With a typical custom or semi-custom home, the builder is deeply involved with the customer's selection decisions.
A few recent innovations in choosing interior and exterior paint mean builders can delegate at least one chore to someone else - the buyer. Builders can guide buyers to a color selection tool, like the ones outlined below, which makes picking a full color scheme a breeze, even for a novice.
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Company
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Tool
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Where to Go
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What it Does
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Benjamin Moore
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The Personal Color Viewer
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Lets users try out paint colors and schemes on sample photos of interiors and exteriors online, then view, print and save. User-friendly with lots of room options. The Professional Color Viewer is a CD-ROM version ($14.95) targeted to builders to work with clients.
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Dutch Boy
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Color Cast
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Same idea as Benjamin Moore's online color selector, but it offers tips in design (e.g. how to choose colors for different light conditions) and technique throughout the user-friendly process, a paint calculator and a rebate at the end. Relatively few palette options and low-resolution photos.
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Glidden
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Color@Home II
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Glidden paint retailers
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For $5.95, this CD-ROM also lets users upload digital (including Home Depot) photos to paint rooms virtually any color. If buyers prefer actual paint chips, Glidden's over-sized "peel and stick" chips stick and restick on any surface.
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Home Depot
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Color Solutions Center
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All 1,500 Home Depot locations
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Brings brands together in one 30-foot display. Includes the BEHR Premium Plus interactive kiosk with virtual rooms and color coordination tips. More than 3,000 paint samples available, making color coordination amongst brands a snap.
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Lowe's
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Signature Colors Design Center
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All Lowe's locations by summer's end
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Unites Laura Ashley, Eddie Bauer and other designer brands from Valspar in a 32-foot display with computerized color selection tool and tips from designers.
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PB Topical Ref
