I don't think LRV is really a "tool" for picking paint colors in your home. It is one more data point, a way to look at one color vs another and have some understanding of how they compare to each other. But, I would never say that using colors that all have the same LRV will create flow.

Using the same LRV throughout the house is not a guarantee that you will have a similar experience of lightness or darkness from room to room because what matters even more is the inherent light of a room, both natural and artificial. You can put the same paint in every room of your house and it will look a little different in each room. People may even insist you have different colors in different rooms, even though you know you don't.

There are some who would argue that the darker a room is naturally, the darker the paint should be. You'll never make a dark room bright just by using a light paint.

I work with paint and color just about every day. I rarely look at LRV data. It is a number assigned in a controlled environment and the environments I work in are not controlled....they are homes with lots of other factors that need to be considered.

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but I don't think LRV is going to be useful in the way you want it to be. There just aren't any shortcuts with color, IMO.

Oh well -- seems like if there are no short cuts or tools then the only route is trial and error! Can be costly :).

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.

fun colors - thanks very much!

Our colors are mosthly within the same range but not strictly so. We did not use LRV to make our selection but it is interesting to look back and see if there was some correlation.

I mostly was asking as I'm struggling with hallway color. We had settled on natural wicker (73.8 LRV) with very little analysis other than that it looked good on the chip. In hindsight I wish I had chosen Monterey White (77.32) as we have Monroe Bisque in a large space downstairs (although Manchester Tan in a room upstairs which hallway leads into). We might repaint eventually but for now have to live with the Natural Wicker--but the closeness in LRV made me feel a *bit* better although you are right this does not include saturation,etc.

Thanks again, interesting stuff!

Our colors are mostly within the same range but not strictly so. We did not use LRV to make our selection but it is interesting to look back and see if there was some correlation.

And there in lies the beauty of what LRV can tell you, can do for you with regard to residential color application. In a word, benchmarks.

Natural Wicker and Monterey White are near equal in LRV but because of other color characteristics, like hue and saturation, doesn't mean they would fit the space, your tolerance, your expectation equally.

What a revelation!! I painted my dining room SW escapade gold with a 32% lrv (but brighter) than SW Edgy gold-34% lrv (but duller-if that's even a word). I'm so obsessed with the lrv thing to the point that i'm considering repainting it! Thank you for this info, because i'll just leave that room alone-for now, but it will definitely help me in choosing my main house color (2 storey foyer and family room) some sort of a yellow (SW white raisin-56%, humblegold-62%, harvester-60% and blonde-54%! There's also a BM Chestertown buff-56.8%). But then again , Funcolor's LRV article i saved in my clippings had advised to be very careful about lrv when it comes to yellow!! Now i'm scared!

Funcolors, that is true (of natural wicker and monterey white), but one of my issues with natural wicker is that it seemed darker than I had expected (compared to chip). So maybe my real issue has to do with its other characteristics since in fact it is not much darker than my now top choice (which I've only seen on chip so could disappoint as well once on our wall).

May I ask another question? With BM paint - is there correlation between lines of colors as in Historical Colors, Classic Colors, Off White Colors etc. How about the correlation between colors on same fan deck?

Yellow you should scare you.

Just kidding. :)

But seriously people do miss on choosing a yellow paint color more than any other color.

Duller is most certainly a word - at least I think so but I also like "funner" so maybe you should listen to me.

The paint decks that include a notation, a data point, for saturation as well as LRV can be very handy especially when it comes to yellow. Because that saturation notation puts a number to brightness. Absolutely can not color by numbers alone, but it sure can help if ya know how to use 'em. Again, Dunn Edwards and Glidde/AkzoNobel/ICI are two brands that have a notation for saturation a.k.a. chromaticity.

So to circle this around and tie together a few points on this thread, the NCS color system is based primarily on nuance so it's a system that combines the two color characteristics of LRV and saturation into one notation. But NCS is mostly a Europe thing, it's not widely available here in the states.