The Color Digest · Compare
Settled, side by side
Dead Salmon
Farrow & Ball · No. 28
Not dead, just resting
Creekbed
Benjamin Moore · 1006
The taupe that makes marble look expensive
In real rooms
Every room, each colorCreekbed
1 roomThe difference
Read from the numbersDead Salmon is the lighter of the two at LRV 35, 1.7 points above Creekbed at LRV 33.34. Both read warm. Both belong to the neutrals family. For a whole room, Dead Salmon is the safer, more forgiving choice thanks to its higher LRV, while Creekbed is the bolder pick.
How they read
In their own wordsDead Salmon takes its name from an eighteenth-century decorating bill at Kedleston Hall, where 'dead' meant matte rather than deceased. The color is a muddy pink-beige — salmon left in the sun until only the memory of pink remains. At LRV 35 it is a real mid-tone with unusual depth for a neutral.
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.