Green Mile

Strong enough that it sets the palette for the room, not the other way around. 7778 in the Vista Paint range.

Chroma 23.0 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 will soften it; daylight bulbs push it further cool. LRV 79.0 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.

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.

Dunn-Edwards Boysenberry Shadow 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 10.6 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.

Switching brands, PPG Banana Pudding (1212-2) is the closest equivalent at delta-E 1.56, near enough for most rooms. This is not a rare shade: 3 colors from other brands sit within delta-E 2 of it.

It is lighter than 85 percent of the Vista Paint range. This is a crowded part of the scale - 549 colors measure within a point of 79.0 - so most brands will have something close. Vista Paint lists it in the K codes, alongside 1,318 other colors.