My question is how can it be used as a tool for flow throughout house? Flow throughout a whole house probably not so much. Because it's key to partner nuance of a paint color with inherent light sources. LRV is a key factor of nuance and you can only work inherent light sources of a space, the quality and quantity of light, one room at a time. The other part of color that *makes up* nuance is saturation. LRV + Saturation = Nuance. LRV is how light or dark. Saturation is how vivid or dull. There's actually a designer with a YouTube video about LRV. She speaks to using a set range of LRV, a formula she devised involving simple point spread, in order to guarantee the *right amount* of contrast and whatnot. The math that makes LRV a useful piece of data doesn't work that way. Formulas for LRV are about the light/dark relationship between two (sometimes more) colors and striking the right degree of contrast and/or illumination for purposes of visual ergonomics and lighting design, energy efficiency. Visual ergonomics and lighting design/efficiency are detailed goals of color design specification that utilize LRV and those goals don't necessarily have anything to do with creating harmonious, aesthetically pleasing color schemes. Rather it is about function first per the numbers and aesthetics a second, separate issue. Using a simple point spread of like 20 to 30 LRV points between two colors won't work the way she's saying it will because you can't just consider LRV, just one part of nuance. "Flow" throughout an interior or exterior is about creating a harmonious, aesthetically pleasing color scheme and in order to do that you must, among other things, consider both LRV and saturation a.k.a. nuance. Should one try to keep the values within the same range? It depends. Keeping paint colors for an entire house within a tight range of light/dark value is a choice. All lighter colors, all mid-range colors, all darker colors is more about individual color tolerances than anything else. And although it's a very popular piece of color advice found in interior decorating world, it's totally subjective. If I'm not mistaken Christopher Lowell is a one designer who likes to keep paint color values consistent. It's not "the key to creating perfect color schemes". It's just one of many ways to approach creating a whole-house wall color palette. And if there is one that is 73 and another that is 78 for example, can one assume these are relatively similar? Yes. LRV of 73 and 78 indicates those two colors are about the same on the lightness/darkness value scale. Regardless of hue or saturation, it paints a picture in your head about where on the lightness/darkness scale you're starting from. LRV communicates a lot about a color's characteristic even if you can't see - or remember - the color. LRV is a key data point in two very well-known color systems, Munsell Color Tree and the Natural Color System (NCS). NCS is used for specifying color across industries, including paint colors, internationally. Additionally, Dunn Edwards Paints includes the Munsell notation for its entire palette located on the fandeck index. AkzoNobel which used to be ICI/Dulux also includes LRV in its custom color notation system. I assume the smaller the room the higher the value,etc. Wouldn't necessarily assume that. You can use LRV as a benchmark when choosing paint colors. Benchmarks suited to your color tolerance, preferences, etc. It may be that by paying attention to LRV through your process of choosing paint colors you discover that you do prefer higher LRV, lighter paint colors, in smaller rooms. Or maybe not.

I like a farmhouse style and feel like the right red really compliments my pine pieces/ black Windsor chairs that I'm using. I also have a large black and white folk art sign that I'm using. I have a Barn red color also in my family room rug that would tie into the dining room color as well. Currently I have the MLR in the dining room but have been debating whether to change it to a more brownish red or leave as is.

Here are a few possibilities from Sherwin-Williams: Shoji White, Oyster White, White Heron, Spare White, and Nebulous White.

I searched forums on gardenweb about a light subtle pink or blush or rose color for a bedroom. I went out and painted samples on foam board of BM opal, ambrosia, shell pink, blanched coral, Pensacola pink, soft white, beautiful in my eyes. All were too “neon”/bright, not calming, and looked either too yellow/orange/peach/brown in the bedroom. Most of those had LRVs in the 80’s. Yes, i have read pink paint tends to intensify when painted on all four walls. The pink innocence and pink pearl small paint chips did not seem to have any yellow/brown/orange in my south facing room either during the day or at night with artificial light.