Hi everyone. Here's another, current thread where we're discussing formulas. Read this thread too. Bottomline is there is more than one way to custom match and/or mix a color and still meet the industry standard for a "match". In my experience, formulas for Color To Go jugs (and all small fresh-mixed samples) notoriously differ from the formula for a gallon. It has to do with quantities, volume of base in the can, how much room there is for colorant, how small the colorant load has to be divided in order to "fit" into smaller containers, how small a quantity can the dispenser actually shoot, etc. Overall, most people are fine with the quality of the "match" produced by differing formulas. Most of the time, they can't tell. Now, that's either because it truly is not discernable or they just don't know any better and don't look closely enough to compare in order to find fault with the quality of the color match. For testing - and to keep things as simple and accurate as possible - the rule of thumb is if you want the color you see on the original paint chip, you need to buy at least a quart in the brand, paint grade, and sheen you ultimately want to use. Wonder if she has a formula that she could share that would get us close to BM White Dove. If I wanted a proper BenM White Dove, I'd go to whatever lengths necessary to buy it from Benjamin Moore. I often order my Ben Moore paint from myperfectcolor.com and have it shipped. It's fabulously convenient. :) I've said it a million times on the forums here, getting wrapped around color formulas and paint bases is a rat hole no one should go down. Cutting formulas, doubling formulas, trying to decipher color characteristics by reading the colorants in the formula and/or the tint of the paint base -- if anyone tells you there is anything worthwhile in dissecting and studying any of that, they're full of beans. Because there is nothing about any of it that we, who are on the consumer side of the paint counter, can manage or control. Blogosphere is plastered with posts from people professing their success cutting formulas, reading the formulas to ascertain "undertones" and whatnot. Their success doing so can be attributed to nothing more than luck. Luck and they've already made up their mind that their color mixing gymnastics will yield a successful color before they even start. Unless your daily job is mixing paint colors, analyzing color in its liquid state is of no value. Dry and cured color is the only thing that matters because it's all we consumers can control and manage. So, the question about all the various versions of White Dove is how do they look? And the most important thing would be to choose a version and make sure it's used consistently throughout a project.

It's all good. I finished my first ever paint job, a 16 foot, 2 french door LR wall today! I spent a lot of time on prep, as the trim, baseboard, doors and even walls had been used hard over the last decade (my kids I think). I rebuilt a couple of wall door trim edges with good wood putty which took a while and couple of coats. Also used SW elastomeric caulk on a 1/8 gap where wood wall met, my first ever caulking job. Just took it slow and kept exhaling. Found the Black and Decker Mighty Mouse to be a helpful power house, but there was a sharp learning curve on delicate use with it. The SW Universal Khaki looks stunning next to SW Rugged Brown-better then SW Favorite Tan which had been there. My favorite trim color, BM White Dove finishes the palette perfectly! I now understand there is a lighter SW Khaki but frankly with four windows, the lighting looks just right! Thanks for your help. I stuck to your advice as well as read GW prep paint basics and got it done and all back together again in time for the holidays.

Did you keep the White Dove or switch to something else? We will have TONS of natural light (4 skylights and tons of windows/doors that are south facing and will get Colorado sun all day). I'm hoping since it's the weekend I can stall a little until Monday morning and may just have to paint some boards tomorrow to put up and see how they look in the light throughout the day.

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.