Kung Fu

Dark to the point where the light in the room matters more than the color does, and where that light is what reveals the pink at all. In the Vista Paint lineup this is 0109.

8.0 on the light-reflectance scale is near the floor - this color adds shadow to a room rather than taking it away. Direct light is where the pink actually shows - raking light across the wall, a lamp placed close, morning sun through a nearby window.

If the room already has greens 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.

The lighter the trim beside this, the more it will seem to glow - a side effect of the light-reflectance gap rather than anything special about the trim color. 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 8.0, 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, Sherwin-Williams Gris keeps the jump obvious rather than muddy (roughly 31.4 LRV points from this one).

Dark colors show every flaw in a wall, so matte is the safer finish unless the surface is brand new.

Sherwin-Williams Deep Maroon (SW 0072) runs close enough - delta-E 2.52 - that swapping brands should not change how the room looks. Across the other brands, nothing lands within delta-E 2 of this one - there is no easy substitute.

It is lighter than 4 percent of the Vista Paint range. Vista Paint lists it in the C codes, alongside 1,421 other colors.