From smashed avo to pet hair: You can now use anything to create custom paint hues

Deciding on which colour to paint your home is tough. There are literally hundreds of thousands to choose from. It can be time consuming, confusing and often overwhelming.

But there is a way to bring some fun back into the decision-making process – you’ll actually want to watch paint dry.

Taubmans has launched a service that allows you to personalise your own paint colours and create a hue that is uniquely you.

Known as Coloursmith, it’s an app that integrates with your smartphone camera to act as a colour scanner. It works best when paired with either the Coloursmith Window or Coloursmith Reader – devices that allow you to capture the true tones from any object, surface or visual source.

Take an image of your chosen colour through the app and your personalised paint colour will then have a unique QR code generated that can be used to order sample pots and full tins.   

Inspiration could come from anywhere – it could be a warm brown from your milky morning latte, a royal blue from a favourite woollen scarf, or a dusty pink from a pretty-as-a-picture sunset. 

Taubmans paint and colour expert Rachel Lacy says the idea of Coloursmith was borne out of wanting to empower people to make their own decisions. 

She’s reluctant to use the word ‘trend’ and believes that, because we’re so used to following them, many of us have lost confidence in our own decision making.

“I know it sounds unbelievably corny but anything that you love is the right thing – if there’s a colour that works for you, it’s not wrong,” she says.

“It’s your living environment, it’s your space, you should be able to use the colour you want.”

Almost anything and everything can be scanned to create your unique colour, but you do need to make sure it’s a solid surface – nothing transparent – to get the best reading and correct colour.

“We get lots of people scanning their pets’ fur; we’ve had an aubergine, bits of chalk, printed paper wedding invitations – people scan things that are important to them,” Lacy says.

“One of our team members had a partner who passed away and he was bringing up his daughter by himself. Every Sunday they would go and have smashed avocado on toast. He scanned a piece of avocado and he made the colour and he painted his bedroom in that colour.

“Colour, like pain and love, is a subjective experience, and it’s a personal experience,” she adds.

Not only can you create your own hue, but you can choose its name, too. 

It could be something like ‘Friday Night Drinks With the Girls’ for a pigment reminiscent of a spritz; ‘Days on the Farm’ for a patch of grass at Grandma’s place, or something as simple as ‘Breakfast Cereal’ in honour of your daily bowl of nourishment. 

Lacy admits people can often be wary of colour, or find it intimidating, but says you can use colour sparingly and still achieve great results.

“You don’t have to do your whole house – you can just do a wall, or a circle or a shape, or the laundry or the bathroom.” 

“Colour changes a space so profoundly and it’s so easy to do. I know painting can be a bit of a drag but the satisfaction to output ratio is really good. It does take some effort but it’s deeply satisfying,” she says.

For colour and design consultant Rachel Rimmer from Hello Colour, colour selection is personal.

“Colour is very transformative and the colours you surround yourself with are really important. They absolutely have an effect on your mood and how you feel in your space.”

Before you start painting, Rimmer says it’s important to think about how you want to feel when you’re at home. This will be different for everyone, but it will give you some guidance on the types of hues to use.

“We also take into account how and when you use your space. The types of colours you use for your bedroom might be quite different from the types of colours you’d choose for a living space or kitchen or a workspace,” she says.

“If you’re wanting your space to feel warm and welcoming, or you want it to feel relaxed and tranquil, or you want lots of energy from your space and to feel uplifted – they would be really different colours that we would suggest to achieve all of those different things for you.”

If you want your space to feel cosy, Rimmer suggests opting for warmer colours such as yellows and saffrons and to embrace earthy tones like rust and terracotta.

“If you really want your space to feel quite relaxing, draw on cooler, softer colours like greens and blues. [They] are really relaxing, tranquil colours and they give us that connection back to [the] environment – foliage, ocean or sky.”

For Lacy, colour is a simple way to bring joy into the home.

“[Painting is] the easiest, cheapest way to change your environment – colour is the easiest way to do that,” she says.