Summer Memory

There is no reading this as a background color. In the Vista Paint lineup this is 1052.

At chroma 39.2 it will not sit quietly next to another strong color. Best reserved for rooms you pass through or visit rather than ones you spend hours in - the intensity that makes a strong first impression can tire the eye over a full day.

In a room that gets little direct sun, this color's warmth does some of the work daylight would otherwise be doing. 35.0 on the light-reflectance scale is unremarkable on its own; the chroma is what actually drives how this color behaves.

This color sits right on the line between red and orange - cooler light nudges it toward orange, warmer light keeps it in red (about 3° apart on the color wheel, for anyone measuring). 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.

Warm metals - brass, aged gold, unlacquered fixtures - gain a contrast against this that they do not have against a lighter wall; it is a common reason people choose a color this deep in the first place. 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 35.0 / 60 / 85 on the reflectance scale).

If a second wall color is wanted in the same room, Dunn-Edwards Distant Horizon keeps the jump obvious rather than muddy (roughly 57.7 LRV points from this one). A flatter finish keeps this much color from creating harsh reflections.

Switching brands, Behr Guava Jam (200D-5) is the closest equivalent at delta-E 2.63, near enough for most rooms. Across the other brands, nothing lands within delta-E 2 of this one - there is no easy substitute.

It is lighter than 33 percent of the Vista Paint range. Vista Paint lists it in the C codes, alongside 1,421 other colors.