Paint Chip Peccadillo

Used to be the color white was just …white. In a world that insists on giving me more choices than I can handle, Basic White has been joined by Cottage White, White Truffle, Vermont Cream, Clear Moon, Snowy Egret, Cotton Whisper and Angel Food, just to name a few.

Honestly? I can not see the difference between some of these colors. One paint chip looks as white as the other. I wonder if perhaps they are the same color assigned multiple names, because no matter how good the marketing, it all comes down to customer choice. And there are days I would choose, hands down, Angel Food over Cottage White.

I’ve collected a stack of Behr paint chips from the local big box. I love the way this paint spreads so when a project looms, I dutifully stand at the Color Center altar and contemplate the colors before me in relation to the vision in my head. Then I start pulling chips.

The latest project had its beginnings last fall. The exterior doors – front and back – needed painting. I brought home paint chips that all looked pretty much the same and held them against the newly installed portals to see which matched. Then for one reason or another, the paint never got bought and the project languished.

Until this past weekend.

Finally, the planets aligned and offered me good weather and time on the same day. In my rush to get errands done, I left the house without my paint chip, but I was positive the name of it was Polar White. The nice man at the Big Box assured me he could create the paint without the chip. With the magic of his computer, he looked up the name and mixed my paint. While the can was on the shaking machine (the industry must have a better name for it), something in our conversation made him go to the Color Center and pull the paint chip for me.

Pale Blue. Polar White is pale, pale blue.

And that does not match the white door frames or gray siding of my house. A white that isn’t even white.

Seeing the horror on my face, the nice man told me not to worry and to go home and get my paint chip. Thankfully, there is an OOPS shelf for paint mixing errors.

I left the store upset that I had remembered incorrectly, cost the store a quart of paint, put myself behind schedule because now I would have to go back to the store and, in general, feeling just plain stupid. Oh, and when I got to my car I realized I’d taken the paint stick with me – for the paint I didn’t purchase. Sheesh!

I couldn’t get back to the store until the following morning. This time I had my chip in my hot little hands. I got my quart of primer and paint all in one can, and painted both doors with two coats. They are lovely. They match the trim perfectly. I admire them each time I make an entrance.

Oh, the name of the color white I chose?

Gallery White.

I know. How embarrassing. Can’t tell you where Polar White came from. Perhaps the Behr logo, that little bear in the corner of the paint chip, muddled me up. Anyway, thats my story and I’m sticking to it!