The Color Digest · Compare
Settled, side by side
Stonington Gray
Benjamin Moore · HC-170
The grey that does not pick a side
Dead Salmon
Farrow & Ball · No. 28
Not dead, just resting
In real rooms
Every room, each colorThe difference
Read from the numbersStonington Gray is the lighter of the two at LRV 59.36, 24.4 points above Dead Salmon at LRV 35. Stonington Gray leans neutral where Dead Salmon reads warm. Stonington Gray is a grays, Dead Salmon a neutrals. For a whole room, Stonington 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 wordsStonington Gray is Benjamin Moore's most balanced light grey — neither warm nor cool, with a faint green-blue base that keeps it from going purple, the failing of so many greys. At LRV 59 it is light enough for a small room and grey enough to read as a color against white trim.
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.