Bistro Brown

This sits near the floor of the scale, and the red undertone is the difference between a genuine black and a color that only reads as one. In the Vista Paint lineup this is 8645.

LRV 9.0 is about as dark as the scale goes, which means every lumen in the room has to come from somewhere other than the walls. Direct light is where the red undertone actually shows - raking light across the wall, a lamp placed close, morning sun through a nearby window.

If the room already has blues and cool greys 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.

Anything pale placed against this wall will look paler than it is; anything warm-metal will look warmer. Neither is an illusion the color plays deliberately - it is simple contrast, but worth planning rather than discovering. 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 9.0, 47 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, Behr Tin Foil keeps the jump obvious rather than muddy (roughly 34 LRV points from this one).

Higher-sheen finishes will bounce highlights across a wall this dark, which can read as patchy rather than deliberate - matte avoids that.

For anyone tied to a different brand, PPG Caramelized Walnut (1074-6) is the nearest stand-in, at a delta-E of 1.08. This is not a rare shade: 3 colors from other brands sit within delta-E 2 of it.

It is lighter than 4 percent of the Vista Paint range. This is a crowded part of the scale - 442 colors measure within a point of 9.0 - so most brands will have something close. Vista Paint lists it in the K codes, alongside 1,318 other colors.