When Fusion surprised us all with 11 new colors, I was most surprised by the fact that one of them was another white (or off-white as they describe it). By looking at the jar, both in pictures and in person, it looks like a more traditional white. And that fact started spurring questions on social media of how it compares the the standard white, Casement.
It didn’t help that Fusion’s own comparison paddle showed it in-between Lamp White and Raw Silk. I do think it is glaringly obvious that it is not a standard bright white, but sandwiching it between a cool light gray and a taupey off-white didn’t do it any favors in my opinion. What we really need is a side-by-side comparison with the true whites to see its real color.
I decided to paint a cabinet door and split it between three colors: Casement, Victorian Lace and Picket Fence. Sandwiching the new color between the two brightest whites should give us a pretty good idea of its true color.
To prep the raw oak wood door, I did one coat of Fusion Transition as a base. This served a couple of purposes. First, it put a coat of wet paint on the raw wood, raising the grain so that I could sand it smooth again. Since this was for display purposes only, I did a very quick, very light sanding just to knock the “fuzz” off. The second reason is to give an extra layer of paint for the whites to hide the color of the oak underneath. Whites are not great cover colors, and Casement is the least opaque of the three.
I then taped the door in thirds so I could paint the outer colors first. Three coats of each were put on top of the Transition base, so there is a total of 4 layers of paint for each color. Casement is on the left and Picket Fence is on the right. Once the outer colors were painted, I re-taped and painted Victorian Lace in the center.
The first picture was taken outside in indirect natural light, and is not color-corrected. As we can see, Victorian Lace is not a true white, but is more of a cool off-white. This is the color slot that Lamp White has always occupied, but it is a harsher grayish-white than Victorian Lace, as you can see on the painted paddle above.
The second picture is taken in under our bright daylight LED studio lights. The natural light in the first picture tended to wash out the color just a bit, whereas the indoor lighting really enhances its color tone.
This little exercise has also allowed us to truly see Picket Fence and Casement with a nice, neutral color between them. When they are side-by-side, it can be hard to make a decision between the two because they are so similar. Sure, Picket Fence is slightly warmer and brighter, but it can be hard to translate that to your home in your light with your decor and color scheme. I hope this helps!
If there are any other color comparisons you’d like to see, leave me a comment below or get in touch via Instagram or Facebook!
-Mike
I have 4 lamp White in my cart, but after seeing your comparison it appears that Victorian Lace is a softer grey/white. Would you agree?
Yes, it is not as “sharp” as Lamp White. And not quite as cool, either. A nice soft Gray.
If you were trying to neutralize/slightly cover (with a paler wash) a golden colored paint that also had a pattern in it, would the color become too muddy if you used Victorian Lace rather than Casement? Going towards a soft grey would be desirable, if becoming muddy isn’t the outcome…
I am not sure that you could answer that question without trial and error. I think Victorian Lace would make a lovely whitewashing color, if a truer white was too bright for your needs.
Thank you for answering the exact question I had been asking in one of the f/book groups!