Prelude (SW 9620)
Illustrative room. Screen colors vary; test a sample before you paint.
Prelude (SW 9620) is a very deep, neutral brown from Sherwin-Williams: LRV 9, so it reflects about 9 percent of the light that hits it.
Colors that go with Prelude
Four Sherwin-Williams colors picked for Prelude by this site's color math: a trim white, a deeper brown, a quiet contrast from another family, a dark accent. Sherwin-Williams did not choose these pairings.
Closest match in every other brand
Each brand's closest color to Prelude, 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Benjamin Moore | Dragon's Breath | 1547 | 9.2 | 1.9 | very close |
| Behr | Dominant Gray | BXC-17 | 9.4 | 1.1 | very close |
| Valspar | English Tea Party | 6004-2C | 10 | 1.2 | very close |
| PPG Paints | Metropolis | 1006-7 | 10 | 2.4 | noticeably different |
Lighter and darker in Sherwin-Williams
The Sherwin-Williams brown colors nearest to Prelude (LRV 9) by LRV.
Lighter than Prelude
Darker than Prelude
Color data
| Brand | Sherwin-Williams |
|---|---|
| Color code | SW 9620 |
| Hex | #5B564F |
| RGB | 91, 86, 79 |
| HSL | 35°, 7%, 33% |
| LRV (light reflectance value) | 9 |
| Lab L*, a*, b* | 36.8, 0.7, 4.8 |
| Undertone | Warm |
| Temperature | neutral |
| Color family | Brown |
Same paint, two kinds of light
Prelude (SW 9620), published as #5B564F
#4C4D4D
#6A5F4F
These swatches and the rooms above are a simulation, not a measurement. How the visualizer works
Similar shades from Sherwin-Williams
More from Sherwin-Williams
Common questions
- What is the LRV of Prelude (SW 9620)?
- Prelude has an LRV of 9. LRV runs from 0 (black) to 100 (pure white) and measures the share of light a surface reflects, so Prelude is a very deep color.
- What is the closest match to Prelude in another brand?
- Dominant Gray (Behr BXC-17) from Behr, at a deltaE of 1.1 (very close).
- Is Prelude warm or cool?
- Sherwin-Williams lists Prelude as neutral, with a Warm undertone. Its Lab b* value is 4.8; 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.