Midnight Hour (PPG 1038-7)
Illustrative room. Screen colors vary; test a sample before you paint.
Midnight Hour (PPG 1038-7) is a very deep, cool black from PPG Paints: LRV 6, so it reflects about 6 percent of the light that hits it.
Colors that go with Midnight Hour
Three PPG Paints colors picked for Midnight Hour by this site's color math: a trim white, a quiet contrast from another family, a dark accent. PPG Paints did not choose these pairings.
Closest match in every other brand
Each brand's closest color to Midnight Hour, 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 | Sea Serpent | SW 7615 | 7 | 1.6 | very close |
| Benjamin Moore | Blue Note | 2129-30 | 9 | 2.1 | very close |
| Behr | Night Shade | 740F-7 | 5.8 | 1.5 | very close |
| Valspar | Pitch Cobalt | 5010-2 | 7 | 2.9 | noticeably different |
Lighter and darker in PPG Paints
The PPG Paints black colors nearest to Midnight Hour (LRV 6) by LRV.
Darker than Midnight Hour
Color data
| Brand | PPG Paints |
|---|---|
| Color code | 1038-7 |
| Hex | #3B484F |
| RGB | 59, 72, 79 |
| HSL | 201°, 14%, 27% |
| LRV (light reflectance value) | 6 |
| Lab L*, a*, b* | 29.7, -3.4, -5.9 |
| Undertone | Cool |
| Temperature | cool |
| Color family | Black |
Same paint, two kinds of light
Midnight Hour (PPG 1038-7), published as #3B484F
#2A404D
#4B504F
These swatches and the rooms above are a simulation, not a measurement. How the visualizer works
Similar shades from PPG Paints
More from PPG Paints
Common questions
- What is the LRV of Midnight Hour (PPG 1038-7)?
- Midnight Hour has an LRV of 6. LRV runs from 0 (black) to 100 (pure white) and measures the share of light a surface reflects, so Midnight Hour is a very deep color.
- What is the closest match to Midnight Hour in another brand?
- Night Shade (Behr 740F-7) from Behr, at a deltaE of 1.5 (very close).
- Is Midnight Hour warm or cool?
- PPG Paints lists Midnight Hour as cool, with a Cool undertone. Its Lab b* value is -5.9; 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.