My camera doesnt exactly reflect what I see.

White Herin/oxford White left

White Dove in the middle, no samplize

Cloude White on right

At 2:30

It is very confusing - it's not just you.

Trying to compare colors without a hue/value/chroma notation is a struggle for sure because you don't know what you're looking for - or at.

Putting the colors in order by their factual color notation can help.

The table is in order by hue family - the yellowness hue attribute lessens as you go down the list.

I recommend writing the hue, value, chroma notation on the Samplize and then experiment putting them in order each way: by hue, then value, then chroma.

Higher the Value number, the lighter the color.

Higher the Chroma number, the more colorful, less neutral.

Marie Schatz -Are you wanting this white on your walls or your trim?

I too thought that SW Pure White looked like it had a gray undertone...and it does. However, we went ahead and used it on our trim and I am very pleased with the way it tuned out. Looks like a crisp white. We did not use it on any walls. We used SW Origami White in our bathroom, closets, and laundry room. Very pretty, but definitely has a slight gray tone. Just enough color!

My SIL used BM Chantilly Lace and it also looks like a crisp white. She also has it on a couple of walls. It's more than just a white primer.

You are not losing your mind.

The paint companies create the samples and fan decks as printed materials, not from real paint. They are not 100% accurate and simply can't be 100% accurate.

Painted samples also vary slightly from one another. The cans are mixed one can at a time by a different machine in every store. Those machines may be more or less accurate then the next machine, may be new or old, may have been calibrated recently or may not have been calibrated for months. On top of that paint colors change slightly as they dry. The faster paint dries the lighter it gets, so spraying paint will give you a lighter color than rolling paint and color will dry lighter when it is hot and dry then when it is cool and humid.

Don't expect perfection. It will drive you crazy, and the small amount of change is only noticeable when you are looking at two samples right beside each other. You are not going to have these different whites painted in stripes on your wall, so you won't see any of these small nuances.

Quite frankly, most people won't be able to tell what white you have painted on your walls and it will only look bad if it doesn't work with other whites and neutrals that you already have in your home.

Chantilly Lace can be beautiful with grays or can look cold and stark with warmer tones.

Oxford White has been the 'go to' white for decades. It works with most other colors, but will look dirty/dingy next to a bright white. Dove White is the newer 'go to' white, but same as Oxford White it can feel somewhat dingy in some homes, depending on how clean and bright their other colors are.

SW Pure White is a very neutral white which does lean gray. It isn't you, it is the color. It is beautiful with blue and violet grays, but is often too gray with warmer tones.

Simply White looks yellow when compared to these other whites or when painted next to pastel blue or violet grays, but with most green grays, greige, beige neutrals it is generally clean and warm. If you have cleaner pastel yellows it can sometime look a bit green.

With each of these whites you will find 100 people who love the color on their walls and another 50 who have a problem with the color. Too gray, too yellow, flashes green, looks blue, too stark, not bright enough . . .

My very favorite white is available through Benjamin Moore. They have a formula in their computer for Devine Color Icing (V0101W). It is similar to Simply White in LRV, but it is cleaner and has a slightly orange or peach undertone. Won't ever scream peach or yellow and because there is no gray or black in the formula you will never find it turning green.. The only time I don't care for Icing is when someone is using it with dark, muddy colors. It is too white, and too high contrast when paired with dark neutrals or when a home simply does not have enough natural daylight to pull off white well.

Instead of looking at your samples next to each other or next to your wall, look at them next to the things that will be staying in your home. The flooring, cabinets, countertops, furniture.

Have someone else set the samples down, one at a time and you choose one over the next - kind of like when you go to the eye doctor and they ask you which is clearer 1 or 2).

This will give you a much clearer understanding of what you like and don't like with your belongings instead of which you like compared to something that won't be there once you paint.

Please keep in mind that the white walls you see in magazines and many of the pictures on the internet are taken with high intensity lighting or have been photoshopped with a filter to make them look lighter, brighter, better.

In our homes white can be a lot trickier. If you don't have a lot of natural daylight any white can go gray and dingy. Corners and shadowed spaces go gray. Sometimes a light neutral is better than a white and sometimes we need more color to combat low light levels.

This room would be better if it were painted a light or mid toned neutral. Just not enough light to make the white look wonderful.

Examples of spaces where they mixed warm and cool whites and got not so great results. Both whites may be beautiful in the right setting, but don't work with the other whites they were paired with.

Hope this helped some.

Great comments and info. I do have some limiting factors adding to the distress.

1. New build 4 hours away, nothing in house. Contractor wants selection before drywall is done because of paint shortages (store just told me they dont have primer)

2. Natural maple cabinets, what is that, yellowish?

3. Envi arctic quartz also yellowish

3. Karndean warm ash floors, cant even remember, peoples pictures on line are all over the map but not gray

4. Small small place with one wall of windows facing south, no real east or west windows

But....northern michigan which is cloudy over 200 days a year.

So warm light when there is light, and warm infrastructure

Oh and Im considering just ditching my ancient furniture but have no money for new.

What I would like is a light neutral scandi thing. I have super poor eyesight and really need light light light. Things just disappear in low light or if they are black.

So they sterotypical overextended new house owner living with folding tables and bean bag chairs😄. Dont care about that so much anymore. Retired, I overextended for the location

Against the white heron/oxford white, east am sun