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Originally Posted by }{ead$hot Zod
FL's in general are a crappy light source. They are great for task lighting such as over the sink, outdoor, basement and maybe for some background lighting. But it isn't a "natural" light source. We are use to seeing light as given off by a heat source like the sun. Now you can get great color correct FL's. But, human eyes are more attuned to heat/resistance sources of light.
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I've tried the so-called "daylight" tubes and CFLs; I can't stand them. They only look good if the area in question is very, very brightly lit. The vast majority of spaces I work with and live in are minimally lit - office spaces at work are lit to the minimum recommended levels.
So, to get around that, I fill the fixtures with a mix of "warm white" and "cool white" bulbs. The "cool" is the typical bluish glare you're used to, while "warm" is almost orange. Using both gives a pretty decent coverage of the spectrum. Nobody complains about how flesh tones look and the development department likes how nicely colors pop in their presentations: score! The only really noticeable difference is you can plainly see that there are two different colors of bulb in the fixture.
Regarding "neutral" or "balanced" bulbs, the ones that have a 3500K color temperature: if you concentrate, you can see that their light has a slightly greenish cast. *shudder*
Home Depot has taken to displaying the different colors of CFLs they sell; there is an array of boxes each with a 60w CFL running. Side-by-side, the differences are really obvious. If you're planning on repainting, take your color chips to the array and check the color chip against the kind of light in your home.