Charleston Brown (BM HC-186)
Illustrative room. Screen colors vary; test a sample before you paint.
Charleston Brown (BM HC-186) is a very deep, warm brown from Benjamin Moore: LRV 10.5, so it reflects about 10 percent of the light that hits it.
Colors that go with Charleston Brown
Four Benjamin Moore colors picked for Charleston Brown by this site's color math: a trim white, a deeper brown, 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 Charleston Brown, 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 | Umber Rust | SW 9100 | 10 | 1.1 | very close |
| Behr | Tamarind Fruit | PMD-61 | 9.8 | 2.3 | noticeably different |
| Valspar | Cowboy Hat | 3010-8 | 11 | 3.6 | noticeably different |
| PPG Paints | Molasses | 1079-7 | 11 | 1.9 | very close |
Lighter and darker in Benjamin Moore
The Benjamin Moore brown colors nearest to Charleston Brown (LRV 10.5) by LRV.
Lighter than Charleston Brown
Darker than Charleston Brown
Color data
| Brand | Benjamin Moore |
|---|---|
| Color code | HC-186 |
| Hex | #745239 |
| RGB | 116, 82, 57 |
| HSL | 25°, 34%, 34% |
| LRV (light reflectance value) | 10.5 |
| Lab L*, a*, b* | 37.9, 10.9, 20.3 |
| Undertone | Warm Yellow-Red |
| Temperature | warm |
| Color family | Brown |
Same paint, two kinds of light
Charleston Brown (BM HC-186), published as #745239
#674938
#825B38
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 Charleston Brown (BM HC-186)?
- Charleston Brown has an LRV of 10.5. LRV runs from 0 (black) to 100 (pure white) and measures the share of light a surface reflects, so Charleston Brown is a very deep color.
- What is the closest match to Charleston Brown in another brand?
- Umber Rust (SW 9100) from Sherwin-Williams, at a deltaE of 1.1 (very close).
- Is Charleston Brown warm or cool?
- Benjamin Moore lists Charleston Brown as warm, with a Warm Yellow-Red undertone. Its Lab b* value is 20.3; 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.