Settled, side by side

Creekbed is a true taupe — grey and brown balanced so evenly that it reads as neither, with a faint pink warmth underneath. At LRV 33 it is a mid-tone, dark enough to feel like a color and light enough to keep a small room from closing in. It is the shade of wet river stone.

Sudbury Yellow is an ochre-gold named for the staircase at Sudbury Hall in Derbyshire — a yellow with enough earth in it to feel historic rather than sunny. It is warm, saturated and surprisingly easy to live with, because the ochre keeps it from ever turning acid.