What do DIYers and the author of Fifty Shades of Grey have in common? A hard time finding the perfect color. *Ba dum tss.* Okay, maybe E.L. James had other things on her mind, but for the rest of us, finding the right color to paint our living room is somehow harder than deciding where to have dinner on Friday night. You might look at a perfectly ripe avocado and think, “Wow, that’s the perfect shade of green for the bedroom,” but you can’t just use Photoshop’s color-dropper tool in real life … or can you? That’s exactly what the Nix Mini 3 does, and it’s just $79.99 (reg. $97). How does it work? So, you’ve got the avocado in hand, but how do you get that beautiful shade of pale green onto your walls ASAP? That’s easy. Take the Nix Mini 3 (paired to your phone) and gently scan it across the fruit’s surface. Yes, avocado is fruit. Then, the Nix Toolkit app shows you perfect paint matches to brand-name colors from its database of over 200,000 options. Save your favorites so you don’t have to walk into the hardware store with a brown avocado and look like a freak with spoiled fruit and dreams. The app also shares RGB, HEX, and CMYK codes if you’re into digital art and want to use the avocado shade in your graphic design projects. You could do an entire art piece on shades inspired by real fruits and call it Fifty Shades of Fruit.  While the scanner is fun for projects, it’s also incredibly useful for paint touch-ups. You’ll never have to guess if that was eggshell white or creamy beige ever again. Seriously, it’s a game-changer. Grab the Nix Mini 3 digital color scanner while they’re $79.99 (reg. $97). StackSocial prices subject to change. The post 50 shades of gray? Pfft. Here’s how to use an avocado to paint your bedroom appeared first on Popular Science.