All would be right with the world. He wouldn’t be perfect, what boy is or girl is? Yet even when there are failed attempts at pleasing me, as certainly there must be in any relationship, he’s still perfect in my eyes. So, I bet you are just dying to know what Ben did to displease me. It was the Acadia White, a perfect match to my Farrow & Ball Lotus Wallpaper’s base color.
Looking for a perfect match to the base . Acadia White.
Just goes to show you that perfect matches on paper can’t account for chemistry, and me and Acadia had none. It was awful. It was yellow. A color that I deem weak, and dingy despite most people’s warm and happy thoughts, laced with memories of uncomplicated times. I like color to have an opinion, and to my mind, yellow does not. It’s waiting for the baby to arrive, and whatever sex comes out will like this buttercup of a shade just fine. To that I say, what about gray?
The trouble with “white” is that it’s not, and when it is, boy is it white and bright. As a side note the two whites that are my go-to’s and really never fail me, are Chantilly Lace (a true, pure white) which I use in high gloss for the base, casings, and moldings throughout. The second white is Decorator’s White. This is a tad softer, and looks lovely on the walls in an eggshell finish. It is a true white without feeling clinical or jarring, which is what you would get if you put Chantilly lace on the walls – too much.
Left: Benjamin Chantilly Lace. Right: Benjamin Moore’s Decorators White.
So having a sense of the what qualities in your man you like, or your paint as the case may be, is as important to falling in love, as choosing your career. Start here, and your chances of making a good match increase. I didn’t listen to my gut when I allowed the match maker to swipe her wand over the Farrow & Ball Swatch, and look what I got. A whole living room and dining room of disappointment. Sometimes during construction my sixth sense for solving design riddles goes wonky. When I’ve moved into the zone, when I cannot find one decent outfit or a single clean pair of skivvies (if you don’t know what these are, I will not be the person to tell you). When I shower without a curtain, and shuffle through the sawdust in search of my shoes-well-you can understand how my instincts might get out of whack. I am sleeping in my own bed – which new readers you do not yet know – is my sanctuary. It keeps me from committing criminal acts during these trying times.
Benjamin Moore’s Sand Dollar ….. love.
No use crying over the wrong color. Back to the store. Sample some more. In all I did a dozen different colors. C’est normal. That’s about what it takes to get it right. Still, I did not feel at all certain about the selection. Like a guy or gal that picks a wine based on the label, I picked the color…gasp, because I liked the name! It’s true. I did it. I liked the sound of Sand Dollar. What a beautifully Cape Cod name for a paint. What a happy and calming image it brings forth in my mind’s eye. What a beautifully peachy, pink with a hint of cream….Sand Dollar OC-71.
Ben Moore…J’adore. In this month of love, I ask with wholehearted sincerity, “will you be my valentine?”