Richard Felt: Free DIY Mobile Apps to Test Paint Colors Using Your Room Photos

Happy Memorial Day! What a wonderful holiday weekend, remembering those who have sacrificed for our American freedoms and starting the summer off right. And if one of your summer projects involves a new coat of paint for your walls — we can help! We’ve previously shared 100 ways to paint your walls, and a couple of weeks ago we shared some amazing computer apps that can before. Today we’re sharing more apps to test paint colors, but these are for your phone (or tablet)! We tested a few other apps, but these are the ones we found worth mentioning. (And we still have a couple more virtual paint color posts coming up with more helpful apps, too!)

All of these mobile apps allow you to use *your own photos* meaning that you can get an idea of how a paint color will actually look in your room, in your home — not just a gorgeous stock photo. Like before, you’ll get better results if you have a clear, well-lit photo with minimal distractions against the wall. Especially if you’ll be redecorating, clear the wall to get a better virtual paint sample. But if you’ll be leaving Grandma’s hutch there, it’s okay to leave it for the photo, too.

And remember — even if these apps only give you certain brands, any paint color formula can be mixed in any brand, so don’t let that limit you!

These apps were given a test drive on both Android (Galaxy S5) and Apple (iPhone6) where available.

DIY Mobile Apps to Test Paint Colors

Paint Harmony for Android

Paint Harmony

Get it: Google Play (pro upgrade available, 99 cents)

Test paint color on multiple surfaces using your own photo
Benjamin Moore Classic and Behr Premium Plus colors (upgrade to pro, 99 cents, for more options)
Easy to use, although a little bit trickier to pick paint colors
Wall auto-selection is very good

This app was my favorite on Android, and it’s one that I will leave on my phone, for fun — and one that I would definitely feel alright about spending 99 cents on to get more color options, if I was wanting to test out more. Easy to use, and virtually no “clean-up” required to get a good match on the area to paint.

Paint Tester for Android

Paint Tester for iPhone

Paint Tester

Get it: Google Play // iTunes (iPhone/iPad, pro upgrade available)

Apply paint colors to your own room photo
Good for iPhone, lacking options for Android
Only RGB values of paints, not matched to brand/hue

This app is okay for Android, but much more robust and useful for iPhone. The Android app is very limited — there’s only a slider to choose colors, which makes it very hard to get a good color match — so I’d say meh for Android users. The iPhone app, on the other hand, offers many more features (even in the free version that we tested). You can choose a color from a photo of your choice or from a palette, and then select your own room photo to apply the color too. The default wall selection is decent, and there’s a slider to adjust how much of the wall you want the color to cover. You can also achieve a more accurate result by using tools such as brush, eraser, and tape, if you’re willing to put in the time.

Paint My Place for iPhone

Paint My Place

Get it: iTunes (upgrade available, $2.99)

Use your photo to test paint colors
Images cropped to square
Not all features showed or worked for me (free version)
Repeated upgrade invitations were frustrating

I really wanted to like this app, but the free version was a little disappointing and I’m not sure I’d invest $2.99 to upgrade and unlock additional features (even after being asked after every step). It’s well-reviewed, though, so maybe I was just having a bad night!

Dulux Visualizer for Android

Dulux Visualizer for iPhone

Dulux Visualizer

Get it: Google Play // iTunes (iPhone/iPad)

Try paint colors on your own LIVE camera feed
Image and color quality is lacking, but kind of a fun app

This app threw me for a loop (thus the garish color choices!) — you don’t upload a photo, but rather it pulls directly from your camera. So you can choose a paint color, apply it to the wall, and then walk around your house for a little virtually painted tour. Not super useful since you have to be in the room you want to paint (as opposed to lounging, traveling, etc) but a fun app nonetheless.

My Room Painter for Android

My Room Painter for iPhone

My Room Painter (from Crown)

Get it: Google Play // iTunes (iPhone/iPad)

Virtually paint walls, wood, or metal to update interior and exterior
Easy and accurate paint application
Better on iPhone than Android

This is another app that is better for iPhone users than for Android. Both apps worked, but I ran across several glitches in the Android app in just a few minutes of using it. You can select your color from the library or from your own photo, and then easily apply it to an area of the photo. Different areas are easily differentiated, and the app overall is easy to use.

Mitre10 Virtual Wall Painter for Android

Mitre10 Virtual Wall Painter

Get it: Google Play

Easy to use, effective for testing out colors
Limited colors

The color selection on this app was quite limited, but the app itself was easy to use and effective.

Honorable Mention: Valspar Color Connect

Get it: iTunes (iPhone/iPad)

Browse colors and connect with a Valspar professional for help in mocking up a room

This is kind of a bonus and outlier, since this app doesn’t allow you to test colors yourself. Instead, you can live chat or email someone at Valspar to tell them what you’re looking for and send them a photo, and they will do the virtual painting for you. A nice feature if that’s the kind of help you want!