I have worked with paint and color for most of my life and you would think choosing a color for our walls wouldn’t be so difficult. We are choosing a white and I pictured picking up a few paint chips to try, maybe an eggshell, cream or the ever-popular off-white, but the paint chart has 56 different shades of white. They begin with cool whites and move to warm whites and I am totally influenced by the name of the paint. How can I ignore Casa Blanca, Alabaster, Steamed Milk or Medici Ivory and choose Reliable White or Modest White. I can’t do it.

We are stuck between Downy, Marshmallow and White Duck. I have looked at them in sun, shade and in the bathroom. I put them next to the wood trim and other whites in our house. If you took them off the page and asked someone what color it was they would say. “White”.

Who could overlook Fragile Beauty, Maison Blanche or Greek Villa? Will I feel better if we choose Restful White or cooler with Windfresh White?

Such problems, but given the world today, spending time talking and thinking about color or absence of color, I would wish these kinds of problems on everyone.

We had poetry book when I was little called Hailstones and Halibut Bones and I loved reading what each color felt like and the mood they could create. Thank you Mary O’Neil

 

What Is White?

White is a dove and lily of the valley

and a puddle of milk spilled in an alley — —

a ship’s sail, a kite’s tail, a wedding veil

Hailstones and halibut bones

and some people’s telephones.

The hottest and most blinding light is white.

And breath is white

when you blow it out on a frosty night.

White is the shining absence of all color

then absence is white, out of touch, out of sight.

White is marshmallow and vanilla ice cream

and the part you can’t remember in a dream.

White is the sound of a light foot walking

White is the beautiful broken lace

of snowflakes falling on your face.

You can smell white in a country room

toward the end of May in the cherry bloom.