Liveliness

This is a color that decides the room rather than supporting it. Vista Paint's designation for it is 0979.

Chroma 22.5 is high enough that the color will bounce onto light surfaces, so expect it everywhere, not only on the wall. In a room with plenty of natural light, this can cover more wall area than it could in a dim one, where the same color reads heavier.

It holds up in a north-facing room, which is where warmth is usually missing. LRV 77.0 tells you how much light comes back, which matters less here than how much color comes with it.

Worth checking before committing to a full wall: blues and cool greys nearby - in a floor, a rug, a piece of furniture - will read as a clash here, not a complement, since the two colors sit at opposite ends of the spectrum.

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 First Snow 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 8.7 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, Behr Time Out (M260-3) is the closest equivalent at delta-E 1.05, near enough for most rooms. 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.

It is lighter than 83 percent of the Vista Paint range. Among tans it is one of the strongest: only 2 percent of them carry more colour. Vista Paint lists it in the C codes, alongside 1,421 other colors.