October Leaves

The kind of dark where most people would just call it black without looking twice, though the red is there for anyone who does. Behr catalogs it as October Leaves, S210-7.

At LRV 12.0 the walls stop contributing light altogether and the lamps have to do the work. Under warm light it softens; under daylight bulbs it goes hard and flat, with the red only really visible in the warmer of the two.

In warm light this stays orange; under cooler, daylight-style bulbs it can slide toward red. It's close enough to that edge that a sample is worth checking in the room's own lighting, not under a store's. This color and blues and cool greys don't get along in the same room - they sit on opposite sides of the spectrum, so pairing them tends to feel like tension rather than contrast.

Wood tones next to this read darker and richer than they do against a paler wall; it is one of the more dependable effects of putting a light-absorbing color next to anything reflective. If the room needs more than one wall color, keep the steps far apart: this color, then something clearly lighter for a second surface, then a bright white above. Two similar tones just look like a mismatch; three distinct ones read as a plan (about 12.0 to 49 to 85 in LRV terms).

A single accent wall opposite the main window lets daylight hit it directly, which is where a color this dark actually shows its undertone. Valspar Voyage makes a good second wall color here - different enough to read as a real choice, close enough to still feel related (about 35.4 points apart in light reflectance).

Eggshell can work if the wall is in excellent condition, but matte is the more forgiving default for a color at the bottom of the scale.

Switching brands, Dunn-Edwards Red Hook (DE6091) is the closest equivalent at delta-E 1.78, near enough for most rooms. Only 1 other-brand color land within delta-E 2 of this one, which makes it comparatively unusual.

It is lighter than 11 percent of the Behr range. This is a crowded part of the scale - 368 colors measure within a point of 12.0 - so most brands will have something close. Behr lists it in the S codes, alongside 471 other colors.