Painters will be here in the morning to paint trim and ceiling in dining room. Based on Pirula's and others expertise, I went with Farrow & Ball Pointing for trim. The dining room will be lighter grass cloth with slight gold background; the overall tone is akin to F & B Joa's White toward Archive. I'm a little nervous about the paper since it's a departure from traditional grasscloth which we've used several times and love, but I'm keeping my fingers crossed it will be beautiful and not gaudy. Since the weave is fairly fine, the gold provides just a slight glimmer. Really need help with suggestions for off-white paints that are warm but not yellow. While I love yellow and will probably paint our bedroom yellow (perhaps a soft yellow like BM Soleil -- we've varied over the years between apricot and yellow to awaken to happy colors in the master) strong yellow undertones simply will not work with our furniture in the living (ivory) and family (Dorset Cream) rooms. Currently considering F & B Dimity (slightly pink to my eye), Satin Slipper (slightly grey) but both may lean very slightly toward yellowish once on 4 walls, no?, D & K # 82 (absolutely complex and beautiful in our light), B & M Sand Dollar (may be wonderful but may be better with F & B Wimbourne White trim) for open 2-story floor plan. I'd definitely like to avoid all tans and taupes, and whites with very obvious pink, yellow, grey or green casts. Almost impossible, but I know a rich but light true neutral exists somewhere! I would really love a luminous soft creamy tone. My ideal is tone on tone, but my husband likes lighter (or darker) trim, so I'd like a slight contrast with Pointing or Wimbourne. We have lots of northern light, but colors look totally different here than in our previous homes so some tried and true colors like BM White Dove or SW Dover White look slightly grey or greenish here in northern VA. I've spent hours reading old posts and looking at chips but maybe one of you color gurus can steer me to a great color. I've already spent too much on full-spectrum cards and samples so please, please help narrow the search. Finally, previous owner painted a darker taupe below the chair rail in the foyer and up the stairwell with the lighter taupe of walls repeated in the inset moldings below the chair rail. Also, the rear walls with French doors and lots of windows and trim are actually another barely noticeable deeper tone than the walls which winds up offsetting the trim nicely. You really have to look hard to perceive the deeper tone as first impression is just that the wall color plays differently because its in the shadow, but it truly is a deeper paint. Two other advantages to this concept is it draws the eye to a more human scale and thus comfortable level in the 2 story open floor plan and the darker color (without insets) provides a richer color to anchor our low sofa which is very close to BM Navajo White in color. Any opinions? Thanks so much for your help! I've already learned so much from this site. You're the best!

Kath, this may help you. I read the blog and essentially you have to have an understanding of how colors mixed lean to warm undertones or cool. But what she also neglected to say is every color has a LRV-(light reflective value or how the paint will reflect light) Benjamin Moore Natural Wicker Color OC-1 Paint has a Light Reflectance Value (LRV) of 73.8 and a Cool undertone, while Benjamin Moore Muslin Color OC-12 Paint has a Light Reflectance Value (LRV) of 69 and a Warm undertone. Muslin will appear a bit darker. I'll link my favorite site for BM colors. While it doesn't post formulas, it does give you the undertone and the LRV of the color you are interested in by clicking on the paint name. I have found it very useful for any of my painting because it helps isolate what level of lightness your eye is drawn to. I also like to vist Glidden too because they also list LRV. If you want to read up on LRV over in Home Decorating do a search for it or search for "Funcolors". She is a beloved paint guru. HTH! Here is a link that might be useful: BM paint values

Have you looked at BM Ivory White? After weeks of mental turmoil between Linen White and Ivory White, I picked the Ivory White(still have my fingers crossed) for the kitchen cabs to go with my Colonial Gold granite. The walls in the family room and the little bit of walls in the kitchen will be BM Splendor. The Linen White seemed to be a little pinkish to me. The Ivory White wasnt in a paint deck but behind the counter at the BM store. Number 925-Classic Colors. Picking paint colors is tough!

Diana, Are you saying that gray colors are not available in full spectrum color paints? Only colors and browns? Full spectrum paint uses no black. If you think back to your color theory classes I am sure you will recollect that black absorbs all color wavelengths evenly and completely , white reflects all color wavelengths evenly and completely, gray absorbs some of the color wavelengths and reflects some of the color wavelengths, but a pure neutral gray does this perfectly evenly across the color spectrum, giving you a chromatic value of 0. Brown, tan, beige and cream reflect more yellow, red or orange than blue, green or purple. As for my choice of words, I choose to say things in ways that are easily understood by the masses. If we walked into home depot and asked 10 guys buying lumber which white was dirtier, showing them samples of Cotton Balls and White Dove I am betting all 10 would choose White Dove as the dirtier of the two. If we asked them which white was the most saturated or chromatic white I am betting most would incorrectly choose White Dove because it appears slightly darker, but in reality the chromatic value of white dove is lower than the chromatic value of cotton balls. Most people who have not taken a color theory class and don't work with color on a consistent basis don't understand the difference between shade, tint and tone. They think in terms they understand - a light blue gray or a pink beige. I read an article the other day in Forbes. The advice at the end of the article is targeted toward math and science concepts, but is really good advice for anyone trying to communicate information on any topic that may not be widely understood. https://www.forbes.com/sites/marshallshepherd/2020/03/23/is-the-math-too-hard-for-people-to-understand-covid-19-coronavirus/#793f20dd6a9c