Another crayon in the box

Roy knows how unsure I've felt about the soffit color -- it's Behr's "Desert Lily," which looks great in the green baths and on the upstairs drywall, but I've been iffy about it against bold yellow, and especially on the "frame" of the pineapple railings on the loft.

At best, I thought it might almost read white and fade away in a best-supporting-actor way. So this morning we whipped up a can of courage and painted the soffit facing the front door in it. And it read . . . like nothing at all. Not white. Not yellow. No soul. No nada.

I immediately did the stations of the cross: Sherwin-Williams, Benjamin Moore and Behr, fabric samples in hand. I put some Cuban music on the CD, to remind me of the sound I wanted to see -- between the ceiling and the walls, literally and figuratively.

A few hours later, I walked back into the house with a chip (OK, 15 or 20, but I really liked one in particular) and sought Roy's advice.

"Ah, mango!," he said right off. He loved it. So did Arnold, who called it perfect. I call it Dusky Dreamsicle. Sherwin-Williams calls it Mandarin. You'll find it or its mood somewhere in the picture above, which is a plant outside St. Peter's up the street.

We're going to see how a test patch looks in place. It's by no means exact, but click here to get another taste of the flavor.