I just learned about LRVs. Their LRVs are the same (74) so they have the same brightness. I think Polar Bear looks more brown and Muslin more yellow, but oh so slightly! They are both warm but I suppose Polar Bear is a bit cooler due to the greyish brown in it. If your items (flooring and furniture) are more grey choose polar bear. If they are brown, you can't go wrong.

Here is an LRV (Light Reflective Value) picture:

The two colors are very similar - If you painted two different rooms using Polar Bear in one room and Muslin in the other people would think you painted them the same color.

A delta variance of 1 is needed for most people to be able to detect a difference in color. This has a delta variance of 1.2

The LCH values that I shared show that on a scale of 0-100 the Luminance (how light or dark a color is) is almost identical with muslin being just a fraction lighter. Chroma measures how gray or how colorful a color is. Technically Chroma does not have an upper limit, but the highest chroma of any SW or BM paint color is BM Bright Yellow with a chroma of 88. Polar Bear has a chroma of 11 white Muslin is slightly more colorful with a Chroma of 12.

Hue is the placement of the color on the color wheel with 360 degrees. Both colors fall in the middle of the Yellow Hue family with Polar Bear being 3 degrees closer to yellow green than Muslin and Muslin being 3 degrees closer to Orange than Polar Bear.

Jennifer that was an awesome post and so helpful - thank you!

Polar Bear is a true white (or very close to it), while Muslin is distinctly beige/tan.

In a room, Muslin will warm things up and soften the feel, whereas Polar Bear will keep things feeling light and crisp.

I now have proper test sections of Polar Bear on several walls. (I had tested Muslin a few months ago before I learned how to properly test samples, so I need to buy another test pot of that one.) Based on this thread and what I'm seeing, I'm coming to the conclusion that Polar Bear is cooler, greener, and reads as lighter/fresher, even though they have the same LRV. Muslin is warmer and reads as slightly darker. I think we might like the Polar Bear better as a wall color, but the Muslin will work better with our flooring...

The image in celerygrils's post didn't post properly- so hopefully this posts. Honestly, this is one of the closest color matches I've seen. I can see a difference, but ever so slight.

Just when I think I can describe the difference, I take another look and think the opposite. At first I do think Polar Bear is warmer, but then I see more gray.

?

I always caution against analyzing colors from computer monitors. But this discussion really emphasizes the problem with doing so.

In plaidpine's post from yesterday both colors look almost white, but in Jennifer Hogan's and Lori's posts they both look beige, and in Celery's one looks beige and the other looks white!

There's just no shortcut when choosing colors--you need to see them in your own home in your own light.

So true. Online color is unpredictable. We get our data from the paint manufacturers to keep things as consistent as possible, but how swatches appear still varies from device to device.

If you buy a can of SW Polar Bear at one SW store and later in the day decide to get another can of Polar Bear at a different store, you may end up with as much difference between these two cans of paint as from these two colors.

Not every machine is calibrated identically and there can be differences, sometimes noticeable differences in the colors if you are looking at them side by side. This is why painters box paint (mix all the gallons together in one larger container).

Color can also change if you buy one gallon this month and next month decide to get a gallon from the same store as last month, but they may have bought new pigment and each batch can be ever so slightly different.

The color won't be identical if you buy different base paint (have it mixed in Emerald and SuperPaint or Cashmere or Duration) Each will be a slightly different color.

Color on your wall will look different if you have your walls sprayed than if the paint is rolled. Humidity and temperature can make the paint dry at different rates and that can impact the final color.

The color will change over time as well. If you ever try to touch up a spot on a wall that was painted 3 years ago you will find that the paint in the can no longer matches perfectly to the paint on the wall. Sometimes you can feather the edges but often end up repainting the whole wall.

I have a collection of Samplize samples and for a few colors I have duplicates. I have two samples of Gossamer Veil ordered about 6 months apart and they are not identical. I can see that one is lighter and grayer than the other when they are side by side. The can of paint that a client buys is going to be close enough that their satisfaction with the paint color choice isn't going to be impacted.

Very few things in life are perfect. Paint color certainly is not a perfect science.

Here is a page from easyrgb.com. They measure colors from the various paint manufacturers fan decks. Note how the color Lancaster Whitewash was picked as a similar color to Polar Bear 4 time with 4 different readings. All close, but different enough that the computer doesn't merge the records. All 4 are representing the same color.

If you told your husband that you wanted Polar Bear, but he actually thought that Muslin was the better choice, went and bought Muslin and painted the room while you were away on vacation and told you he painted it with Polar Bear you would be happy with the color until you caught him in the lie. Then you would hate it.

Pick one, move on with your life. There is no right or wrong answer.

Another great post Jennifer, love it haha! And I know you're right!

By nature, I am a perfectionist and had to work hard to retrain my brain to accept that perfection is often the enemy of good. I can still fall back on my perfectionist ways at times and need someone to remind me that I need to accept good enough.

Oh do I relate to that Jennifer, big time. Except I am still working on retraining my brain.

My kitchen cabinets have a very yellowish cast to them. Which color would be a better choice? We have distressed oak floors. I am trying to tone-down the yellow in the cabinets.

@depbkieffer - color is never a seen independently, it is a combination of everything in the room. If your flooring is gray and your cabinets are creamy the yellow is going to be more noticeable. We need to see pictures of the entire space and you should probably make it your own post.