Mississippi Mud

Benjamin Moore describes Mississippi Mud as 'distinctive violet tones add rich character to this elegant brown.' It sits in the brand's Color Preview collection (2114-20).

The brand's own coordinating colors for it are White Dove OC-17, Smoke 2122-40, Steam AF-15 and Wish AF-680.

Benjamin Moore lists Incense Stick 2115-20, Mink 2112-10, Brown Sugar 2112-20 and Barista AF-175 as similar colors — the first places to look if Mississippi Mud is close but not quite right.

LRV — light reflectance value — runs from 0 (absorbs all light) to 100 (reflects all of it). At 7.41, Mississippi Mud is very dark — it absorbs more than nine-tenths of the light that hits it. Colors this deep read close to black in a dim room and show their true hue only in direct light or under strong artificial light, so the brown-violet Benjamin Moore describes will be visible in a bright room and mostly implied in a dark one. Expect to need good lighting and, on anything but a dark substrate, a tinted primer.

LRV says nothing about undertone. Two colors with the same LRV can read completely differently next to the same trim, so treat it as a guide to brightness only and sample the color for the rest.

The six rooms on this page are a bathroom by Urbanology Designs — a small, enclosed space, which is where very dark colors are most often used and where they are most forgiving, since the room's fittings and mirror supply the light the color absorbs.

We could not find an independent designer or color-consultant review of Mississippi Mud — no published account of how it shifts between north and south light, which finishes it fights with, or where it disappoints. Everything above comes from Benjamin Moore's own data and from the rooms on this page.

Until that coverage exists, the honest advice is the practical one: buy a sample, paint two large boards, and move them between the darkest and brightest walls of the room over a full day. If you have used this color and can tell us how it behaved, we would like to hear from you.