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Shop Spruce

Independent paint color guide

Pick the right paint color before you buy the gallon.

Shop Spruce checks every color against the brand's published data, then shows you its real lightness, undertone, closest cross-brand matches and how it shifts in your light.

Head to head

The comparisons people ask about most

Measured with Delta E 2000, so you know whether two colors will actually look different on your wall.

How we check

Numbers first, opinions second

01

Brand data

Code, hex, RGB and LRV come from the brand's published listing, with the date we checked it.

02

Color science

We convert each color to CIELAB to measure its undertone and lean.

03

Real matches

Cross-brand matches are ranked by Delta E 2000, the industry measure of visible difference.

04

Honest advice

We tell you where a color works, where it struggles, and to test a sample first.

New to choosing paint?

Start with the two guides that save the most repainting: what LRV means, and how to test a color properly.

Read the guides