# Serenity in a dark and moody room

Serenity, from the Shaw Floors Reflections Maple line, is a dark maple hardwood with a warm greige undertone (measured from its own picture: LRV 8). Here it is with Amazing Gray walls, Greek Villa trim and Gray Owl 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/serenity-dark-moody

## The floor
- Serenity, Shaw Floors Reflections Maple: Engineered hardwood · Maple · 7 in (SKU SW660-09019)
- Price: $8.09 per sq ft · $190.76 a carton. Material only. Delivery and installation extra.
- Every color and detail: https://www.powellflooring.com/floors/shawfloors/reflections-maple/serenity

## Measured from its own picture
- LRV (light reflectance value, 0 black to 100 white): 8
- CIELAB (D65): L* 32.9, a* 4, b* 5.8, chroma 7, hue 55.1 degrees
- Undertone: a warm greige: gray with a little brown in it
- Serenity is calm and even from board to board (a spread of 1.5 in L*), so it reads as one quiet plane.

## Paint
- Walls: Amazing Gray (Sherwin-Williams SW 7044, LRV 46.9, +39.4 from the floor). A warm white or greige in the same soft family as Serenity (hue 81° against its 55°). Source: https://www.sherwin-williams.com/en-us/color/color-family/neutral-paint-colors/sw7044-amazing-gray/
- Or walls: Thunder (Benjamin Moore AF-685, LRV 47.6, +40.1 from the floor). A warm white or greige in the same soft family as Serenity (hue 92° against its 55°). Source: https://www.benjaminmoore.com/en-us/paint-colors/color/af-685/thunder
- Trim and ceilings: Greek Villa (Sherwin-Williams SW 7551, LRV 84.2). 77 points over Serenity 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/sw7551-greek-villa/
- Cabinets: Gray Owl (Benjamin Moore OC-52, LRV 64.5). A light color with some life in it, so cabinets float off Serenity (a 57 point step in LRV). Source: https://www.benjaminmoore.com/en-us/paint-colors/color/oc-52/gray-owl
- Cabinets in Gray Owl or Greek Villa: 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 15 points lighter than Serenity in L* (48 against 33).
- Rug or fabric, tone on tone: smoke (#98928e). 3 in chroma, half the warmth of Serenity (7), and 28 points lighter in L*.
- Rug or fabric, across the wheel: eucalyptus (#859ca6). Hue 235°, straight across the color wheel from the 55° of Serenity, softened to balance it.
- Rug or fabric, grounding: fog gray (#c5c0bd). A light note at L* 78, 45 points from the 33 of Serenity, so a rug keeps its edge.
- Metal: aged brass. A warm metal that agrees with the greige undertone of Serenity (hue 55°).
- Metal: champagne bronze. A paler warm metal, quieter than brass beside Amazing Gray and Greek Villa.
- Metal: brushed nickel. A soft satin nickel, quieter than chrome, for the greige of Serenity.

## Room by room
- Living room: Amazing Gray walls and Greek Villa trim over Serenity, velvet in smoke with a eucalyptus pillow, aged brass lamps on low.
- Kitchen: Cabinets in Gray Owl so they float off Serenity, Greek Villa 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 fog gray runner on Serenity, Gray Owl on the door, a champagne bronze mirror.

## What to avoid
- Walls at the lightness of Serenity: Urbane Bronze (Sherwin-Williams SW 7048, LRV 8.1) sits within a point of its LRV of 8, so wall and floor would blur into one.
- Wood that almost matches Serenity: a tone like our Heritage Brown sample, 2.0 apart (CIEDE2000), reads as a near miss. Go clearly darker or lighter.
- Stark blue whites everywhere: a greige floor like Serenity turns muddy beside them. Keep the whites a little warm.

## The room it suits
- At LRV 8, Serenity 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, Serenity lays about 21 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: Hard maple: Janka 1,450 lbf (the force to press a steel ball halfway into the wood; a higher number dents less under heels and chair legs)
- Construction: Engineered (a real wood face over a stable core, so it moves less with the seasons)

## 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.