#DAC9A7Cool, even daylight pulls colors toward grey. Warm wall tones keep a north-facing room from feeling cold.
Paint colors for your home, inside and out
19th-century Austrian painting · art-to-room palette
Six colors measured from The Actor Maximilian Korn in a Landscape by Ferdinand Georg Waldmüller, with their share of the canvas, light reflectance, a room scheme and how the wall color shifts in north, south and evening light.
Quick answer
Put Pale Yellow on most walls, use Muted Blue for the bed, sofa or curtains, and keep Warm Red to one bold piece. Deep Umber suits floors, wood and frames, and Light Red works best in a single textile.
Measured from the image and ordered by how much of the canvas they cover. LRV is how much light a color reflects, from 0 for black to 100 for white.
Left, every pixel of the canvas snapped to its nearest palette color. Right, the detail where each color is strongest.
The nearest color from each brand. “Near-identical” and “Very close” are hard to tell apart on a wall; with “Similar”, compare a sample with the painting. Brands with nothing close are left out.
| Painting color | Closest paints | LRV | Use it for |
|---|---|---|---|
Muted Blue#88979E |
|
30 | Bed, sofa, curtains |
Soft Black#141D1A |
|
1 | Small accents, art, accessories |
Deep Umber#6E583A |
|
11 | Wood and frames |
Light Red#E3A489 |
|
45 | One small textile |
Pale Yellow#FDDBA0 |
|
74 | Main walls |
Warm Red#B25240 |
|
16 | One bold piece |
Paint names belong to their brands. Matches are measured from screen colors and are approximate; Light & Pigment is not affiliated with any paint brand.
The wall color shifted for the light it will live in. Check the version closest to your room before buying a sample.
#DAC9A7Cool, even daylight pulls colors toward grey. Warm wall tones keep a north-facing room from feeling cold.
#FDDDA7Strong warm sun pushes light colors toward cream by midday. If it reads too yellow, step down to a cooler version.
#D1AF79Under warm 2700K bulbs colors turn honey-toned and dark colors read almost black. Matte finishes keep the look soft.
Pick which painting color goes on the walls, the big furniture and the bold piece. Floors, shadows and light follow your choices.
Wood takes Deep Umber and the rug border takes Light Red in every combination.
Details from the painting next to the colors and materials that carry them into a room.
A card with the painting, all 6 colors and a room scheme. Pin it, or take it to the paint store.
Measured from the image, the painting's six main colors are Muted Blue (#88979E, 39.3% of the canvas), Soft Black (#141D1A, 27.7% of the canvas), Deep Umber (#6E583A, 19.8% of the canvas), Light Red (#E3A489, 6% of the canvas), Pale Yellow (#FDDBA0, 5.9% of the canvas), Warm Red (#B25240, 1.2% of the canvas).
Yes. The wall color reflects about 74% of the light that hits it (LRV 74), so it keeps a small room bright. Keep the darkest colors to one piece of furniture or a textile.
The Art Institute of Chicago releases this image as public domain (cc0), so it can be reused freely.
Image: The Art Institute of Chicago, Public domain (CC0). Palette, posterized image, details and room views generated by Light & Pigment from that image. Colors look different on screen than on a wall, so always test a sample.