# Hawthorne in a modern farmhouse room

Hawthorne, from the Legacy Flooring Collection Brentwood Hills line, is a mid dark white oak hardwood with a golden undertone (measured from its own picture: LRV 18). Here it is with Pure White 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/hawthorne-modern-farmhouse

## The floor
- Hawthorne, Legacy Flooring Collection Brentwood Hills: Engineered hardwood · White oak · 7.5 in (SKU W6221)
- Price: $7.49 per sq ft · $176.02 a carton. Material only. Delivery and installation extra.
- Every color and detail: https://www.powellflooring.com/floors/legacy/brentwood-hills/hawthorne

## Measured from its own picture
- LRV (light reflectance value, 0 black to 100 white): 18
- CIELAB (D65): L* 49.9, a* 3.2, b* 15.8, chroma 16.1, hue 78.7 degrees
- Undertone: a golden undertone, warm without leaning red
- Hawthorne has a gentle movement from board to board (a spread of 2.9 in L*): calm, but not flat.

## Paint
- Walls: Pure White (Sherwin-Williams SW 7005, LRV 84, +65.6 from the floor). A soft neutral with a touch of warmth (hue 103°), so Hawthorne stays golden without turning yellow. Source: https://www.sherwin-williams.com/en-us/color/color-family/white-paint-colors/sw7005-pure-white/
- Or walls: Simply White (Benjamin Moore OC-117, LRV 89.5, +71.1 from the floor). A soft neutral with a touch of warmth (hue 110°), so Hawthorne stays golden without turning yellow. Source: https://www.benjaminmoore.com/en-us/paint-colors/color/oc-117/simply-white
- Trim and ceilings: Alabaster (Sherwin-Williams SW 7008, LRV 82.2). 64 points over Hawthorne in LRV and warm enough (chroma 5.3) to read white, not blue, beside its golden undertone. 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 Hawthorne (a 39 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 darker: a charcoal wood, like our Ebony stain sample. About 21 points darker than Hawthorne in L* (29 against 50), far enough to read as a choice.
- Wood a step lighter: a pale, bleached wood, like our Natural stain sample. About 17 points lighter than Hawthorne in L* (67 against 50).
- Rug or fabric, tone on tone: fog gray (#c9bfb4). 7 in chroma, half the warmth of Hawthorne (16), and 28 points lighter in L*.
- Rug or fabric, across the wheel: mist blue (#b3c3d3). Hue 259°, straight across the color wheel from the 79° of Hawthorne, softened to balance it.
- Rug or fabric, grounding: charcoal (#352f28). A deep note at L* 20, 30 points from the 50 of Hawthorne, so a rug keeps its edge.
- Metal: matte black. Black works with every undertone; beside Hawthorne at LRV 18 it gives the room its outline.
- Metal: aged brass. A warm metal that agrees with the golden undertone of Hawthorne (hue 79°).
- Metal: unlacquered brass. Left unsealed, it darkens with handling to a softer warm tone beside Pure White walls.

## Room by room
- Living room: Pure White walls and Alabaster trim, a fog gray rug with a charcoal edge on Hawthorne, a coffee table in a charcoal wood.
- Kitchen: Cabinets in Upward so they float off Hawthorne, Alabaster walls and trim, aged brass pulls.
- Dining room: A table in a charcoal wood on Hawthorne, chairs in a pale, bleached wood, aged brass pendants.
- Bedroom: Simply White walls, fog gray linen, a mist blue quilt, unlacquered brass on the lamps.

## What to avoid
- Walls at the lightness of Hawthorne: Gauntlet Gray (Sherwin-Williams SW 7019, LRV 17.4) sits within a point of its LRV of 18, so wall and floor would blur into one.
- Wood that almost matches Hawthorne: a tone like our Warm Gray sample, 4.6 apart (CIEDE2000), reads as a near miss. Go clearly darker or lighter.
- Walls that lean yellow: yellow on yellow flattens the golden undertone of Hawthorne (hue 79°).

## The room it suits
- At LRV 18, Hawthorne is mid 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 7.5 inches a board, Hawthorne lays about 20 boards across a 12 foot room, so the room reads open with few seams.
- Engineered hardwood: living spaces and bedrooms on every level, kept out of full baths.
- Hardness: White oak: Janka 1,360 lbf (the force to press a steel ball halfway into the wood; a higher number dents less under heels and chair legs)
- Construction: Engineered hardwood (a real wood face over a stable core, so it moves less with the seasons)
- Finish: UV Cured High Performance Urethane

## 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.