@Lori A. Sawaya I really have to thank you. Your questioning why the builder is so strict about only using SW colors motivated me to ask again. I explained that SW has the color-match formulas in their system, nationwide, etc. The home builder salesman I had been dealing with had never had anyone ask to color match & investigated further. I can color match! Also, I did get a SW sample of Behr Silver Drop. I had asked for a quart in a flat finish as that is what the builder will paint with. Miscommunication & I ended up with a jug of Silver Drop in the SW satin sample paint & a can of Silver Drop in a SW (Superpaint) flat finish. Three drywall boards of Silver Drop & 3 different colors. The salesman at SW had told me that the lighter color samples that use Extra White as the base are usually very slightly lighter than the regular paint. I'm going to continue my search & check out BM colors. I so enjoy your posts. We are very lucky that you so generously share your knowledge & expertise.

One way to paint with resale in mind and still have color in rooms is to paint the most difficult ones in colors considered "acceptable" for your market and to reserve the color you want for easier-to-paint rooms. As an example, our master bedroom has a beamed ceiling, with the beams set into the walls. That means that there are three wall surfaces per beam requiring cutting in. Sixteen long beams, including one at each end of the room running across the length. This room had been an uninteresting white, and I redid it in a neutral mushroom color. For the cutting in required around the beams -- white to mushroom means two coats, so that worked out to the equivalent of 64 beams to meticulously paint around. Part of the wall in which five or six beams were set was on the other side of an open stairwell. So, regardless of what other colors I might conceivably have envisioned this room, there was no way it was going to be anything other than a classic, warm neutral! I do agree with posters who argue for painting for yourself. I knew within weeks of moving into our former house that it was a huge, huge mistake. Roughly 18 years later, we moved. The whole time, I lived with neutrals that weren't particularly interesting because every year I thought: THIS is the year in which we move. But are neutral rooms always necessary for resale? Someone bought an 18th C. stone house on the river with the intention of reselling. I saw it under its previous owner and was charmed by its quirks and character. The new owner has certainly improved it both structurally and mechanically, and floors are new, as is the paint job. Alas, there is absolutely no charm left. Every wall is an off white, all the trim is white...the owner may have thought potential buyers would easily envision their own things in these spaces, but I thought that every room required a new paint job. Isn't that back to square one? By contrast, one of the best real estate agents in the area lived near our former house. She sold her house very quickly. The outside was purple, with deep lavender trim. I recall a dark red room, or maybe it was orange. Another room was a bright green or bright blue....Granted, the town is one in which people want to live, not too many places come on the market, and the market itself was very different. But still...orange...blue...in fact, there may not have been a single neutral room in the place. I think the sunroom was a dark green. If you crave color but think you might want to move, just remember, too: with some exceptions, painting doesn't take very long.

Can someone tell me what this color white means for me then? It's supposed to be a bright white. Will it work with the crisp muslin? Sure will. DEW380 is a very pretty white. As you can see from its hue family notation it belongs to the middle of the Green-Yellow (GY) hue family. Chroma of 0.10. And that's everything you want in a clean, crisp, neutral "just white" white. It would take some diggin' to find a color that does not work with DEW380. With its low chroma it even works with other colors of white and you don't have to worry about either color of white looking dirty or dingy - again, because DEW380 has such a low chroma value of 0.10.

On my computer it looks warm but computers are very inaccurate so don't be surprised if it looks nothing like the photo once you get it. You should ALWAYS order a sample before placing a full order.