Colour Note: Chalk Wash (#F2EDE4, LRV 85)

The off-white that stops a room going cold. Chalk Wash carries a faint yellow-brown undertone that reads as warm at any hour, which is exactly why it is the wrong choice in a room that is already warm — and the right one almost everywhere else.

Colour

#F2EDE4

LRV

85

Undertone

warm neutral, faint yellow-brown

Family

Warm neutrals

What the undertone actually does

Chalk Wash sits at 85 LRV with a red-yellow bias of roughly 3 units above neutral. In daylight the bias is invisible and the colour reads as a soft white. Under a 2700 K bulb the same bias is amplified and the wall reads cream. That shift is the whole point: a pure neutral white at LRV 85 will look grey-blue under the same bulb, which is the single most common complaint about "white" walls in north-facing rooms.

Where it works

• Hallways and stairwells where there is no direct sun. The warm bias substitutes for the warmth that daylight would otherwise provide.
• Ceilings in any room. At LRV 85 against a wall at LRV 50 or below, the split gives the ceiling a clean edge without a visible cornice.
• Trim and skirting against mid-tone walls. A 35-45 point split between wall and trim is the readable range.

Where it does not

Rooms lit by a warm bulb and furnished in oak, pine or rattan go too far. Add a warm white to a warm room and the whole space narrows into a single cream band, which is why Chalk Wash is paired with a cooler trim in warm-toned rooms, or left out entirely. The correction is to check the wall against a sample of the actual floor, not against the paint chip.

Sheen pairing

Surface	Sheen	Why
Ceiling	Matte	Kills specular highlights from a low lamp
Walls	Matte to eggshell	Matte is fine above 1000 mm, eggshell below
Trim	Eggshell or satin	Satin gives a 2-3 unit gloss difference that defines the edge

Testing it properly

Paint two A4-sized patches on opposite walls, not one. A single patch tells you how the colour looks in one light direction; two patches on facing walls show the range you will actually live with. Look at both at 9am, 1pm and after dark, and look at them from the doorway rather than from 300 mm away. A colour that is right at 300 mm is frequently wrong at 3 m, because the eye averages the wall with the light in the room.

Chalk Wash covers well over mid tones: two coats over LRV 50 or above, and two coats plus a tinted primer below LRV 30.

What matters here

• LRV 85 with a red-yellow bias of about 3 units above neutral.
• Reads as cream under 2700 K bulbs, soft white in daylight.
• Do not use it in a room that is already warm-toned in oak or pine.
• Test on two facing walls, at three times of day, from the doorway.

Elsewhere on this wall

• Colour Note: Ochre Field (#D9A44A, LRV 42)
• Colour Note: Linen Fold (#E7DFD2, LRV 74)
• Chalk Wash in the palette
• Warm neutrals