Thank you! SW Sea Salt currently looks a little dingy/dull in her room, so I'd like something that's similar but maybe a little softer and that's why Pale Powder seemed to fit the bill. And she's 5...so, I will keep it close to what she wants but certainly not deferring entirely to her!

I have 2 gallons of F&B Pale Powder waiting to paint a guest bedroom ... I've been procrastinating on the painting, but plan to do it after guests leave next week!

I've just been testing Pale Power and Teresa's Green in my bedroom. I think I am using Teresa's Green. It's a peaceful color but slightly more saturated than Pale Powder and a really pretty color.

Yes, Teresa's Green was my first choice, but I didn't want to go that dark in my north facing guest room.

Oh my goodness, she’s 5! I’d wait two years until she really has an opinion about what her room looks like…

Have you played with the lighting to see if that makes things look less dingy?

Have you checked the price of Farrow & Ball paint in comparison to SW & BM? F&B is upwards of $120 a gallon. Also your painter has to be experienced with F&B as it is a different type of paint.

A 5 year old may change her mind about the color in a couple of years

If I go with pale powder does it really make a difference to use actual Farrow & Ball or will it make no difference to use a BM or SW color match?

Short Answer - SW has a better than decent shot at making Pale Powder. BenM likely can too.

If you want to do F&B: Modern Emulsion from F&B shows up like a matte to eggshell finish in lower chroma colors like Pale Powder.

That's what I'd use for a kid's room.

As far as crossing brands. Sometimes it works. Sometimes it doesn't.

We know when it's a good idea to go for a color match -- and when it's not.

It all depends on what color you want to match and in what brand.

That's why color matching is not consistently successful.

If the brand you want to use has a similar color, then odds are VERY MUCH in your favor they can mix a match that is more than reasonably good or spot on.

Sherwin can make Pale Powder.

Because they have Pine Frost.

Can test actual Pine Frost to see if it's a decent Pale Powder dupe for you.

Also, Magnolia Home's Emmie's Room is another dupe option.

It's not necessary to understand what these numbers mean.

Compare the L, C and h columns only.

Look for alignment / similarity - that's it.

That's enough to answer the question if SW has a shot at matching Pale Powder.

Note that websites like EasyRGB prioritize alignment in how light/dark a color looks. Hue isn't technically, completely ignored but because of how it works, hue characteristics can drift - sometimes a lot. Which means their suggestions don't always look like great matches.

But at least EasyRGB is "calculating" color matches using a color space that models how humans see color.

Other color websites, including visualizers and palette generators, are essentially "color calculators" that use numbers meant for robot and computer applications, not people.

When you compare the L, C and h color descriptions below - and because you're a human, not an algorithm - you're comparing a digital description of what paint colors look like to people.

Here are all the matches for Pale Powder. I think the brands are listed as the closet matcch first. So, Behr.

https://www.matchmypaintcolor.com/farrow-ball/pale-powder-204#google_vignette

The best part is no one has to listen to, or believe some random lady on a public forum who says all of those paint color websites exist to house ads and affiliate links.

And because paint chips are free, it's easy to prove said random lady wrong.

Go get the chips and see for yourself.

matchmypaintcolor is one of the websites that uses the wrong numbers and then contorts them into results they - by their own contorted processes and standards - qualify as "matches". Plan home is another. Again, there are several.

None of them disclose where their data values came from - with EasyRGB we at least know they have a lab and measure colors with industry standard instruments. I personally sent them many of the American paint brands they have in their database.

What makes a website credible is disclosure.

Where did their color data come from - was it measured, or downloaded from a free resource and converted from one format to another, etc.?

What's the illuminant and observer standard for their color definitions and descriptions?

How are they qualifying and ranking matches?

If we look at the 6 suggestions from matchmypaintcolor, and assume they are ranked from best to worst, their #1 pick isn't even in the same hue family as Pale Powder; BEHR's Brook Green is the worst option out of the six they recommend.

The best across all 3 dimension of Lightness, Chroma and Hue (factual color appearance definition) is Pine Frost. matchmypaintcolor ranked it 5th.

Those results indicate matchmypaintcolors' process has issues.