Unless you're going into RL Paint, it's mostly meaningless. Every companies colorants are a little different...some a LOT different! Different brands also have differing levels and shades of white in the native tint-base. I make this color somewhat frequently, and 98% of the time, it's into RL paint. Sometimes customers want it into C2 paint, so that's another formula! Faron

It absolutely could. Let me clear, I have no clue what you'd get for sure. No one could know until they mixed it and could look at the result. A paint color formula is a ratio. The proportion of each colorant means everything. Knowing a paint color "has a 32nd of an ounce shot of magenta" is useless information, for example. Because you need in depth knowledge of each colorant's strength, density and underlying signature - AND - at the same time, you must have a comprehensive grasp of the math used to determine how much of each colorant goes in the can because the proportion matters. For each brand. For each tint system. For each can of base paint. Colorants and base are the ingredients to a paint color recipe (formula). The next layer to this is understanding substance interaction. In other words, in order to use a paint color formula to predict a dried paint color's appearance, you have to have an intimate understanding of each colorant, each base and how each interacts and affects the other at every specific quantity interval. For every brand. Because each brand has their own special ingredients to make their paint. To your point about magenta, black and gold showing up as a color that's greenish - it's feasible. Because maybe the black colorant has an underlying green signature. For example, I know ICI/Dulux's black leans teal. Maybe the magenta has an underlying blue signature. We could go on and on with different scenarios of possible results from combining just these three colorant ingredients. Think about the fact that every brand uses the same 10 or 12 colorants to mix a range of tens of thousands of colors. This is why every paint color is born in theoretical color space. You need a computer and color data values to create formulas for tens of thousands of paint colors consisting of varying proportions of the same 10 or 12 colorants. So, if you want to predict color appearance, the smart thing to do is use the same color space and data values that were used to create the formula in the first place. Because in order to make the color it has to be defined and described first. Color is defined and described using data values. Color data values quantify how the human eye actually sees color. The paint color formula is nothing more than an insignificant albeit necessary detail in the middle.

Wow, looks like Mr. Shaw and myperfectcolor is owed an apology - big time. ctlane - sure, I can explain why looking at the darkest color doesn't work. Even when it looks as though a strip of color is a nice, even, orderly stepping down (or up) from darkest to lightest, you have to consider how many factors change to arrive at those 5 or 7 colors on the strip. It's not just a backing down or reducing in the amount of colorants. That's why 'letting down' a color is so different from 'cutting' formulas. In the process of letting down the formula from darkest to lightest, various characteristics in the actual colors can shift - maybe ever so slightly. Viewing color in the context of a strip chip skews the reality of each individual color. When you take a color off the strip, out of that context and into the context of a three-dimensional room and unique inherent light, that new context will very likely enhance different parts of that color's character thus 'giving' it a different undertone than it appeared to have while on the strip next to the other paint colors. When you are working with the darker colors, the darkest color on the strip indicating undertone has a better chance of holding true. Most people don't choose to use the darker colors on the strip. We mostly choose the midtones to lighter colors - the range on the strip where colorant + base combinations become more complicated. This area is where there isn't one colorant in the mix that will unquestionably dominate taking the lead over all the other colorants to define an undeniable undertone. Those more complex, less direct, colors don't have such clear-cut undertones. Their undertones can only be established in the context of a room and among the other elements.

Hi Winker, I was recently having some chairs sprayed and was having same difficulties in choosing an off-white. I ended up using the old standby...Cloud White. Chairs turned out well...perhaps a little whiter than I wanted. The BM store had initially suggested using White Down, but this was more colour than I wanted. Maybe they can mix somewhere in between?? Another colour I haven't tried but I thought might be a good one is BM Seashell. (Colour has been used often on the walls in Pottery Barn catalogues) I know the colur you're in search of...I'm sitting right now at a Pottery Barn desk:) Good luck! L.