Tourmaline

Uses & contexts

Nearest named colours, and how they differ

• Hunter Green is the closest, at ΔE00 5.4 from tourmaline: 2 points lighter, 6 points more saturated and 16° round towards yellow. That is visibly different side by side, easily confused apart.

• Dark Slate Grey is next, at ΔE00 10.1 from tourmaline: 3 points darker, 9 points less saturated and 37° round towards green. That is clearly different, though many people would use one name for both.

• Dark Olive Green is next, at ΔE00 14.9 from tourmaline: 8 points lighter, 14 points more saturated and 39° round towards yellow. That is a different colour at a glance.

• Petrol Blue is next, at ΔE00 16.4 from tourmaline: 3 points darker, 4 points less saturated and 66° round towards green. That is a different colour at a glance.

Distances are CIEDE2000 between catalogue reference values; lightness and saturation are CIELAB L* and C*. How to read a ΔE figure · Measure any two colours

Using tourmaline in a real space

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 21 it is assertive enough to register on a small object and restrained enough not to dominate a wall.

• Walls and large surfaces

  strong

  Chroma 21 sits inside the range walls and large surfaces carry without taking over the room.

• Secondary surfaces

  strong

  Chroma 21 sits inside the range secondary surfaces carry without taking over the room.

• Furniture

  strong

  Chroma 21 sits inside the range furniture carry without taking over the room.

• Rugs, curtains and bedding

  strong

  Chroma 21 sits inside the range rugs, curtains and bedding carry without taking over the room.

• Trim and joinery

  strong

  Chroma 21 sits inside the range trim and joinery carry without taking over the room.

• Accents and small objects

  strong

  Chroma 21 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.

How it behaves under different lightmoderate

Under warm bulbs

Warm bulbs emit little short-wavelength energy, so there is less for a green 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

Deep colours hold their identity in daylight better than pale ones, because there is more of the range left to work in. This will look most like itself in good indirect light.

In a dim room

At low light levels the eye's colour discrimination genuinely falls and deep colours converge toward each other. This will read as "dark" rather than as its own colour in a dim room unless it is lit.

Compared with the sample card

Expect a modest step darker than the chart, which is normal and is why sampling a large area matters.

What colour temperature actually means · Why two bulbs at the same rating can differ

With wood

• Oak · Pine · Plywood · Light wood (ash, birch, beech)

  works well

  Opposite in undertone to Oak, Pine, Plywood and Light wood (ash, birch, beech), but 32–51 points apart in lightness or far enough round the hue circle that the difference reads as deliberate contrast rather than as a clash.

• Walnut · Dark wood · Reddish wood (mahogany, cherry, teak)

  needs care

  Opposed in undertone to Walnut, Dark wood and Reddish wood (mahogany, cherry, teak) with only 6–12 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

• Brass · Gold-tone · Chrome · Stainless steel · Black metal · Copper

  works well

  Shares the cool bias of Brass, Gold-tone, Chrome, Stainless steel, Black metal and Copper, so they agree about the temperature of the room, and 27–46 points of lightness keep them readable as separate from this colour.

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

• May go muddy under weak warm light. A cool colour with little chroma has nothing in reserve when the source is short of short-wavelength energy, which is the single most common complaint about pale cool greys.

Lighter, darker & directional variants

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.