Truly Taupe

I love paint samples. I could spend hours holding Svelte Sage against Urban Putty, comparing Macadamia with Sea Salt, and nestling Dromedary Camel into Quietude.

I wonder, sometimes, if it stems from my childhood. When I was eight, my mom married a housepainter. I used to hold his colorwheel sample books, riveted at one end, and fan them for endless hours. I still remember the joyful discovery of one beautiful combination after another, and the way my favorite blue-gray looked against ten of its most complimentary peers.

When I worked, more recently, in the prepress department of a commercial printer, I'd sometimes spend my lunch hour in the breakroom comparing CMYK and spot color samples. It was somehow lacking—perhaps because "2583 M" is so much less romantic than Aubergine.


A Sherwin-Williams employee, seeing the difficulty I was having in choosing a blue, recently offered to loan me his colorwheel, a fanning rainbow, to bring home with me. I was thrilled by his offer, but I declined, choosing Open Seas on the spot. Had I borrowed the wheel, I would have enjoyed it. I might have enjoyed it so much that I'd have had trouble resolving to give it back. 

On another related topic, I can't recommend Sherwin-Williams' Harmony paint base highly enough. It has very little odor and no VOCs, and is the only interior paint that I can use without falling ill. I've used it in every room in my house save one, and that one's getting painted this weekend. Painted in Open Seas and Truly Taupe.