Settled, side by side

Brinjal is the Hindi word for aubergine, and the color is exactly the skin of one: a deep, brown-based plum that reads almost black until light finds the purple in it. With an LRV around 7 it is a true dark, and it is one of the most flattering darks there is — warmer than navy, softer than black, richer than charcoal.

Faded Terracotta is exactly what the name promises: a clay orange that has been left in the light until the red drained out, leaving a soft, sandy peach. It comes from Farrow & Ball's California Collection, made with Kelly Wearstler, and it carries that West Coast ease — warm, dusty, never brash.