Ellen Kennon has SEVERAL greens that could meet your criteria.

Edgewood Green shows very green in some exposures and other times it's more khaki - it's a good one for sampling.

Here is a link that might be useful: EK full spectrum paints

I've had great luck with Benjamin Moore's Baby Turtle 515 & Ivy League 516- they look a lot less muddy on the walls. Good luck!

a gorgeous green with no blue or greyish tones is BM Par Four. It may be too light for your liking though

BM isn't full spectrum. Ellen Kennon's palette has lots of greens & if there's not the right one, she'll match anything making it up with a full spectrum formula for a nominal fee.

thank you all. For some reason that I can't remember, I've formed a slightly negative impression about Ellen Kenyon paint from other posts here. Is it really full spectrum? and is it as high quality as the highest quality paints?

I'm also wondering if I should consider Farrow and Ball? is this full-spectrum?

I was just reading about F&B, and although it's not full spectrum, it sounds like some of the colors in some environments "act like" full spectrum. So I could consider something like this.

But apparently the estate emulsion is not very durable. I need something very durable and scrubable. And I like some sheen.

BTY, I've even had problems with Donald Kaufman not holding up to my dogs.

LifeMaster in eggshell - that's what you want to get if you want full spectrum from Ellen Kennon. LifeMaster is 100% acrylic and it's one of the better cans of paint that you can buy across the board. Each brand, like Sherwin Williams or Ben Moore will have a grade of paint that is equal quality-wise. Every brand has top grades and every brand has not so top grades.

Very durable and scrubbable - not sure any paint can meet that standard. Most of the better grades will give you walls that you can clean-up reasonably well to exceptionally well. Once it's had a month or so to cure.

Donald Kaufman mixes in Pratt & Lambert Accolade - a top grade. If it was the flat sheen - no surprise it's not holding up to dogs. Flat isn't the right sheen for that purpose. DK for dogs should be in P&L Velvet.

If you want to use Farrow & Ball, again with dogs involved, you should order Modern Emulsion. It will stink to high heaven at first but it quickly dissipates.

The DK paint that I used was Satin. But now a lot of the colors only come in silk Matt.

I don't remember DK in satin - but I've only spec'd a few gallons over the years.

I'm pretty sure what he calls Silk Matte is what P&L calls Velvet finish and it is equivalent to an eggshell.

Either way, now-a-days, Silk Matte would be your best bet unless you want to go with semi.

DK finishes are limited to flat, silk matte and semi.

All colors shift in different light, regardless of brand or "full-spectrum" status. I would suggest you simply finds some greens that work for you in a given light (incandescent), buy sample pots, put them on boards or on your walls, then evaluate them in different light. Pick the one that works for you and let go of everything else.

Not to stir up trouble, but as an artist that has studied color science pretty extensively, this whole "full spectrum" paint craze makes my teeth hurt. "Full spectrum" is meaningless marketing-speak when it comes to paint. The term is taken from the lighting industry, where certain types of lights (particularly fluorescent lights) have spikes at certain wavelengths in the visible spectrum, and emit far less light at other wavelengths than a blackbody radiator (the measuring stick for light that is considered to be "full spectrum", which includes incandescent bulbs, and of course the sun). In lighting, a "full spectrum" bulb is one that has been designed to emit light that more closely matches the emission curve of a blackbody source, but even there, the term can be something of a marketing boondoggle. Not all full spectrum bulbs are equal, and none of them can completely match a blackbody source. But some come close enough that the difference is mainly academic.

With regard to paint, the term "full spectrum" is completely meaningless. Paint does not emit light, it reflects it. All paint, regardless of whether it's mixed from three source colors or seven source colors or four hundred source colors, reflects light across the entire visible spectrum. Additionally, each individual mixing component that the paint store uses to mix your paint also reflects light across the entire visible spectrum. So the beautiful blue that you put on your walls? It also reflects some red light (i.e. light at the wavelengths that we perceive as red), and some green light, and some violet light, and every other color of light that the human eye can see, in varying amounts. Obviously the blue reflectance dominates. You can find reflectance curves (mapped with a color spectrometer) for various paint pigments used by artists in Mayers' "The Artists Handbook," if you want to get a sense for how various paint colors actually reflects light across the entire visible spectrum.

This is not to say that adding more mixing colors is useless. But it doesn't affect how an individual color looks, nor does it add some indefinable "depth" or quality to that color. Colors, in fact, are completely defined by three basic attributes: hue, value, and chroma. There are also things like transparency and surface sheen and the like, but those things typically have little to do with color and more to do with the vehicle that binds the paint together (in the case of latex paints, an acrylic emulsion), as well as with additives (gloss agents, matting agents, etc.). A good reference if you want to learn more about the science of color and color mixing is the Munsell Student Color book:

http://www.amazon.com/New-Munsell-Student-Color-Set/dp/1563672006

Also, a great online resource that is specifically about watercolor paints (but is also a great general reference on color science) is the Handprint website:

