Shale (BM 861)
Illustrative room. Screen colors vary; test a sample before you paint.
Shale (BM 861) is a medium, warm greige from Benjamin Moore: LRV 50.5, so it reflects about 50 percent of the light that hits it.
Colors that go with Shale
Four Benjamin Moore colors picked for Shale by this site's color math: a trim white, a deeper greige, a quiet contrast from another family, a dark accent. Benjamin Moore did not choose these pairings.
Closest match in every other brand
Each brand's closest color to Shale, ranked by CIEDE2000 (deltaE): under 1.0 is indistinguishable, 1.0 to 2.3 very close, 2.3 to 5 noticeably different, over 5 clearly different.
| Brand | Closest color | Code | LRV | deltaE | How close |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sherwin-Williams | Roycroft Mist Gray | SW 2844 | 51 | 0.5 | indistinguishable |
| Behr | Tanglewood | N320-3 | 51.3 | 0.6 | indistinguishable |
| Valspar | Frappé | 6003-1B | 49 | 1.0 | indistinguishable |
| PPG Paints | Ghost Writer | 1007-3 | 48 | 1.8 | very close |
Lighter and darker in Benjamin Moore
The Benjamin Moore greige colors nearest to Shale (LRV 50.5) by LRV.
Lighter than Shale
Darker than Shale
Color data
| Brand | Benjamin Moore |
|---|---|
| Color code | 861 |
| Hex | #C3BDB1 |
| RGB | 195, 189, 177 |
| HSL | 40°, 13%, 73% |
| LRV (light reflectance value) | 50.5 |
| Lab L*, a*, b* | 76.8, 0.0, 6.8 |
| Undertone | Warm |
| Temperature | warm |
| Color family | Greige |
Same paint, two kinds of light
Shale (BM 861), published as #C3BDB1
#B2B3AF
#D4C7B1
These swatches and the rooms above are a simulation, not a measurement. How the visualizer works
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Common questions
- What is the LRV of Shale (BM 861)?
- Shale has an LRV of 50.5. LRV runs from 0 (black) to 100 (pure white) and measures the share of light a surface reflects, so Shale is a medium color.
- What is the closest match to Shale in another brand?
- Roycroft Mist Gray (SW 2844) from Sherwin-Williams, at a deltaE of 0.5 (indistinguishable).
- Is Shale warm or cool?
- Benjamin Moore lists Shale as warm, with a Warm undertone. Its Lab b* value is 6.8; a higher b* is warmer and yellower, a lower one cooler and bluer.
Sources: LRV and hex as published by the manufacturer, via PaintDB (CC BY 4.0). Color differences are CIEDE2000 values computed by this site from the hex values (data snapshot 2026-10-01). Color names and codes belong to their manufacturers.