Cracked Pepper vs Tar
Where Cracked Pepper belongs to Behr's range, Tar is a Farrow & Ball color. These are both greys, so the question isn't which hue to choose — it's where within grey to land. They have nearly identical light reflectance values (8 vs 9), so they'll read as similarly Dark in most lighting conditions. Cracked Pepper runs blue while Tar is decidedly neutral, which means they'll respond very differently to warm vs cool light sources. At ΔE 1.4, these are close — the kind of difference that matters when choosing between them, but doesn't read strongly in a finished room. Below you'll find 2 real-room photo comparisons where both colors appear side by side, plus 5 simulated room previews.
Cracked Pepper vs Tar in Real Spaces
2 real rooms side by side. Cracked Pepper and Tar are close enough that the difference can be hard to judge from a chip alone — these photos show how each reads at scale, across different spaces and lighting conditions.
Living Room
In a living room, color works across both daylight and evening light — the same wall can read very differently at noon and at 8pm. The two are close enough that the choice comes down to finer qualities — undertone, texture, what the color sits next to.
Kitchen Cabinets
Kitchen cabinets are constantly compared against adjacent materials, which means subtle differences between these two become much more visible. At this scale the difference is subtle — you'd need them side by side, as shown here, to reliably tell them apart.
Color Details
Cracked Pepper vs Tar Simulated Comparison
5 simulated room previews — drag the slider on each to see Cracked Pepper on one side and Tar on the other.
Digital color is approximate. These simulations are generated from the manufacturer's hex values and overlaid on grayscale room photos — your screen's calibration, brightness, and viewing angle all affect how they render. Before committing to either color, test physical samples in your own space under the light you actually live with.
More Cracked Pepper comparisons
See how Cracked Pepper stacks up against other well-photographed colors across different brands and tones.
