Blue Suede Shoes

A mid-weight blue. Vista Paint catalogs it as Blue Suede Shoes, 7366.

Light reflectance measures 14.0, which is enough to keep a room bright without bouncing light around. A chroma of 16.2 is enough to register as a real color choice, without the intensity that would force the rest of a room to match it.

A reasonable choice for a room that needs to feel grounded without going as dark as a true accent color. Warm bulbs will soften it; daylight bulbs push it further cool. Sherwin-Williams Essential Gray makes a good second wall color here - different enough to read as a real choice, close enough to still feel related (about 34.4 points apart in light reflectance).

This color and oranges and warm terracotta 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 14.0 to 50 to 85 in LRV terms).

For anyone tied to a different brand, Sherwin-Williams Inky Blue (SW 9149) is the nearest stand-in, at a delta-E of 1.97. 3 other-brand colors land within delta-E 2 of this one - a well-populated part of the spectrum with several near-equivalents to choose from. Eggshell is a common middle ground here - enough durability for a lived-in room without the sheen that would draw attention to wall imperfections.

It is lighter than 11 percent of the Vista Paint range. This is a crowded part of the scale - 310 colors measure within a point of 14.0 - so most brands will have something close. The name is not unique: Benjamin Moore 798 and Dunn-Edwards DEA190 also sell a color called Blue Suede Shoes, and it is not the same shade. Vista Paint lists it in the K codes, alongside 1,318 other colors.