Alabaster
Sherwin-Williams · SW 7008
Undertone: Soft warm, a trace of yellow-beige
North-facingEast-facingLow light
Any color.
Including one you bring us.
There is no such thing as a color we cannot get. What follows is help choosing one — and what to do when the color you want does not exist on anybody's card.
Olmos Painting will mix any color from any brand, and will custom-match a physical sample you bring us: a cabinet door, a piece of trim, a chip of old siding, a fabric swatch. Matching is done on a spectrophotometer and then hand-tuned by eye, because a machine reading a sun-faded surface returns the faded color rather than the original. Color consultation is included in the free estimate, with large-format samples brought to your own wall.
How it works
Four things worth knowing before you pick.
Any color, any brand
Sherwin-Williams, Benjamin Moore, Behr, Farrow & Ball, a fan deck you already own, a code off the back of a chip. If it is a color, it can be mixed. Nothing on this page is a menu of what is available.
Or something you bring us
A cabinet door, a piece of trim, a chunk of the old siding, a scrap of fabric, a tile. We take it to the counter and match it on a spectrophotometer, then hand-tune it by eye, because a machine match of a faded color returns the faded color rather than the original.
Matching what is already there
Repainting one wall, one room, or one section of siding means matching a color that has been on the house for years and has moved. We match to the surface as it exists now, not to whatever the can said in 2011.
Large samples, on your wall
Color consultation is part of the estimate, not a separate fee. We bring big samples and put them on your actual wall, in your actual light, at the hour you actually use the room. A two-inch chip surrounded by your old color tells you almost nothing.
A place to start
17 colors that behave well here.
Not a menu — a shortlist. These are the ones we have watched hold up through a Wisconsin winter without turning cold or muddy, filtered by which way your room faces, with LRV on every card because that number predicts how a color behaves in a dark room far better than the swatch does.
On-screen colors are layout references only. No backlit screen matches a painted wall, so sample large before you commit.
LRV 82
Chantilly Lace
Benjamin Moore · OC-65
Undertone: Clean and nearly neutral, very slightly cool
South-facingWest-facing
White Dove
Benjamin Moore · OC-17
Undertone: Warm, gentle, a whisper of gray to keep it honest
North-facingEast-facingSouth-facingLow light
Agreeable Gray
Sherwin-Williams · SW 7029
Undertone: Greige, warm-leaning, a touch of green in some light
North-facingSouth-facingEast-facingWest-facing
Accessible Beige
Sherwin-Williams · SW 7036
Undertone: Warm beige with a grounding gray
North-facingEast-facingLow light
Repose Gray
Sherwin-Williams · SW 7015
Undertone: Cool-neutral gray with a faint purple in low light
South-facingWest-facing
Revere Pewter
Benjamin Moore · HC-172
Undertone: Greige with a distinct green cast
North-facingEast-facingSouth-facing
Edgecomb Gray
Benjamin Moore · HC-173
Undertone: Soft warm greige, lighter and gentler than Revere Pewter
North-facingLow lightEast-facing
Evergreen Fog
Sherwin-Williams · SW 9130
Undertone: Muted sage, gray-green, quietly warm
North-facingSouth-facingEast-facingWest-facing
Pewter Green
Sherwin-Williams · SW 6208
Undertone: Deep forest green with substantial gray
South-facingWest-facingNorth-facing
Hale Navy
Benjamin Moore · HC-154
Undertone: Navy with a soft gray, never electric
South-facingWest-facing
Naval
Sherwin-Williams · SW 6244
Undertone: Deep saturated navy, slightly cooler than Hale Navy
South-facingWest-facing
Urbane Bronze
Sherwin-Williams · SW 7048
Undertone: Warm dark greige, brown-gray, never black
South-facingWest-facingNorth-facing
Kendall Charcoal
Benjamin Moore · HC-166
Undertone: Charcoal with warm green-gray
South-facingWest-facing
Tricorn Black
Sherwin-Williams · SW 6258
Undertone: True neutral black with no color cast
South-facingWest-facingNorth-facingEast-facing
Sea Salt
Sherwin-Williams · SW 6204
Undertone: Shifts between green, blue, and gray depending on light
East-facingSouth-facingNorth-facing
Cavern Clay
Sherwin-Williams · SW 7701
Undertone: Terracotta with real earth pigment warmth
North-facingEast-facingLow light
Wisconsin light
Five things about the light here that change what you should pick.
Madison is overcast most days from November through March, and that flat, cool light finds any cool undertone in a paint and amplifies it. It is the actual reason so many people repaint a gray they chose in September.
We are overcast more often than not for five months
From November through March, Madison spends the majority of daylight hours under cloud. Overcast light is diffuse and cool-toned, and it strips the warmth out of everything it touches. This is the specific reason so many Madison homeowners repaint a gray they chose in September: it did not change, the light did. If a color has any cool undertone at all, our winter will find it and amplify it.
