Drop Cloth vs Stiffkey Blue
Both from Farrow & Ball's palette. Hue-wise, Drop Cloth belongs to the beige-greige family and Stiffkey Blue to the blue family. Drop Cloth (LRV 52) reflects noticeably more light than Stiffkey Blue (LRV 10), a difference of 42 points that becomes especially apparent in rooms with limited natural light. Drop Cloth runs warm while Stiffkey Blue is decidedly cool, which means they'll respond very differently to warm vs cool light sources. With a ΔE of 44.8, the contrast is hard to miss. These aren't variations on a theme — they're two different answers to the same question. Below you'll find 6 real-room photo comparisons where both colors appear side by side, plus 5 simulated room previews.
Drop Cloth vs Stiffkey Blue in Real Spaces
6 real rooms side by side. Seeing Drop Cloth and Stiffkey Blue in actual rooms makes the difference concrete; browse the spaces below to get a feel for how each color lives on a wall.
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 LRV gap is large enough that Drop Cloth will make the room feel meaningfully brighter than Stiffkey Blue would.
Bedroom
The context that matters most in a bedroom is how a color reads under a bedside lamp at night, not under noon daylight. Drop Cloth reflects noticeably more light off the walls, making the space read more open than Stiffkey Blue.
Dining Room
A dining room lit by a dimmed pendant or candles is one of the most forgiving environments for paint — warm light softens almost everything. Drop Cloth returns significantly more light to the room — in a smaller or darker space, that difference in perceived brightness is hard to miss.
Bathroom
Bathrooms are one of the few spaces where you're genuinely enclosed by the paint color, which makes the choice between these two more consequential. Drop Cloth reflects noticeably more light off the walls, making the space read more open than Stiffkey Blue.
Front Door
A front door is a focal point — small color differences read clearly at this concentrated scale. The LRV gap is large enough that Drop Cloth will make the room feel meaningfully brighter than Stiffkey Blue would.
Kitchen Cabinets
Kitchen cabinets are constantly compared against adjacent materials, which means subtle differences between these two become much more visible. Drop Cloth reflects noticeably more light off the walls, making the space read more open than Stiffkey Blue.
Color Details
Drop Cloth vs Stiffkey Blue Simulated Comparison
5 simulated room previews — drag the slider on each to see Drop Cloth on one side and Stiffkey Blue 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 Drop Cloth comparisons
See how Drop Cloth stacks up against other well-photographed colors across different brands and tones.
Ammonite reflects far more light (LRV 69 vs 52), opening up a space where Drop Cloth encloses it.
A 8-point LRV gap (52 vs 44) makes Drop Cloth the marginally brighter of the two.