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Vision board · Traditional
Special Walnut, a DuraSeal stain, is a dark stain on red oak with a red undertone (measured from its own picture: LRV 10). Here it is with Balboa Mist walls, Alabaster trim and Palladian Blue on the cabinets, chosen by the numbers.
AI assisted The rooms are AI generated, simulated photos. The floor, the paint colors and every number are real.
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Read from its own picture, not from a name.
A red undertone, the family of cherry and red oak. LRV is light reflectance value, the share of light a surface sends back, the same scale paint makers print on every chip: 0 is black, 100 is white.
Special Walnut is calm and even from board to board (a spread of 1.7 in L*), so it reads as one quiet plane.
The shaded band is within 30 points of the floor. A wall inside it blurs into the floor; BS 8300 asks for at least 30 points between surfaces that meet.
Named colors with the maker's code and LRV, each linked to its page.
Its undertone leans green (hue 94°), which quiets the red in Special Walnut (hue 53°) instead of echoing it.
See it at Benjamin MooreIts undertone leans green (hue 133°), which quiets the red in Special Walnut (hue 53°) instead of echoing it.
See it at Sherwin-Williams73 points over Special Walnut in LRV and warm enough (chroma 5.3) to read white, not blue, beside its red undertone.
See it at Sherwin-WilliamsA light color with some life in it, so cabinets float off Special Walnut (a 51 point step in LRV).
See it at Benjamin MooreCabinets in Palladian Blue or Alabaster: a dark floor needs light cabinets to float above it.
| Role | Color | Maker and code | LRV | From the floor |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Floor | Special Walnut | DuraSeal stain on red oak | 10 | |
| Walls | Balboa Mist | Benjamin Moore OC-27 | 65.5 | +56 |
| Or walls | Sea Salt | Sherwin-Williams SW 6204 | 63.2 | +54 |
| Trim and ceilings | Alabaster | Sherwin-Williams SW 7008 | 82.2 | +73 |
| Cabinets | Palladian Blue | Benjamin Moore HC-144 | 60.4 | +51 |
Contrast, not a match.
The near misses, by the numbers.
About Special Walnut and color, answered from the numbers above.
Balboa Mist (Benjamin Moore OC-27, LRV 65.5): its undertone leans green (hue 94°), which quiets the red in Special Walnut (hue 53°) instead of echoing it. It sits 56 LRV points from the floor (LRV 10), more than the 30 points that keep a wall and a floor reading apart. Or Sea Salt (Sherwin-Williams SW 6204, LRV 63.2).
Alabaster (Sherwin-Williams SW 7008, LRV 82.2): 73 points over Special Walnut in LRV and warm enough (chroma 5.3) to read white, not blue, beside its red undertone.
Palladian Blue (Benjamin Moore HC-144, LRV 60.4): a light color with some life in it, so cabinets float off Special Walnut (a 51 point step in LRV). Cabinets in Palladian Blue or Alabaster: a dark floor needs light cabinets to float above it.
Contrast, not a match: a step darker: a charcoal wood (like our True Black stain sample), or a step lighter: a honey tone (like our Golden Pecan stain sample). A wood like our Provincial sample is only 1.4 apart (CIEDE2000) and reads as a near miss.
Dark: LRV 10 and L* 37, measured from its own picture, with a red undertone. At LRV 10, Special Walnut 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.
Walls at the lightness of Special Walnut: Peppercorn (Sherwin-Williams SW 7674, LRV 9.7) sits within a point of its LRV of 10, so wall and floor would blur into one. Wood that almost matches Special Walnut: a tone like our Provincial sample, 1.4 apart (CIEDE2000), reads as a near miss. Go clearly darker or lighter.
Light, size and wear, from the floor's own record.
At LRV 10, Special Walnut 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 2.25 inches a board, Special Walnut lays about 64 boards across a 12 foot room, the busy, tailored look of a classic strip floor.
A sand and finish of red oak strip floors in any room above grade.
What only this floor's data can say.
The same look in waterproof vinyl or laminate: Fidalgo Oak, COREtec COREtec Originals Classics VV024, only 2.1 apart in color (CIEDE2000).
The nearest of our other stains is Provincial (1.4 apart, CIEDE2000, from our own photographs on red oak).
A stain we put on your own oak floor.
DuraSeal
Special Walnut
Stain on red oak
Stain · on red oak · 2-1/4 in strip
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Powell Flooring, 1811 Union Valley Rd, West Milford, NJ 07480
Monday to Friday, 10am to 4pm · Open later by request
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.
A picture's lightness depends a little on how it was lit, so the floor's LRV is read from the evenly lit field the visualizer lays and rounded. See the real floor before you choose paint: visit the showroom, or ask for a free measure and estimate.
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