A north-facing room in Wisconsin never gets direct sun
Not in winter, not in summer, not ever. Every bit of light in that room has bounced off the sky or off something outside the window, which means it arrives cool and slightly blue. Cool paint colors compound this and the room reads as cold and slightly gray no matter how many lamps you add. In north rooms we specify warm neutrals with an LRV above 55, nearly without exception.
LRV predicts how a color will behave. The chip does not
Light Reflectance Value runs from 0 to 100 and tells you how much light a color returns to the room. Under 25 is a dark color that will absorb the light you have. Between 55 and 70 is the working range for most Wisconsin living spaces. Above 80 is a white. Two colors that look nearly identical on a chip can differ by fifteen LRV points, and in a north-facing Madison room in January that difference is the difference between cozy and grim.
Sample on two walls, and look at it at four in the afternoon
Paint a two-foot square on the wall that gets the most light and on the wall that gets the least, and leave it up for at least three days. Then look at it at four in the afternoon in whatever season you are in, because that is the hour when a room's light is at its weakest and least flattering. A color that still works at four in the afternoon in February works everywhere. We bring large samples to every color consultation for exactly this reason.
Your bulbs are half the answer
For five months of the year you are looking at these walls under artificial light more than daylight. A 2700K bulb is warm and will push a beige toward yellow. A 4000K bulb is neutral-cool and will pull the warmth out of the same beige. Before repainting a room you think reads wrong, try changing the bulbs. It costs twelve dollars and it solves the problem more often than people expect.
Sheen
The second question, answered.
There is only one tradeoff and it never changes: more sheen means more durability and more mercilessly revealed flaws. Every recommendation below is a position on that single spectrum.
Flat / Matte
Lowest durabilityCeilings, and adult bedrooms and living rooms with low traffic
Hides surface imperfection better than anything else. In an older Madison home with plaster waves, flat is not a compromise, it is the correct choice.
Eggshell
Moderate durabilityMost walls, most rooms
The default for a reason. Enough sheen to wipe, little enough to forgive. Nearly every wall we paint in Dane County is eggshell.
Satin
High durabilityKitchens, bathrooms, hallways, kids' rooms, cabinets
Handles moisture and cleaning. It also shows every roller mark and wall flaw, so it demands better prep than eggshell.
Semi-gloss
Very high durabilityTrim, doors, window sash
Hard, washable, and it creates the crisp visual line between trim and wall that makes a room look finished.
High-gloss
Highest durabilityFront doors, accent millwork, very occasionally cabinets
Dramatic and absolutely unforgiving. Every substrate imperfection is magnified, so the prep cost is significantly higher.
Color consultation
We bring the big samples.
Color consultation is part of our estimate, not a separate fee. We bring large-format samples and look at them on your actual wall, in your actual light, at the hour you actually use the room.
A two-inch chip surrounded by your old color tells you almost nothing, and a screen tells you less than that. Every color on this page is rendered as an approximation for layout only. No backlit display has ever matched a painted wall.
Questions
Color, answered.
Can you match a color I already have?
Yes. Bring us the thing itself — a cabinet door, a piece of trim, a chip of the old siding, a fabric swatch, even a tile — and we match it at the counter and then hand-tune it by eye. That last step matters: a machine reading a sun-faded color returns the faded color, not the original, so somebody has to look at it.
Do I have to pick from your colors?
No. Any color from any brand can be mixed, and the shortlist on this page exists only because many people find a curated forty easier than an unlimited palette. If you arrive with a color already chosen, we will tell you honestly how it will behave in that particular room and then paint it.
Do you offer color consultation?
Yes, and it is part of the estimate rather than a separate fee. We bring large-format samples and look at them on your actual wall, in your actual light, at the hour you actually use the room. Screens and small chips both lie, and a two-inch square surrounded by your old color tells you almost nothing.
What are the best paint colors for north-facing rooms in Wisconsin?
Warm neutrals with a Light Reflectance Value above 55. Accessible Beige at LRV 58 and Edgecomb Gray at LRV 63 are the two we specify most. A north-facing room here never receives direct sun, so all of its light arrives cool and bounced off the sky, and a cool paint color compounds that into a room that feels cold from November through March.
What is LRV and why does it matter more than the color chip?
Light Reflectance Value runs from 0 for absolute black to 100 for pure white, and it measures how much light a color returns to the room. Manufacturers publish it, usually in small type on the back of the chip. Two colors that look nearly identical on a card can be fifteen LRV points apart, and in a dark Wisconsin room in January that difference is the difference between cozy and grim.
Why did my gray look different once it was on the wall?
Usually one of three reasons. The sample patch was too small and was influenced by the surrounding color. You judged it under different light than the room actually receives. Or you chose it in summer and are now seeing it under winter overcast, which strips warmth out of everything and amplifies any cool undertone the color carries.
How should I sample a paint color?
Paint a two-foot square on the wall that gets the most light and on the wall that gets the least, and leave both up for at least three days. Then judge them at four in the afternoon, which is when the light is weakest and least flattering. A color that still works at four in the afternoon in February works everywhere.