Apricot Honey

This is a color that decides the room rather than supporting it. Valspar's designation for it is 2006-3C.

Chroma 38.8 is high enough that the color will bounce onto light surfaces, so expect it everywhere, not only on the wall. Ideal for a single accent wall or a small room where you want to commit.

Warm bulbs make it warmer still; daylight bulbs cool it back toward neutral. LRV 49.4 tells you how much light comes back, which matters less here than how much color comes with it.

This color sits right on the line between orange and red - cooler light nudges it toward red, warmer light keeps it in orange (about 7° apart on the color wheel, for anyone measuring). Rooms already built around blues and cool greys are the hardest fit for this color - the two are opposites, and opposites next to each other rarely feel calm.

Warm metals - brass, aged gold, unlacquered fixtures - gain a contrast against this that they do not have against a lighter wall; it is a common reason people choose a color this deep in the first place. For layering, pair this with a clearly lighter mid-tone on a secondary wall or cabinetry, and keep the ceiling close to white. The gap between each step should be big enough to see without thinking about it (roughly 49.4 / 67 / 85 on the reflectance scale).

Dunn-Edwards Clear Vision pairs well as a second surface - close enough in feel to belong in the same room, far enough in lightness to read as two distinct walls (about 36.6 points apart on the reflectance scale). Matte suits a color this strong - a glossier sheen would turn every light source in the room into a visible hotspot on the wall.

PPG Orange Liqueur (1198-4) runs close enough - delta-E 1.87 - 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 56 percent of the Valspar range. Light reflectance this exact is unusual: 3 colors in the whole catalog measure within a point of 49.4. Valspar lists it in the 2000 series, alongside 269 other colors.