http://www.handprint.com/HP/WCL/wcolor.html

So what do you get when you add more mixing colors to your paint making process? Basically just a wider color gamut. Which is to say, you can mix a wider array of colors. Which sounds good in theory, but in practice the vast majority of colors that you would want to put on your walls already fall within the color gamuts of non-"Full Spectrum" paint brands. Whenever you mix two colors, you lose some chroma, and often value, if the mixing colors don't have a lot of reflectance in common, such as when you mix complimentary colors. So when you are mixing your colors from just a few components, you may be limited in your ability to mix high chroma colors, particularly at extreme values. For example, if your mixing components are a yellow, a red, and a blue, you might have trouble mixing high-chroma purples and violets, and you may have trouble mixing high chroma greens (although this depends somewhat on the reflectance of the yellow and blue colors that you are using for your mixtures; mixing trajectories on that side of the color wheel have a tendency to curve, losing less chroma in mixtures, for a variety of reasons).

The colors that you gain when you extend your gamut are going to fall at the extremes of value and chroma. The bottom line is, you only need more mixing colors when you are trying to hit high-chroma mixtures that are outside the color gamut of other paint brands, and many of those are going to be colors that you would never put on your walls, anyway. We're talking intense, electric chroma, here--not the relatively subdued colors that make up most of the paint colors in the Ellen Kennon line.

Try this experiment: pick any Ellen Kennon color you like, and then take it down to the local paint shop and ask them to match it in, say, Benjamin Moore. I'll bet you that 10 times out of 10, they can. Then have someone (not you) paint swatches of both the Ellen Kennon color and the Benjamin Moore color on your wall, and then see if you can tell the difference in a blind test. If you can objectively, honestly say that the EK color has some ephemeral property that makes it better, I'll eat a chair. :)

Just an addendum--it's not my intention to knock the Ellen Kennon line, which may very well be good quality paint (I haven't used it, so I couldn't say one way or the other). I'm just saying that the "full spectrum" thing is meaningless marketing-speak.

sbones: normally, I won't debate with people who don't understand full spectrum paint, but you have gone to the trouble of providing an extensive scientific discussion. Have you read the discussion under "Full spectrum" paint? Funcolors provides a full definition.

Yes, I can tell the difference. the Donald Kaufman colors vary more extensively under different light conditions. other people can tell the difference as well. but some people cannot see the difference.

Has nothing to do with emitting light.

Artists and color scientists have narrow, singular areas of expertise when it comes to color. Often they believe because of that limited knowledge and expertise they know and are aware of EVERYTHING there is to know about color. Usually ends up they don't know squat about what happens with and to color from the holistic human experience of architecture and space.

Mixing color and applying it to a canvass is random child's play compared to coloring three-dimensional structure. Testing different swatches of color under different colored light bulbs gives us nothing that is useful or meaningful.

Remember the more colorants involved mixing the color the MORE metameric it becomes. Few colorants = more constancy. Thats why most commercial paint colors only use 1 Â 4 colorants per color. Also a factor is cost.

This is ultimately what regular paint manufacturers do not understand  they canÂt relate to WHY anyone would WANT a non-constant paint color. Why in the world would anyone want a paint color that shifts with the ever-changing natural light source in a room. As an industry, unpredictable and ever-changing paint colors is exactly what theyÂve worked tirelessly to AVOID. And now they are expected to believe that consumers will pay upwards of $50 for a can of paint that shifts and changes with the light. They are confused.

Full spectrum is described as luminous because when compared to regular paint colors, it looks and feels like FS reflects more light back into the space. From a micro perspective within the paint color, particles of black colorant will keep most of the light that hits them. "Colored" colorant will absorb some light wavelengths and reflect what it cannot absorb  thatÂs fundamentally what color IS and DOES, right? Why is an apple red?

Mixing color without black means odds are most all of the colorants in the color will reflect *some* portion of light back into the room and contribute to the atmosphere and the human visual perception of reflected color. Black doesnÂt do that  it keeps all the light it gets and the visual experience is different because of it. Black colorants contribute nothing back into the atmosphere. Some people say regular paints look dead in comparison to full spectrum.

Many people will look at color from that micro perspective only when itÂs convenient or easy to see and understand. Sherwin Williams VinylSafe paint is my favorite example. SW will mix any of their colors that can be mixed in exterior base without black colorant. A big part of why itÂs "vinyl safe" is because there is no black in the VinylSafe formulas. The colors absorb less light or energy. No black in the formula means there is less energy absorption to convert to heat that could melt the vinyl siding.

To say that the reflectance abilities of a paint color can be measured and noted as useful for one purpose, i.e. vinyl safe colors, yet at the same time say that it is not detectable from a human visual or significant from a color experience point of view is kind of ridiculous. Manipulating color for reflectance  or luminosity  goals at the micro level either makes a difference or it doesnÂt. CanÂt have it be true and perfectly reasonable on one hand yet not the other.

As far as mimicking the healing and therapeutic qualities of natural sunlight, you have to be willing to go down that metaphysical path of beliefs and tenants. Crystals, singing bowls, SADD light treatments, chakras, and on and on. Full spectrum colors reflect at a different rate and at a different quality than regular paint colors  that is simply the fact of how they are constructed. HOW - or if - that translates into a deeply meaningful or not so meaningful physio-psychological experience of color is entirely dependent on the individual.

