See the pairings section below for calculated harmony options.
Common uses
See uses & contexts below for interiors, fashion and practical guidance.
Accessibility snapshot
Pairs better with white text (4.8:1) than black (4.4:1).
See this colour in the real world
Colours in photographs vary with lighting, material, camera processing and screen calibration — the named colours below are visual approximations, not exact measurements.
Eye colour
The radiating fibrous structure visible here is the iris's real anatomy — the yellow-green flecking near the pupil and the blue-teal further out are two genuinely different regions, not a single uniform colour.
Extreme close-up eye photography like this is very often colour-enhanced or saturation-boosted in editing — treat this as an illustrative, vivid example of blue-green iris structure, not an unedited, exact colour reference. A camera can never capture eye colour perfectly neutrally in any case, since white balance and exposure both shift what's recorded.
The same simultaneous-contrast effect that makes a grey square look different against different-coloured backgrounds also applies to eye colour: a nearby clothing colour can make eyes look more or less vivid, or shift their apparent warmth, without the eyes themselves changing at all.
In practice: If eye colour looks unusually vivid or muted in a particular outfit, the clothing colour beside the face is a common, ordinary explanation — not a change in the eyes themselves.
Calculated from Teal’s position on the HSL wheel (hue 180°, saturation 100%, lightness 25%). Colour-wheel pairings are a design convention, not a guarantee: check any pairing in the light and material you will use it in.
Cobalt Green is the closest, at ΔE00 16.2 from teal: 9 points lighter, 8 points more saturated and 34° round towards green. That is a different colour at a glance.
Cerulean is next, at ΔE00 16.7 from teal: 4 points more saturated and 52° round towards blue. That is a different colour at a glance.
Tourmaline is next, at ΔE00 17.1 from teal: 14 points darker, 9 points less saturated and 35° round towards green. That is a different colour at a glance.
Verdigris is next, at ΔE00 17.1 from teal: 19 points lighter, 3 points more saturated and 4° round towards green. That is a different colour at a glance.
Worked out from this colour’s own measurements — its lightness, saturation and undertone — rather than written for it. That is why the guidance differs from one colour to the next even when the two look similar.
What role it can play
This works across a range of sizes. At chroma 30 it is assertive enough to register on a small object and restrained enough not to dominate a wall.
Walls and large surfaces
strong
Chroma 30 sits inside the range walls and large surfaces carry without taking over the room.
Secondary surfaces
strong
Chroma 30 sits inside the range secondary surfaces carry without taking over the room.
Furniture
strong
Chroma 30 sits inside the range furniture carry without taking over the room.
Rugs, curtains and bedding
strong
Chroma 30 sits inside the range rugs, curtains and bedding carry without taking over the room.
Trim and joinery
strong
Chroma 30 sits inside the range trim and joinery carry without taking over the room.
Accents and small objects
strong
Chroma 30 is exactly what an accent is for. The saturation that makes this difficult across a wall is the reason it works on a cushion, a door or a single chair.
As an accent: repeated accent
Chroma 30 is strong enough to register and restrained enough to repeat. Two or three appearances read as intentional where one reads as an orphan.
Warm bulbs emit little short-wavelength energy, so there is less for a cyan to reflect. There is enough chroma here to survive it, though it will read warmer and slightly duller.
Under cool bulbs
Cool light flatters this — it will hold its identity and may read slightly more saturated than in warm light.
In daylight
A mid-tone reads most consistently across the day, which is why so much upholstery sits in this band.
In a dim room
Enough lightness and chroma to stay recognisable in a dim room, though it will lose some saturation.
Compared with the sample card
Expect a modest step darker than the chart, which is normal and is why sampling a large area matters.
Walnut · Pine · Light wood (ash, birch, beech) · Dark wood · Reddish wood (mahogany, cherry, teak)
works well
Opposite in undertone to Walnut, Pine, Light wood (ash, birch, beech), Dark wood and Reddish wood (mahogany, cherry, teak), but 20–37 points apart in lightness or far enough round the hue circle that the difference reads as deliberate contrast rather than as a clash.
Oak · Plywood
needs care
Opposed in undertone to Oak and Plywood with only 18–27 points of lightness to explain the difference, which is the combination the eye most often reads as an error.
The amount of timber matters as much as the tone: one piece is an accent, a floor plus joinery is the room’s dominant colour. More on working with wood tones
With metal fittings
Chrome · Stainless steel · Black metal
works well
Shares the cool bias of Chrome, Stainless steel and Black metal, so they agree about the temperature of the room, and 28–41 points of lightness keep them readable as separate from this colour.
Brass · Gold-tone · Copper
works well
Shares the cool bias of Brass, Gold-tone and Copper and sits within 19 points of them in lightness, so expect a quiet, tonal relationship rather than a contrast.
Metal carries more attention than its area suggests, so repetition matters more than the exact finish. More on metals and mixing them
Where it can go wrong
No characteristic failure mode stands out from this colour's measurements — it sits in a comfortable range for lightness and chroma alike. The usual caution still applies: judge it from a large sample, in place, in the light the room actually gets.
Calculated directional adjustments. Some directions converge on the same result from this starting colour — shown as one merged card with an explanation, not repeated duplicates. Generated shades link to a curated profile only when one is close enough.
A dark blue-green that sits across the English blue/green boundary. Lighter and more saturated it becomes turquoise; darker it becomes petrol or dark slate.
