How should a color lab be designed? What colors should the walls and furniture be, so as not to influence the perception of color?
There probably is no single correct answer to this question, but the general best practice is to have the walls and furniture a neutral gray to minimize the impact on the color judgements. A preferred wall paint would be similar to the gray inside a standard light booth. This is typically a neutral with a CIELAB L* of approximately 70. To avoid having a completely gray lab, it is sometimes pleasing to have some texture in the countertops or tabletops (like a granite texture) and black furniture can also be used. You also need to make sure you are using appropriate illumination for your application. Sometimes it is also helpful to paint the wall behind an observer black to minimize any reflection of ambient light from behind the observer onto the color stimuli being evaluated. Lastly, rooms were color measurements are made are often painted completely black to minimize any stray light bouncing around the room and contaminating the measurements.
