Prelude vs Rain Cloud

Both from Sherwin-Williams's palette. Hue-wise, Prelude belongs to the grey family and Rain Cloud to the blue-grey family. They have nearly identical light reflectance values (9 vs 11), so they'll read as similarly Dark in most lighting conditions. Prelude runs neutral while Rain Cloud is decidedly cool, which means they'll respond very differently to warm vs cool light sources. With a ΔE of 11.9, 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.