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Modern White recommendations

We are painting our north-facing foyer and hallway and need help on a Sherwin Williams color. We do have two large windows but light is still moderate and only intermittent recessed ceiling lighting. Orangey yellow 90s oak floors. We are going to fit the stairwell to something more neutral like black balusters and white headers so I’m not concerned about that right now. I have tons of the little rectangles and plan to get the tape-up large square samples when we narrow down but figure someone could help me out here as well. I love Eider White bc of its fresh modern look without any yellow and some grey but still warm, but am so scared about the pink undertones bc of what people are saying online and a few photos I’ve seen online. We have repose gray in the family and dining room and oyster bay in the adjacent laundry and living room. It is not an open floor plan but these walls are visible through opened doorways. Thanks again!

Comments (8)

  • PRO
    4 years ago

    IMO you first make sure your lighting is all the same and IMO LED 4000K bulbs. As for which white your furniture , flooring have a huge influence on colors you choose. and whatever you choose needs to work with the other walls you see. The best is to choose a max of 3 whites you like then get sample pots , some poster boards and paint 2 coats on the boards and move them around in the spaces you want to apint at all times of the day. The larger the boards the better ,

  • 4 years ago
    last modified: 4 years ago

    Even without an open floorplan do you really want to have every room a different color? Usually you choose a main neutral. You can do one room a bit lighter or darker, but the same color.

    Another issue is that whites have a harder time reflecting light and looking pretty in a room that gets limited light.

    Have you considered just staying with the Repose Gray throughout the main areas of the home and using other colors that work well with the Repose Gray in the bedrooms and bathrooms?

    If you want something lighter I would test Gray Heron and Winter Walk, and if you must do white I would pick Origami White over Eider White.

    I usually limit my color palettes to 5-7 wall/trim colors (one white, one or two shades of my neutral and 2-4 wall colors based on the number of rooms and layout.




    I like Eider White, but it feels off next to Repose Gray.

    The hue is 84 compared to a hue of 96 for Repose Gray. 90 is yellow, so 84 would be yellow that is leaning toward orange and 96 is yellow that is leaning toward green.


  • 4 years ago

    Thank you, this is really helpful info from both of you! I would have liked to use the same color in foyer and family/kitchen/dining but we liked the repose when we put it in the south-facing areas of the house two years ago, and left the foyer to paint later on. I tried our wall swatch in the foyer recently and it it way too dark :-(. That is a good point about the repose-maybe I could try a lightened swatch of it. I am going to look into the other colors that you recommended. Can you explain what the L, C, and H stand for above? I want to learn more about the chart you posted above as I am an amateur to the color charts. Thank you again!

  • 4 years ago

    LCH correlates to how the human eye receives color.


    L= Light - How light or dark a color is

    C= Chroma - How colorful a color is (gray vs fully saturated)

    H= Hue - the color position on a 365 degree circle.


    I have a couple of pictures on a different computer that I will post later today that will give you a visual image of LCH


  • 4 years ago

    LCH is actual measurements of light waves reflected off a color surface.


    Human perception of color is based partially on the light waves hitting our retinas plus our brains interpretation of the color - the first part is easy - measurable, the second part is the unknown where 2 people will see the same color differently, the same person will see the same color differently due to the colors around the color or will see the same color differently based on their mood (feeling blue) - dopamine makes us see color more vividly - when we are depressed we see less color - more gray. Seeing a color that reminds us of happy memories increases dopamine production! Our brains are incredibly complex.


  • 4 years ago

    You can look up the LCH on any color using EasyRGB.com. Use match to get to the color you want. RIght click on the color and pick convert. It converts the paint color to a dozen different color measurements - I collect RGB and LCH for colors in my database.


  • 4 years ago

    Here is the visual - Chroma it the column index , Hue is the row index, light was maintained at 83


  • 4 years ago

    Thank you, this is very helpful!