# Dark Walnut in a traditional room

Dark Walnut, a DuraSeal stain, is a dark stain on red oak with an amber undertone (measured from its own picture: LRV 8). Here it is with Palladian Blue walls, Alabaster trim and Upward on the 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/dark-walnut-traditional

## The floor
- Dark Walnut, DuraSeal stain on red oak: Stain · on red oak · 2-1/4 in strip
- Every color and detail: https://www.powellflooring.com/sherwin-williams-minwax-duraseal-stain-colors/dark-walnut

## Measured from its own picture
- LRV (light reflectance value, 0 black to 100 white): 8
- CIELAB (D65): L* 34.7, a* 7.7, b* 12.9, chroma 15, hue 59 degrees
- Undertone: an amber undertone, warm and a little orange
- It has a gentle movement from board to board (a spread of 2.5 in L*): calm, but not flat.

## Paint
- Walls: Palladian Blue (Benjamin Moore HC-144, LRV 60.4, +52 from the floor). Its undertone leans green (hue 163°), which quiets the orange in the floor instead of echoing it. Source: https://www.benjaminmoore.com/en-us/paint-colors/color/hc-144/palladian-blue
- Or walls: Sea Salt (Sherwin-Williams SW 6204, LRV 63.2, +54.8 from the floor). Its undertone leans green (hue 133°), which quiets the orange in the floor instead of echoing it. Source: https://www.sherwin-williams.com/en-us/color/color-family/green-paint-colors/sw6204-sea-salt/
- Trim and ceilings: Alabaster (Sherwin-Williams SW 7008, LRV 82.2). A white with a little warmth (chroma 5.3), so trim does not look blue beside a warm floor. Source: https://www.sherwin-williams.com/en-us/color/color-family/white-paint-colors/sw7008-alabaster/
- Cabinets: Upward (Sherwin-Williams SW 6239, LRV 57.4). A light color with some life in it, so cabinets float off a dark floor (a 49 point step in LRV). Source: https://www.sherwin-williams.com/en-us/color/color-family/blue-paint-colors/sw6239-upward/
- Cabinets in Upward or Alabaster: a dark floor needs light cabinets to float above it.

## Wood, rugs and metals
- Wood a step lighter: a honey tone, like our Cherry stain sample. About 17 points lighter than the floor (L*).
- Rug or fabric, tone on tone: mushroom (#a2958e). The floor's own warmth at half the strength, 28 points lighter.
- Rug or fabric, across the wheel: eucalyptus (#8aa0ac). The opposite side of the color wheel from the floor, softened, to balance it.
- Rug or fabric, grounding: fog gray (#cec4bd). A light note 45 points from the floor, so a rug keeps its edge.
- Metal: unlacquered brass. A warm metal that agrees with the floor's amber undertone.
- Metal: aged brass. A warm metal that agrees with the floor's amber undertone.
- Metal: matte black. Black works with every undertone and gives a light room its outline.

## What to avoid
- Walls at the floor's own lightness: Hale Navy (Benjamin Moore HC-154, LRV 8.4) sits within a point of this floor, so wall and floor would blur into one.
- Wood that almost matches: a table in a tone like our Espresso stain sample is only 1.4 apart (CIEDE2000) and reads as a near miss. Go clearly darker or lighter.
- Pink or peach beige walls: they pull more orange out of a warm floor.

## The room it suits
- An LRV of 8 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.
- Across a 12 foot room it lays about 64 boards, the busy, tailored look of a classic strip floor.
- A sand and finish of red oak strip floors in any room above grade.
- Hardness: Northern red oak: Janka 1,290 lbf (the force to press a steel ball halfway into the wood; a higher number dents less under heels and chair legs)
- Finish: Stain on site, then clear coats (the color is in the wood, so a worn floor can be sanded and stained again)

## 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.
- Janka hardness from the USDA Forest Products Laboratory Wood Handbook (2021), Table 5-3b, at 12 percent moisture.