Color cleaner/lighter(?) than BM Bone-White (OC-143)

2 months ago

last modified: 2 months ago

After many failed attempts of putting a green-blue on the walls (I think I've tried them all and it's just too blue for us), we are reverting to a neutral wall color.

The room is only 11/12 and has very low (6.5'!) ceilings, medium brown wood floors, filtered light in a SW window and hardly any light in a NW window (tree blocking it for most of the year). That being said, the room has one wall that is very washed out from the light during the day, the rest have gray/blue-ish cast to the walls. Around 3pm we get some light, esp in the summer, but winter is pretty dreary.

Fell in love with Bone White (BM OC-143) in photos online I love it...it looks much lighter online (thanks to the wonders of photography). I painted a large portion of this wall in the phone and the opposite wall and it looks so much darker and muddy on our walls. Painted a large section on a wall and it's still muddier/grayer than we needed. I think this room needs "clean" color, due to all the shaded light but I have no clue. I just know what *doesn't* work on our walls.

I know I should have furnishings and rugs and all that. This room was gutted and we are starting fresh. We need paint b/c of time constraints and have not picked out anything yet. Rug will be wam colors - rustic/antique-y vibe. Cozy/office space bedroom.

That being said, I like that Bone White warm. Through many samples, we have found that LRV over 80 is too bright and washes out. We need some weight of color on the walls. LRV less than 40) seems to be too dark and makes the small room even smaller.

Tried SW Muslin on the walls and it was nice but kinda green.

SW Alabaster: way too light and the walls looked dingy.

BM LIme White: nice but seems very pink

BM Cameo white: too peach

I see that I"m leaning towards peachy colors but I actually don't like them lol I tried SW creamy and liked it but it's too light. I think the LRV is soemwhere around 85. I def need under 80 on our walls but not too dark. Of the colors I like, the ones that do not wash out th walls or get too dark fall in the 65-78 range.

Help!

thanks in advance!

Pic of Southwest window. the right corner is where the sunsets. On the right wall is a small window with a tree outside of it.

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Comments (7)

cat_ky
2 months ago
Double post
kathleen MK
2 months ago
I don't do paint by numbers but always " eyeball it " as my artist Dad would say. Only painting a big sample and seeing how the light in the actual space effects it will give you the answer. Get a those small sample jars and poster board. Cottage White and Swiss Coffee are some Behr colors i have used in our cave like house.
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Let me ask you, what exactly is the LRV a measurement of? Luminance. It measures how much light a color reflects and conversely how much it absorbs. LRV is a spectral data point that runs on a scale from 0% to 100%. Think of spectral data as color DNA or a color's fingerprint; it's measured with a device like a spectrophotometer. Measurements are done according to international standards including a specified, consistent quality of light. That's it. That's all LRV is about. I've seen information on other websites and blogs that read way more into LRV than is correct. Applied to architectural color, you can categorize color by LRV and then use that spectral data point as a benchmark. For example, you've tested a range of colors with LRVs in the low 30's and they all feel too dark. At that point, you know to start pulling colors with higher LRVs that are lighter and more in line with what you envision. Understanding LRV enables you to predict how light a color will look and feel once it's up. Easy. If you compare a yellow and a gray with the same LRV, for example, it's hard to see the similarity. This is a little more complicated. LRV is just one of the key points of spectral data. Equally important are the psycho-physical dimensions of color which are hue, value and chroma. Color experts analyze - and compare - color using all four because each answers a specific question. For example, LRV answers the question how light or dark a color will look and feel in a space. Once you understand what LRV is, it's easier to see similar degrees of luminance when comparing a yellow and a gray with the same LRV. Yellow Iris BM 373 and Dune White BM 968, for example, have the same LRV of 80. They're equally bright. What's different is the chroma. Yellow Iris is a lot more chromatic than Dune White. But just because Yellow Iris is more chromatic and renders a more colorful visual sensation to the eye doesn't change the fact that both colors have the same luminance and will reflect equal quantities of light. So, in this case Dune White and Yellow Iris have the same light reflectance value but differ dramatically in terms of chroma or colorfulness. When you know how to dissect color and categorize it by hue, value, chroma and LRV It's not a matter of needing to "train your eye" to ferret out attributes. Instead, the spectral data spells it out plain and simple. So instead of struggling to compare colors side by side and guessing about various attributes, you can just let the data guide and inform your visual assessment. In other words, the data tells you what you're looking at so you don't have to waste time trying to figure it out (and hope you get it right).
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nuhouse10
Original Author
2 months ago
@kathleen MK thanks for these suggestions, I have a Cottage white chip from Behr and it's on my sample pot list! I'll check out swiss coffee too. I think I may have to go lighter than I want to keep the room from being a cave. I had painted the whole room SW Alabaster and despite trying a large 3x3' swatch in a few areas of the room as a test, was unhappy with the results. I tried a small wall in Cameo white and BM bone white - both looks nice photos but on my walls were too peach (cameo) and muddy (bone white) on the larger swatches. I definitely agree with needing the larger areas!

thanks again!
Lyn Nielson
2 months ago
BM Super White has no undertones.

once all your other furnishings are in the room, for me, it would be a fresh option.
kandrewspa
2 months ago
If you don't want a plain white, try leaning yellow without the peach undertone. Look at BM Seashell OC-120 and Soft Chamois OC-13. I tried both of them when sampling in a room with a northern exposure. Seashell is a little bit brighter than SC. I ended up choosing SC because it also works in other rooms in my house so I can have some consistency. There's a good chance neither one will be obviously yellow in the lighting you're working with. I only saw the yellow undertone when I sampled it in a room with a strong southern exposure. If you don't mind a little yellow, I used Timid White in my basement (only gets northern light) and it has a lovely candlelight effect. BM White Down is another popular warm off white, I just haven't tried it so I can't comment on it myself.
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BeverlyFLADeziner
2 months ago
krdpm
last month
I like the look of whatever white is on that door with the black hinges.

A very clean off-white that I love is Etiquette (Benjamin Moore). We have it in a main bath that gets little morning light, and then a lot of warm end-of-day light, and it always looks clean but warm and gives just enough depth.

That said, just from what we can see of your room in the picture, what jumps out at me is the really low ceiling height. (See that a lot around here in houses from the 1700s). What I think I would do is choose a white and do the entire room, including ceiling, the same. I would do the ceiling and maybe the walls in flat/matte. (Maybe walls in eggshell, maybe not worth the trouble and just go with matte for ceiling and walls) All trim in semigloss or satin. I would consider a really warm, clean white....something like Simply White.

I did a lower level family room this way. It actually has good ceiling height, but not a lot of light. I did White Dove, and I absolutley love it. I know sometimes it can read dingy, but in my room it's just the perfect soft white and blurs the ceiling/wall line. I really like this idea for your room ,given the ceiling height, feature window, not-huge size. Just something to think about :).

Good luck..keep us posted!

Color cleaner/lighter(?) than BM Bone-White (OC-143)

Comments (7)

cat_ky

kathleen MK

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Color cleaner/lighter(?) than BM Bone-White (OC-143)

Comments (7)

cat_ky

kathleen MK

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nuhouse10Original Author

Lyn Nielson

kandrewspa

BeverlyFLADeziner

krdpm

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nuhouse10
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