Ruby Lips

This sits near the floor of the scale, and the pink is the difference between a genuine black and a color that only reads as one. In the PPG lineup this is 1052-7.

LRV 7.0 means it returns almost no light, so whatever lighting the room has is the lighting you will see. Direct light is where the pink actually shows - raking light across the wall, a lamp placed close, morning sun through a nearby window.

This is one of the colors that can change identity with the light - somewhere between red and pink, and near enough to the line between them (8°) that both readings are fair. If the room already has greens in the floor, a rug, or the furniture, this color will fight it rather than sit well beside it - the two sit at opposite ends of the color spectrum, which is exactly why they clash instead of blend.

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. A natural scheme here moves in three clear steps: this color on the main wall, a noticeably lighter mid-tone for a second wall or built-in, and a near-white on the ceiling. Each jump should be obvious at a glance, not something you have to squint to tell apart (roughly 7.0, 46 and 85 on the light-reflectance scale, for reference).

Whole rooms in it work when the room is used mainly after dark and lit warmly rather than relying on daylight. If a second wall color is wanted in the same room, Valspar Autumn Fog keeps the jump obvious rather than muddy (roughly 38.9 LRV points from this one).

A color this deep already reads as dramatic; a low-sheen finish lets the color carry that without competing highlights.

Behr Antique Ruby (S-H-120) runs close enough - delta-E 1.72 - that swapping brands should not change how the room looks. This is a relatively uncrowded spot in the spectrum - just 1 color from other brands come this close.

It is lighter than 4 percent of the PPG range. PPG lists it in the 1000 series, alongside 1,736 other colors.