Match paint to brick with color scheme and exploration tools.
One of the qualities of natural brick is the richness offered by the slight color variations that are in the clay or other material from which bricks were made, how the bricks reacted to the baking or curing process, how they have aged, and in the case of used brick, how they have been recycled. This color diversity can make it hard to pick one color choice for paint as an exact match for a brick surface and often a color scheme that beautifies the overall look with either lighter or darker shades and tints or well-explored color combinations might be the best option.
Instructions
Pick a Color Visually
1. Gather paint color chip strips from the racks at the paint store that you think could be a match for the colors in your brick. Borrowing or purchasing a complete color fan from the paint store can make the process of matching easier.
2. Take the color chip strips or color fan home and visually match the closest color chip to the colors in the brick.
3. If you have an extra brick with the colors you want to match, reverse the process and take it to the paint store and match to the closest chip set or fan while there.
Use Digital Technology to Find the Brick Paint Color
4. Scan the brick with a hand-held scanner, such as those offered by some major paint retailers, as an alternative to matching color by eye. Both Benjamin Moore and Sherwin Williams offer smart-phone technology in the form of free applications. The scanner returns the closest paint chip code and name to match the color scanned.
5. Take a close-up photo of the brick with a digital camera. Load the image to a computer with a color-corrected monitor and adjust color if necessary.
6. Use a free or commercial pixel-grabbing program (set to RGB capture) to get the color of any pixel in your image. Most graphics, illustration, paint and color programs have them built in.
7. Input the RGB code into a free program that allows you to select color collections from most major paint companies and returns the closest paint matches along with their names and color codes. Most major paint company websites also have capabilities
to convert RGB codes to paint colors in their collections.
Explore Color Options and Paint Virtually or With Sample Paint
8. Input the color code into any number of free or inexpensive color scheme and exploration programs that let you experiment with different shades and tints of color and try out different color schemes to see how they go together and might fit with other aspects of your exterior like landscaping.
9. Virtual painting programs are available on most all the major paint manufacturers' websites and give you an overview of what color schemes you pick will look on similar houses or on your own if you upload a photo and mask off the different areas. Most also suggest possible color schemes based on your starting color selection, color theory and current color trends.
10. Many paint manufacturers offer small sample bottles or pouches of paint in many colors to try committing to quarts and gallons.
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