Or Response B:

Full spectrum mixed colors "work" the same way regular colors "work". Except the each "work" opposite ends of the color & light relationship or in a single word, metamerism. There are different kinds of metamerism.

Regular paint manufacturers - and even one specialty/designer palette, Devine Paint - maximizes control of spectral curves so their colors are not prone to shifting, or in other words so they are less metameric. Metamerism for all intents and purposes is a dirty word in all corners of color world. Most all color professionals across various industry feel there is absolutely no practical use for colors that shift and metamerism is the enemy of mass production.

Constancy is what everyone is after. Arguably, the purpose of color science and color labs is to find ways to plot and manage color so it is predictable. Color constancy is the intent with which paint manufacturers create their colors. At the most basic level, constancy is achieved by using the fewest colorants necessary. ThatÂs why black is such a staple in all commercial tints  well, that AND itÂs cheap compared to other colorants.

Full spectrum in essence is the opposite. Plus, there is the holistic, New Age spin. The intent here is to mimic natural daylight by including representational amounts of each spectral hue in every can of paint. Applied to walls, full spectrum paint brings the energy of full spectrum, natural daylight and all the healing and nurturing benefits that some people believe are inherent of light.

Each room has a quality of light. A unique bundle of wavelengths beaming in, bouncing around off walls and other surfaces. ItÂs all a matter of how you want to deploy color on the walls to interact and respond to that light source. A paint that is highly metameric and shifts and changes, or one that doesnÂt.

I do not remember where I got this from. But itÂs a nice explanation of curves and metamerism:

4.6. Metamerism

4.6.1. Two samples can appear to have the same color under one type of illumination but may appear dissimilar under different lighting conditions. This phenomenon is one form of metamerism. A second form of metamerism occurs when two samples appear to be the same color under all lighting conditions, yet their reflectance or transmittance curves are different. Both forms of metamerism are due to differences in pigment compositions. It is important to note that two objects with different reflectance or transmittance curves can have identical colorimetric values (tristimulus values or chromaticity coordinates). Therefore, it is not recommended to use colorimetric values alone for detailed sample comparisons.

mally_241: I have seen that discussion, and very little of it made sense, aside from the quote from the Munsell color lab guy in the first post, which pretty much mirrors my view on the matter. I have also read the descriptions of full spectrum paint on the producers' websites. Again, pretty nonsensical stuff.

No offense intended to funcolor, but a lot of what he says also makes no sense. For example, his explanation of metamerism is confused at best. He says that "the more colorants involved mixing the color the MORE metameric it becomes." But individual colors are not "metameric," and the number of colorants (whether they be pigments or dyes or whatever) does not make a color "more" or "less" metameric. Either a pair of colors are metamers, or they aren't--it's not a matter of degree. And saying that a single color "is metameric" is like saying that a word "is synonymous." Synonymous with what? A word cannot be synonymous by itself--it can only be synonymous with another word.

Metamerism describes situations in which two colors appear to be the same even though their reflectance is different ("material metamerism"), or because of a physiological inability to distinguish between colors in the viewer ("observer metamerism"). Metamerism has nothing to do with colors looking different at different times of day, or under different light sources. All colors do that. Every single one.

The "no black" thing is also nonsense. Yes, black absorbs light. All material colors absorb light. That's how reflective color WORKS. But if you make a value 5 gray from gray colorants, and then make a matching value 5 gray made from a mixture of white and black colorants, both colors will be equally "luminous," because they are both the same value. If one is more "luminous" than the other, then they aren't the same value, which means that you didn't match them correctly. If you do match them correctly, then I guarantee that you would be unable to distinguish which mixture contained black colorant unless you broke out a microscope. In fact, the two mixtures would almost certainly be metamers (finally, a correct use of the term!), which you could see if you measured their reflectance with a color spectrometer, but not with the naked eye, unless you had the opportunity to observe the colors next to each other under a variety of different light sources. Because contrary to funcolor's claim, there is no such thing as a pair of colors that are metameric under all lighting conditions. At least not if we are talking material metamerism. It's possible that some different colors might always appear identical to a colorblind person (observer metamerism). I'm not sure about that.

Why any of that would be relevant to the use of metameric colors in wall paint, though, I'm not certain.

For those who maintain that there is a difference between "full spectrum" paint and regular paint, that claim is testable! We can get some samples of full spectrum paints, and match them with regular paint, and create chips for both, labelled A and B (which chip is which would vary). Maybe get 8-10 colors, to get a good range. Then we mail them around to anyone that wants to take the test. The color pairs will be metamers (!), since they will be mixed from different colorants. So it's possible that they will look different under different conditions. But the key is to see if anyone can pick out specifically which color out of each pair is the "full spectrum" color.

I'm willing to bet that folks will be able to pick out the full spectrum paint... about 50% of the time.

Metamerism has nothing to do with colors looking different at different times of day, or under different light sources.

Okay, if you say so.