Leviton "Almond" vs Pass & Seymour "light almond"

[miamicanes]

I'm going to be using Pass & Seymour jumbo unbreakable Decora-style light-almond outlets and faceplates in my newly-remodeled living room. HOWEVER, I'm stuck with one of the switches, which needs to be a "double decora" style switch (two switches with the formfactor of a single decora paddle). I already have Leviton double & triple-decora switches in multiple other places in the house. Leviton's flip from side to side. Pass & Seymour's flip up and down. I'd like to keep the living room consistent with the other rooms and use Leviton's switches there, too. Mixing WHITE Leviton switches and P&S jumbo unbreakable wallplates was no big deal, because "white is white". But I'm agonizing over whether Almond (Leviton) and Light almond (P&S) are close enough to get away with.

I feel really insecure about it, because I'm technically colorblind. I'm mildly trichromanomalous... I see RGB, but my red-peak is shifted towards my green peak compared to "99% norm", so I can't reliably tell the difference between subtly-different pastel shades. In computer terms, if normal vision has 8 bits for red, green, and blue, my red perception only has 7 bits. What's weird is that I actually didn't even KNOW until about 5 years ago when I had laser surgery... as part of the pre-op testing, the doctor had me take a test where you're shown a yellow laser and have to match it by adjusting the intensity of red and green lasers, then had me do the Munsell color-matching test... both of which I consistently failed. In a less technologically-sophisticated era, I would have just been written off as having bad taste in colors. Now, I know it's not my fault, and that I just have messed up reference points. But it makes picking paint in neutral grayish shades an absolute nightmare, because I could put ever-so-slightly pinkish-cream trim next to ever-so-slightly greenish-yellow beige and never know anything is wrong.

Anyway, getting back to the original point... are the two shades of almond close enough to get away with mixing Leviton switches with P&S plates? Are they IDENTICAL enough to get away with going a step further, and putting a P&S single paddle switch right next to a Leviton double-decora switch?

 

[opie]

Anyway, getting back to the original point... are the two shades of almond close enough to get away with mixing Leviton switches with P&S plates? Are they IDENTICAL enough to get away with going a step further, and putting a P&S single paddle switch right next to a Leviton double-decora switch?

To me, the difference is noticeable. Most the Electricians I work with like to use P&S for the outlets and such so I am always dealing with this. I suppose it's a matter of tolerance and WAF but it would bug me.

Edit:

I just reread your post and I'm not sure I understand entirely. If the outlets are P&S but the switches are Leviton and they are never next to each other it might not be too noticeable. But mixing in the same box will be obvious as the P&S Light Almond is much lighter.

 

[miamicanes]

Just to clarify -- all the wallplates (switches AND wall outlets) are Pass & Seymour light almond "decorator" style unbreakable jumbo plates. The wall outlets are P&S light almond decorator-style, because there was no reason to do otherwise (same price as Leviton, perfect color match for plates). The problem with the light switches is that I have two double-gang boxes on adjacent perpendicular walls, both roughly 4 feet from the same corner. One will have a pair of single-paddle switches. The other will have a single paddle switch and a double-decora(tor) switch.

Actually, here's a thought... if I put a pair of "normal" toggle switches in one, and a toggle switch + Leviton double-decora switch in the other (still using P&S plates), would the Leviton double-decora still clash with the P&S wallplate? I was kind of thinking that if the switch adjacent to the double-decora were a toggle switch, the color difference might be less obvious since it would be harder to visually compare them directly (the toggle switch wouldn't have broad, flat areas of color to make it easy to compare with the double-decora switch next to it). If I used a Leviton toggle switch, it would be small relative to the expanse of wallplate surrounding it, and would be visually tied by color to the double-decora next to it. If I used a P&S toggle switch, it would blend in with the wallplate, and people might think the double-decora switch just looked different because it was a different switch type, or was shiny, or something. At least, that's the theory... but like I said, I can't really judge for myself. Side by side, I can see a slight difference if I compare them under cheap fluorescent lights, but if you handed me a receptacle from one or the other and asked me to guess whether it was "Leviton Almond" or "P&S Light Almond" without letting me compare it side by side to a reference item from each brand, I'd be wrong at least half the time, and making lucky guesses the other half of the time :huh:

 

[miamicanes]

Well, it looks like the matter is settled... Leviton "almond" double-Decora switches look bad surrounded by Pass & Seymour "Light Almond" wallplates. This morning, I bought a few switches of each brand, carefully (so I can return them) surrounded them with various permutations of wallplates, and accosted random strangers in front of my house to get their opinions. Specifically, I showed them the 4 permutations, and asked them to pick the worst-looking. Every single one picked the Leviton Double-Decora with P&S wallplate without even a moment's hesitation.

On a more positive note, I went hunting at leviton.com, and it looks like they DO have a color called "light almond" that Home Depot just doesn't sell, so I decided to gamble $25 and order 4 switches online (along with two double-gang "light almond" wallplates) in the hope that they'll be a better match.