Betsy, if you are still looking for the Blue walking iris, they have them at Houston Garden centers. Jim

I've used it and it seems to work fine. What problem are you having with it?

I think with the colors you describe, a pale sky blue with a lot of green in it would be lovely. There is a Duron color called "window pane" - #6210 on their older fan deck - I have used it in several places for other people, and it is a lovely atmospheric watery color that doesn't scream "blue!" - and looks wonderful with cream and peach and buff and tan. I recently used it everywhere in a small west-facing high-rise apartment with a wheat-colored wool sisal carpet, drapery material in peachy-pink cabbage rose-patterned linen with dull olive, taupe, and blue-gray tones on a cream background, a cream slipcovered loveseat, and a taupe, dirty gold and cream silk plaid covered side chair. The client has several pieces of antique furniture in mid to dark tones, plus a Japanned table in black lacquer, and some simple cane accessories. The color created a perfect background, and the place looked fabulous (if I do say so myself!).

kitchendetective -- my hero! Thank you for all those great tips; I appreciate it so much. I'll tell you, I have the two BM books (I never would have thought that two of my most-used books would be of color chips!) and none of them were electric enough, so I'll definitely check out EK and FPE. In a previous house I painted our front door FPE red, and it was about the cheeriest thing I ever did see. It was my v. first painting project but that paint was amazing. Even though I didn't know enough to sand in between coats it still came out beautifully shiny, like a candied apple. I am so exciting about following your tips! ideefixe -- I totally agree about the nature of the material and how best to paint it. This particular set (armchairs / ottoman / side table) is wood and I'm just tired of the wood look. I'm feeling vibrant! I was planning on using an exterior paint, probably semi-gloss. Now that kitchendetective has suggested FPE, I may try to pursue that since I had such good luck with that paint on our front door. Thank you both so v. much!