# Blended Umber in a dark and moody room

Blended Umber from the COREtec Originals Premium line is a dark vinyl plank with a warm greige undertone (measured from its own picture: LRV 7). Here it is with Worldly Gray walls, Alabaster trim, and Pure White cabinets, chosen by the numbers.

A vision board by Powell Flooring, 1811 Union Valley Rd, West Milford, NJ 07480, 973-728-9717. AI assisted: the rooms are AI generated, simulated photos; the floor, the paint colors and every number are real.
Page: https://www.powellflooring.com/vision-boards/blended-umber-dark-moody

## The floor
- Blended Umber, COREtec Originals Premium: Waterproof vinyl plank · WPC · 7 in (SKU VV704-03016)
- Price: $8.19 per sq ft · $153.97 a carton. Material only. Delivery and installation extra.
- Every color and detail: https://www.powellflooring.com/floors/coretec/coretec-originals-premium-vv704/blended-umber

## Measured from its own picture
- LRV (light reflectance value, 0 black to 100 white): 7
- CIELAB (D65): L* 30.7, a* 4.5, b* 10.2, chroma 11.1, hue 66.4 degrees
- Undertone: a warm greige: gray with a little brown in it
- Blended Umber has a gentle movement from board to board (a spread of 2.3 in L*): calm, but not flat.

## Paint
- Walls: Worldly Gray (Sherwin-Williams SW 7043, LRV 57.2, +50.7 from the floor). A warm white or greige in the same soft family as Blended Umber (hue 82° against its 66°). Source: https://www.sherwin-williams.com/en-us/color/color-family/neutral-paint-colors/sw7043-worldly-gray/
- Or walls: Thunder (Benjamin Moore AF-685, LRV 47.6, +41.1 from the floor). A warm white or greige in the same soft family as Blended Umber (hue 92° against its 66°). Source: https://www.benjaminmoore.com/en-us/paint-colors/color/af-685/thunder
- Trim and ceilings: Alabaster (Sherwin-Williams SW 7008, LRV 82.2). 76 points over Blended Umber in LRV and warm enough (chroma 5.3) to read white, not blue, beside its greige undertone. Source: https://www.sherwin-williams.com/en-us/color/color-family/white-paint-colors/sw7008-alabaster/
- Cabinets: Pure White (Sherwin-Williams SW 7005, LRV 84). A light color with some life in it, so cabinets float off Blended Umber (a 78 point step in LRV). Source: https://www.sherwin-williams.com/en-us/color/color-family/white-paint-colors/sw7005-pure-white/
- Cabinets in Pure White or Alabaster: a dark floor needs light cabinets to float above it.

## Wood, rugs and metals
- Wood a step lighter: a warm gray brown wood, like our Warm Gray stain sample. About 18 points lighter than Blended Umber in L* (48 against 31).
- Rug or fabric, tone on tone: smoke (#948c85). 5 in chroma, half the warmth of Blended Umber (11), and 28 points lighter in L*.
- Rug or fabric, across the wheel: slate blue (#8295a2). Hue 246°, straight across the color wheel from the 66° of Blended Umber, softened to balance it.
- Rug or fabric, grounding: dove gray (#c0b9b4). A light note at L* 76, 45 points from the 31 of Blended Umber, so a rug keeps its edge.
- Metal: aged brass. A warm metal that agrees with the greige undertone of Blended Umber (hue 66°).
- Metal: champagne bronze. A paler warm metal, quieter than brass beside Worldly Gray and Alabaster.
- Metal: brushed nickel. A soft satin nickel, quieter than chrome, for the greige of Blended Umber.

## Room by room
- Living room: Worldly Gray walls and Alabaster trim over Blended Umber, velvet in smoke with a slate blue pillow, aged brass lamps on low.
- Kitchen: Cabinets in Pure White so they float off Blended Umber, Alabaster walls and trim, champagne bronze pulls.
- Bedroom: Thunder walls, smoke bedding, nightstands in a warm gray brown wood, brushed nickel on the lamps.
- Entry: A dove gray runner on Blended Umber, Pure White on the door, a champagne bronze mirror.

## What to avoid
- Walls at the lightness of Blended Umber: Black Fox (Sherwin-Williams SW 7020, LRV 6.7) sits within a point of its LRV of 7, so wall and floor would blur into one.
- Wood that almost matches Blended Umber: a tone like our Ebony sample, 3.7 apart (CIEDE2000), reads as a near miss. Go clearly darker or lighter.
- Stark blue whites everywhere: a greige floor like Blended Umber turns muddy beside them. Keep the whites a little warm.

## The room it suits
- At LRV 7, Blended Umber is dark: it is at its best in a big room with good light and warm lamps, and it shows dust, pet hair and fine scratches more than a mid tone.
- At 7 inches a board, Blended Umber lays about 21 boards across a 12 foot room, so the room reads open with few seams.
- Blended Umber is waterproof, so it belongs in kitchens, baths, mudrooms and basements as well as living spaces.
- Wear layer: 20 mil (about 0.51 mm of clear protection over the printed wood, the part that takes the traffic)
- Core: WPC, a wood plastic composite core (a little softer and quieter underfoot)
- Finish: UV Acrylic
- Water: Waterproof (the maker's word) (wet mopping is fine; a flood is not)

## Sources
- Paint names, codes, hex and LRV as Sherwin-Williams and Benjamin Moore publish them (each color links to its page).
- BS 8300-2:2018 asks for a difference of at least 30 LRV points between adjacent surfaces, such as a floor and a wall, so the surfaces read apart.
- The floor measured from its own picture in CIELAB (D65); the wood tones from our own photographs of 37 stains on oak.