Ben Color Capture paints ideas for your home

Ben Color Capture iPhone app. I downloaded the app the day it rolled out.

Here’s how it works: Take a photo of what color you want to match (holding up something white in the frame can help accuracy), zoom in on the photo if needed and hit use. Ben Color Capture then displays a strip of the closest matching colors.

A shake of the phone switches to coordinating “harmony” colors. You can also access a color wheel and select colors with a swipe of your finger. One of the best features is the inclusion of paint chip names and numbers, which makes for easy reference if you’re planning to use Benjamin Moore paints. Ben Color Capture uses the iPhone’s GPS function to locate the nearest Benjamin Moore retailers and allows you to save favorite colors for quick access.

This is a helpful app, but not perfect.

All of the items I tried to match with Ben Color Capture got close, but nothing was spot on. Despite this, I still find myself reaching for the app when I’m in need of  inspiration from one of Benjamin Moore’s 3,300 available colors.

I wouldn’t recommend choosing a paint color based on an iPhone photo—that would be quite the leap of faith. I would, however, recommend Ben Color Capture to put some good design ideas in your hand.

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