Sanzo Wada Combination No. 11: Hex Codes & Room Preview

Combination No. 11 in use

The palette applied to simple layouts. Colors are assigned to roles automatically; try other arrangements.

Color study

A dictionary of color

Background, surface, text and accent, taken from one of Wada’s combinations.

ExploreLearn more

Combination No. 11 as a living room

Painted following the 60-30-10 rule: about 60% wall color, 30% for the sofa, 10% for cushions, throw and vase. A fourth color goes to the rug and curtains; otherwise they stay undyed. Floor and ceiling stay neutral; the print shows the whole palette.

Readable text pairs

No pair of colors in this combination reaches a contrast of 3:1, so it is best used without text.

Analysis

Character

Light & muted

Lightness 81 (range 75–87)
Colorfulness 0.043

Average OKLCH lightness (0–100) and chroma (colorfulness).

Harmony

Accented neutral

Neutral colors with a single colored accent.

A heuristic based on the painter’s color wheel. Wada’s combinations often ignore textbook rules, which is part of their appeal.

Temperature

Warm

Ivory BuffWarm
Mineral GrayNeutral

Reds, oranges and yellows count as warm; greens, blues and violets as cool.

Distinctness

ΔE 22

Closest pair ΔE 21.9 · average ΔE 21.9

CIEDE2000 color difference. Below about 10 colors look related; above 30 they are clearly distinct.

Contrast

AaBest text pair: Ivory Buff on Mineral Gray (1.5:1)

Contrast	WCAG	APCA Lc
AaAaIvory Buff · Mineral Gray	1.5:1Low	23 / 20

WCAG 2 contrast ratio for text, and APCA lightness contrast (Lc) for each text/background direction.

Similar combinations

The closest palettes in perceptual color space (OKLab).

Export

Copy the palette as code or download it as an image.

/* Sanzo Wada, combination No. 11 */
:root {
  --ivory-buff: #ebd3a2; /* Ivory Buff */
  --mineral-gray: #a2b0ad; /* Mineral Gray */
}

/* Tailwind CSS v4 – Sanzo Wada, combination No. 11 */
@theme {
  --color-ivory-buff: #ebd3a2;
  --color-mineral-gray: #a2b0ad;
}

{
  "id": 11,
  "source": "Sanzo Wada, A Dictionary of Color Combinations",
  "colors": [
    {
      "name": "Ivory Buff",
      "hex": "#ebd3a2",
      "rgb": [
        235,
        211,
        162
      ],
      "cmyk": [
        8,
        15,
        40,
        0
      ]
    },
    {
      "name": "Mineral Gray",
      "hex": "#a2b0ad",
      "rgb": [
        162,
        176,
        173
      ],
      "cmyk": [
        33,
        18,
        25,
        7
      ]
    }
  ]
}

More combinations with Ivory Buff

More combinations with Mineral Gray

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