Loading page
About this tool
Suggest accent wall shades that pair with your existing wall colour, with LRV, contrast and trim advice for each.
This suggester takes the hex value of a wall you already have and returns eight accent colours built from the standard colour-wheel harmonies — complementary, split-complementary, analogous, triadic, monochromatic and a near-neutral anchor — each reported with its Light Reflectance Value so it can be matched against a paint chip. LRV is the CIE Y value expressed as a percentage, identical to the WCAG relative luminance formula (0.2126R + 0.7152G + 0.0722B on linearised channels), which is the same number paint manufacturers print on the back of a sample. It is aimed at anyone repainting one wall and unsure whether a shade will read as a deliberate accent or as a patch, since the tool also checks that each candidate clears the trade rule of roughly 10 LRV points from the existing wall.
Open Accent Wall Colour Suggester on AltFTool — it loads instantly in your browser.
Add your input to the workspace.
Adjust the options until the result looks right.
Copy or download the output and put it to work.
The same number printed on a paint chip, so a shade can be matched in a shop instead of guessed from a screen.
Each candidate is tested against the 10-point LRV rule, and anything that fails is flagged rather than quietly recommended.
WCAG contrast decides whether white or near-black trim survives on the accent, with the 4.5:1 threshold shown.
Take the hue of the existing wall and move around the colour wheel by a fixed angle — 150° or 210° gives the safest strong accent, 30° gives a quiet shift, and staying on the same hue with more saturation and less lightness gives the lowest-risk option of all. Then check the two colours are at least 10 LRV points apart, otherwise the accent reads as a bad touch-up rather than a decision.
LRV, Light Reflectance Value, is the percentage of visible light a colour reflects, from 0 for absolute black to 100 for pure white. It matters because a wall below about LRV 20 absorbs most of the light hitting it, so a deep accent in a small or north-facing room will noticeably darken the whole space unless the lighting is increased.
Darker, if the existing walls are light — that is the conventional feature wall and it makes the room feel deeper. If the existing walls are already dark, below roughly LRV 45, go lighter instead, because a second dark colour will simply disappear into the first under normal room lighting.
Yes, noticeably. In the northern hemisphere a north-facing room gets cool indirect skylight that drains warmth from a colour, so warm and slightly lighter accents hold up better, while a south-facing room gets warm direct sun for most of the day and can carry a cooler, deeper shade. Reverse north and south in the southern hemisphere, and always test a sample on the actual wall at several times of day before buying the full tin.