outcome in one try. Each modification you do after the first attempt seems to start throwing colors off more in the photo.

Sometimes, weird things happen to your decorations or minor changes to the cabinet shape. I have had the sink magically move places and eventually AI seems to give up and replace your photo with a stock photo. For personal use, you can probably get by with the free account but after about three photo edits, you are locked out from photo editing for about a day, so the subscription is helpful.

After quite a few tries here is my best result which seems fairly accurate to the paint chips. The
cabinet color is 1572 Raindance and the wall color is CSP-310 First Crush.

And, here are the cabinets with AF-655 Silhouette and walls with CSP-310 First Crush.

It is really important to remember that colors are not going to be exactly accurate on a computer screen. There are too many variables between monitors, lighting, and a host of other things that can affect appearance. But, this looks like it can be a great tool help visualize the final project and help narrow down color choices. It can at least help steer you toward in the general direction you want go and fine tune color choices onsite with paint samples or color decks.