The Color Digest · Compare
Settled, side by side
Pelican Gray
Benjamin Moore · 1612
Grey, silver-lined
Dead Salmon
Farrow & Ball · No. 28
Not dead, just resting
In real rooms
Every room, each colorPelican Gray
1 roomThe difference
Read from the numbersPelican Gray is the lighter of the two at LRV 58.58, 23.6 points above Dead Salmon at LRV 35. Pelican Gray leans cool where Dead Salmon reads warm. Pelican Gray is a grays, Dead Salmon a neutrals. For a whole room, Pelican Gray is the safer, more forgiving choice thanks to its higher LRV, while Dead Salmon is the bolder pick.
How they read
In their own wordsPelican Gray is a light, silvery grey with a clear blue lean — cooler than the greiges that dominated the last decade, and all the better for it. At LRV 59 it is light enough for a small room and grey enough to feel deliberate. It is the grey of a slate roof after rain.
Dead 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.