This Gadget Is My Go-To for Color Inspiration (and It Fits in My Pocket)

As a professional color consultant, one of the questions I get asked most often is where I find my color inspiration. People assume it’s something fancy, like a secret encyclopedic knowledge of color theory. (Spoiler: It’s not!) I get inspired by a lot of things — ephemera, nature, the history of a space — but all of that was hard to process without one small, unassuming tool: the Nix Mini 3 Color Sensor. 

The Nix Mini is a tiny gadget (it can fit in your pocket!) that can instantly scan any surface and match it to over 200,000 real-life paint colors from major brands. At $99, this tool is an easy expense to justify as a professional designer, but I could imagine it would be valuable for all sorts of creative professionals or dedicated home DIYers. 

My husband gifted the Nix Mini to me for my birthday (a very on-brand gift), and I’ve kept it in my purse ever since. It’s one of the best presents I’ve ever received, and not just because I love color. It also makes collecting and organizing inspiration so much easier.

After buying the device, you’ll need to download the free Nix Toolkit app. Once the app is paired with your sensor (it connects via Bluetooth), you can start scanning anything — walls, building exteriors, a piece of furniture you found on a sourcing adventure — and instantly match it to paint colors. The app tells you the brand, the name, and even the light reflectance value (aka how much light the color bounces around), which is super helpful when picking paint. It also tells you the CMYK or HEX codes, if you’re working digitally or want to build palettes online.

You can save your scans into collections, like little mood boards on your phone. I’ve got folders for different client projects, my own home, and random colors I have found inspiring while I’m out and about. One thing to note is that you have to scan something IRL; it can’t scan a computer or other screen because of how the sensor detects color.

The Nix Mini isn’t just for interior design pros. If you’re someone who notices color or pauses to admire the perfect shade of mellow green on a building, this tool makes those little moments easier to hold on to. You might be walking through a new neighborhood, flipping through a coffee-table book, or admiring a color in your friend’s kitchen. Rather than sending yourself on a wild goose chase to find the color, with one quick scan, the Nix tells you exact paint color matches, so you’re not left guessing.

I like to think of it as a color memory keeper. It helps you save the shades that spark something — even if you don’t know what you’ll use them for yet. If you have the Nix Mini with you the next time something catches your eye, you might walk away with a new palette for your next project.

Buy: Nix Mini 3 Color Sensor, $99 (normally $119)