Sunbaked Earth

Strong enough that it sets the palette for the room, not the other way around. 8005 in the Vista Paint range.

Chroma 37.2 is high enough that the color will bounce onto light surfaces, so expect it everywhere, not only on the wall. A powder room or a nook is often the right scale for a color this strong - enough impact without living with it in every sightline.

Warm bulbs make it warmer still; daylight bulbs cool it back toward neutral. LRV 18.0 tells you how much light comes back, which matters less here than how much color comes with it.

This color sits right on the line between orange and red - cooler light nudges it toward red, warmer light keeps it in orange (about 1° 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.

Next to it, white trim reads brighter and cooler than it does anywhere else in the house - the gap in light reflectance is what does that, not the trim paint itself. 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 18.0 / 52 / 85 on the reflectance scale).

Behr Absolute Zero 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 46 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, Sherwin-Williams Red Cent (SW 6341) is the closest equivalent at delta-E 1.17, near enough for most rooms. This is a relatively uncrowded spot in the spectrum - just 1 color from other brands come this close.

It is lighter than 16 percent of the Vista Paint range. Vista Paint lists it in the K codes, alongside 1,318 other colors.