Our house was a new build in 2007. It was a spec home so we didn't get to pick colors. Colors when we bought it- SW 7036 Accessible Beige on Walls and ceilings throughout Trim-SW 7008 Alabaster Dining room-SW San Antonio Sage Powder Room-SW Rookwood Blue-Green Trim and Wainscotting in Bonus Room-SW Tavern Taupe Hated all of the colors but loved the house. We have redone about 50% of the interior so far using BM Aura matte, but with some SW colors matched in Aura. Dining room is now BM Aura Pomegranate with ceiling in SW Alabaster Powder Room walls/ceiling are Valspar Belle Grove Light Amber (fell in love with this color and it was a one gallon job so I used Valspar paint-it came out pretty good but this is a low traffic room with wainscotting 4 feet up the walls so the walls won't get any hand contact) Kitchen is BM Aura Matte in BM472 Aganthus Green-ceiling remains undecided (still Accessible Beige) Great Room including coffer inserts is BM Aura Matte in BM473 Weekend Getaway Bonus room became a playroom for my 4 year old-walls in SW 6715 Lime Granita-all of the trim was converted to Alabaster from Tavern Taupe. I used Aura Semi-Gloss to get the right coverage. 4 Year old's bedroom is SW 6849 Partytime with 6848 Panache Pink on the ceiling 4 year old's bathroom is SW 6716 Dancing Green with Alabaster on the ceiling Master Bedroom and bath will be SW 7621 Silvermist with Silvermist on the bathroom ceiling and an undetermined lighter shade in the bedroom's tray ceiling ( I sampled a 25% mix of Silvermist but it screamed "It's A BOY!") I'm working on this room now. Still to come is the foyer/stairwell/upper hallway, a bedroom we use as a home office, and the entire finished basement which has a playroom/theater, bedroom, and full bath. I may hire out the foyer and stairwell as opposed to renting scaffolding but I'll be doing the rest myself.

Hi Geomeg, I just saw this thread and thought I would weigh in! The Bone White color looks very dark when it is next to something white. The only reason I was brave enough to go for it in my DARK kitchen is because the rest of my house has Bone White trim and it pretty much reads "cream." It was easy to just make it all match. The photo of my kitchen is deceiving, light-wise. EVERY light is on! I have very little natural light. Nutherokie's photo (WOW, how did I miss seeing pics of that incredible kitchen???!!) is taken in natural light, and the color looks very true-to-life on my screen. Good luck with your choices--I don't think you can go wrong with the Natural Wicker, Bone White or Navajo White if you're looking for the cabinetry to read "cream."

The CIE sets the standards for measuring color. They recommend several ways to measure the wavelengths of light reflected off a color to define a color. There are several standards that are used to measure color, but the LCH values are the easiest way to describe color in a way that is easily visualized. LRV is the Y measurement when using the CIE XYZ standard that measured Pure White will have an CIE LCH value of 100 / 0 / NA under 6504k light L stands for Light - it is directly related to LRV. So the closer to 100 a color is the lighter that color is. C stands for Chroma - the closer to zero the closer to true black, gray or white a color is H stand for Hue. True black, white and gray have no hue as they are the drop dead center of the color spectrum having equal amounts of all color wavelengths. Snowfall is technically lighter than Chantilly Lace, (LRV of 91.6 vs LRV of 91.4 per Benjamin Moore measurements), (Super White has an LRV of 89.5 and Simply White has an LRV of 92.6 per BM) but it also has a higher chroma than Chantilly Lace (4.168 vs 2.538 per easyRGB website) That makes it less white than Chantilly Lace. (Super White has a Chroma of 1.224 and Simply white has a chroma of 4.657 per easyRGB) This is why Benjamin Moore states that their two whitest whites are Chantilly Lace and Super White. Why would Simply White seem like a brighter white It has a higher LRV than any of the other whites and it is more yellow than the other whites. Look at how we see yellow compared to blue or green or gray. So adding just a bit of yellow vs adding a bit of orange or green to the mix may appear cleaner/brighter. Try to remember that we can measure the light waves reflected off of a color to define that color, but the human brain is a highly complex organ (processes 11 million bits of information per second) and we have just begun to scratch the surface of understanding how humans actually perceive color. We don't even know if two people 'see' the same color when we see a red fire engine. We both call the color we see in our brain Red because we have been taught that Red is the name of the color when our eyes receive a specific combination of light waves that we have defined as Red. We do know that women can identify smaller differences in color than men can see. We know that being depressed lowers your ability to see color. We know that we learn color and that Children who are exposed to more color are better at discerning shades of color. Probably the most fascinating thing that I have learned about color is that when pregnant rats were isolated in single color atmospheres that the babies were behaviorally different based on the color the mother was exposed to throughout their lives regardless of what color atmosphere they were placed in. My favorite white is no longer being made, but is color matched well by Benjamin Moore. It is whiter and cleaner than any of the BM whites (Base white with a good dollop of Titanium White added and a small amount of Yellow Oxide added) Devine Icing - CIE-L*Ch(ab) = 96.569 5.785 95.373° Simply White - CIE-L*Ch(ab) = 95.648 4.657 106.615° Chantilly Lace - CIE-L*Ch(ab) = 95.164 2.538 114.465°

if I am seeing yellow or seeing more gray and the more gray the more blue or green the color appears. ..... to you. That's the actual color appearance according to your color acuity which is defined by the context your viewing the color and the lighting where YOU are. Some people would describe how those colors actually look to them the same as you - they would agree. But some won't. Because they're viewing the colors in a different context and lighting than you. For example, comparing Extra White or Rhinestone to Lily White makes it easy to see why they belong to the Green-Yellow and Green hue families respectively. In context of a color that is factually blue, they are unlikely to look blue. We have to leave room for how other people see color in their actual space - which is different from you. Acknowledging that actual color perception is different from factual color, not only leaves room for everyone's perception of color but it also provides an elastic framework to manage the fact that color appearance is not static. How Jennifer sees color is actual color. It's a real. A completely validate-able and worthy of acknowledgement thing. LCh is the factual color framework we use to manage the diversity in color acuity person to person, context to context, lighting scenario to lighting scenario.