Ideas/Misc ...

Reply to: You're most welcome. And thanks for the kinds words but I'm not taking any new color design clients right now. :) Would you call Wool Skein a yellow beige, or green beige, or pink beige, or greige Or does it matter? Nope, doesn't matter. Words, subjective opinions aren't useful when it comes to describing, defining and categorizing color. The only thing that works are objective, consistent color measurements that come directly from a color's DNA. Wool Skein simply belongs to the yellow hue family. Nothing is hidden or "under" anything.

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Reply to: What does your analysis say about combining SW Alabaster trim and kitchen cabinets with SW Wool Skein on the walls please? Very nice. Both in the same yellow hue family neighborhood. Wool Skein has more than twice the chroma of Alabaster. Which means WS will make Alabaster look like a nice clean, crisp off-white. Contrasts and harmonizes in all the right ways.

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Reply to: If SW Alabaster was used as a trim - what neutrals won't make it look "muddy". This is where a color wheel that illustrates color relationships can help. Alabaster belongs to the yellow hue family - pretty much smack dab in the middle of the yellow hue family. If you partner Alabaster with near neutrals from the same yellow hue family, you have to be super careful about managing the chroma - the amount of grayness. A near neutral from the yellow hue family would have to be more gray than Alabaster. That's how you make Alabaster look brighter and whiter in comparison -- because it literally is brighter and whiter than your grayer near neutral wall color. Going back to the color wheel, near neutrals from hue families opposite (ish) yellow will help Alabaster 'pop' as cleaner and brighter. Managing the grayness, choosing colors that are more gray than Alabaster isn't such a priority using this strategy. Because contrast of hue will do all the heavy lifting to make Alabaster look more crisp. In other words, it's harder to make near neutrals from Alabaster's own and neighboring hue families work so Alabaster doesn't look muddy. The easier strategy is to choose near neutrals from hue families farther away as illustrated in the above image.

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Reply to: I'm painting my house on alabaster by sherwin williams. I need a trim that goes well with it! There's a trick to creating harmonious color schemes out of just whites and off-whites. Two rules: 1. You can not use two whites that are too close together in terms of hue family. 2. However, the two colors of white can't be too far apart in terms of hue family either. Which means you have to first correctly identify what hue family a color of white belongs to. This is where people get stuck. This is why I'm always insisting that the whole "undertones" thing is not just unfortunate, it's wrong. And this is a good opportunity to demonstrate why and how that is so if you're interested. First, we have to acknowledge that the number of whites from Sherwin-Williams is limited so the pool of not too close yet not too far apart colors of white to choose from to go with Alabaster is going to be small. Next issue is Alabaster belongs to the yellow hue family. It's smack dab in the middle of the yellow hue family. Which means most of the SW whites that look "just white" are not options because they also belong to the yellow hue family and they are too close to Alabaster. For example, SW 7005 Pure White is not a good option with Alabaster because each makes the other look gray and dirty - the result of being too close in hue angle and too close in chroma. (see color wheel) SW 7007 Ceiling Bright White, on the other hand, is too far away from Alabaster. so the color harmony is off and clumsy - it's too green in comparison. Yes, it's green-yellow, not blue. All that means your best choices for a white trim color with Alabaster walls are High Reflective White or Extra White. HRW is the more neutral, or most "just white" looking of the two and will look brighter and crisper. Extra White next to Alabaster will have less contrast and have a softer look.

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