Expressive Plum vs Purple Passage

Both from Sherwin-Williams's palette. Expressive Plum reads as grey, while Purple Passage reads as blue-grey — two distinct hue families, not close cousins. They have nearly identical light reflectance values (12 vs 12), so they'll read as similarly Dark in most lighting conditions. Expressive Plum runs neutral while Purple Passage is decidedly cool, which means they'll respond very differently to warm vs cool light sources. With a ΔE of 11.8, the contrast is hard to miss. These aren't variations on a theme — they're two different answers to the same question. Below, 5 simulated room previews show how each color reads at scale — real-room photos will be added as they become available.