Battle Royale

So Karly has talked me into going light and bright for the cavernous, north facing family room, and dark and cozy for the smaller south facing rooms. I'm feeling good about my dark and cozy color picks, but super skittish about picking a white -- the subtle differences are so much harder to see when the color is barely there. That's where you come in. Meet the contenders:

Up first is Sander's first string pick (did I just use a sports metaphor? who the eff am I???): Collector's Item.

Yes, I know. It looks baby pink, which is very unsportsmanlike. On the wall it looks... less baby pink. Jeffrey Bilhuber calls it "almost blush." Ahem.

In the picture it looks straight up white. That's because photos LIE.

Up second is another Sanders pick: Farrow and Ball's White Tie. This is decidedly more yellow in real life, so much so that I wonder why I even bother posting swatches online. This whole process would be a lot easier if y'all could come to my house and look at the stupid paint on the wall already.

Here it is in action:

So, what do you think? I'd say that Collector's Item has a little something more going on, but most of what it has going on is pink. Meanwhile, White Tie is a no fail choice, but is it too country trad?

In case you were wondering (and too damn bad if you weren't), I'm looking at Hague Blue and Pashmina (it really is a gorgeous, complex color) for my other major neutrals. That's right -- I just called Hague Blue a neutral. Because it is. Just ask Tandy -- she has a similar color in her living room.

Haguey hotness.

Ok -- pick a color. Any color.

As long as it is one of the colors I just listed.

My Date With Sanders

I went to visit Sanders yesterday so he could pick the perfect paint color for me, and when I told him I had a north facing, shady room with high ceilings, this is what he chose to go with my flooring sample:

It's called Pashmina, and it's a medium gray/brown. Pretty, but not exactly the white I was hoping for.

Here it is in another room I ran on the color analyzer thingamajig doohickeywopper.

It's nice, right? But maybe too dark? Maybe not?

When I told Sanders I wanted white, he shook his head in the wrong direction... he did give me a few lighter samples, but they all looked like dingy shitballs when I held them up to the walls at New House. Here is the best of the light samples he gave me:

It's called Deep in Thought, and I am deeply thinking it looks better in these rooms than it will in mine.

What do you think? Whiteish or medium greige?

I'm going back to visit Sanders again today, but I'll tell you now that he's pretty much always right.