Chuckles

Strong enough that it sets the palette for the room, not the other way around. 1089 in the Vista Paint range.

Chroma 52.9 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.

In a room that gets little direct sun, this color's warmth does some of the work daylight would otherwise be doing. LRV 17.0 tells you how much light comes back, which matters less here than how much color comes with it.

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.

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. 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 17.0 / 51 / 85 on the reflectance scale).

Dunn-Edwards Shark 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 52 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.

For anyone tied to a different brand, Behr Intrigue (P160-6) is the nearest stand-in, at a delta-E of 1.04. This is a relatively uncrowded spot in the spectrum - just 2 colors from other brands come this close.

It is lighter than 15 percent of the Vista Paint range. Among reds it is one of the strongest: only 4 percent of them carry more colour. Vista Paint lists it in the C codes, alongside 1,421 other colors.