One House, One Homeowner and More Than 100 Shades of White

As a newbie on my first renovation, I had no idea what I was getting into when the contractor asked for wall color. “White,” I said. “Which one?” he asked.

In the world of paint, there are hundreds of shades of white that differ from one maker to the next, from Benjamin Moore’s Chantilly Lace and Bavarian Cream to Behr’s Swirling Water and Wind’s Breath. How do you make sense of such frothy monikers, and how do you choose?

When I looked blankly (not a color) at the contractor, he suggested Benjamin Moore Decorator’s White for this dark, north-facing living space with Federal-style moldings.

Hue-bris perhaps, but I was skeptical that actual decorators ever choose that shade, doubting that the nuclear tint would contrast nicely with the Super White for trim, which I knew is classic. I wanted the stylish grayish “pop” I’d seen in décor literature and real estate advertisements. I could do better, I thought.

At the hardware store, the paint specialist was on vacation. How hard could it be? I riffled the sample cards of Benjamin Moore’s 152-shade Off White Collection, which accounts for a slight majority of the company’s 50 best-selling colors. Too many options? “Yes, I could see that offering 152 whites sounds excessive,” allows Andrea Magno, the company’s director of color marketing and design. (Home Depot carries 160 different shades of white interior paint.) But, she explains, it’s not overkill when you’re hunting for that specific, special something.

Under the harsh hardware-store lighting, I couldn’t tell anything from the 2-by-2-inch squares on paper strips. I grabbed a bunch, bought some sample cans and headed back to my Manhattan home. What followed, through three projects over six years, is a surprisingly common story: color-induced neurosis afflicting home renovators who think of themselves as otherwise rational beings. Pressure to find the right look for a rental or sale only exacerbates the anxiety.