Agreeable Gray (SW 7029) vs Useful Gray (SW 7050)

Living room with walls painted Sherwin-Williams Agreeable Gray SW 7029 (simulated) — Agreeable Gray SW 7029#D1CBC1, LRV 60

Living room with walls painted Sherwin-Williams Useful Gray SW 7050 (simulated) — Useful Gray SW 7050#CFCABD, LRV 59

Illustrative room. Screen colors vary; test a sample before you paint.

Quick decision

Lighter: Agreeable Gray, LRV 60 vs 59.
Warmer: Useful Gray, both greige (Lab b* 7.1 vs 5.7).
North rooms: About the same: both keep their brightness and color about equally (L* 77.9 vs 77.4 in north light).
Trim that works: Frost Bite SW 9505, #F6F0E5, LRV 88: the Sherwin-Williams white closest in hue to both.
Closeness: deltaE 1.6, very close. At 1.6, test both side by side if the room is dim or north-facing.

See each color

Agreeable GraySherwin-Williams, SW 7029LRV 60, #D1CBC1

More comparisons with Agreeable Gray

Useful GraySherwin-Williams, SW 7050LRV 59, #CFCABD

Agreeable Gray (SW 7029) is about as light as Useful Gray (SW 7050) and slightly cooler: LRV 60 vs 59, deltaE 1.6 (very close).

Side by side

Measure	Agreeable Gray	Useful Gray	Gap
Brand	Sherwin-Williams	Sherwin-Williams
Color code	SW 7029	SW 7050
Hex	#D1CBC1	#CFCABD
RGB	209, 203, 193	207, 202, 189
HSL	37°, 15%, 79%	43°, 16%, 78%
LRV (light reflectance value)	60	59	+1
Lab L*	81.9	81.4	+0.5
Lab a*	0.3	-0.5	+0.9
Lab b*	5.7	7.1	−1.4
Undertone	Warm Beige	Neutral
Temperature	warm	warm
Color family	Greige	Greige

Same paint, two kinds of light

Agreeable Gray (SW 7029), published as #D1CBC1

North light (cool, indirect)
#C0C1BF

South light (warm, direct)
#E3D5C1

Useful Gray (SW 7050), published as #CFCABD

North light (cool, indirect)
#BEC0BB

South light (warm, direct)
#E1D4BD

These swatches and the rooms above are a simulation, not a measurement. How the visualizer works

Which should you pick

Rules of thumb computed from the LRV and Lab values in the table above; no room test was done.

Pick Agreeable Gray (SW 7029) for a small room or a north-facing room, because it is 1 LRV points lighter (60 vs 59), so it bounces back more of the limited light
Pick Agreeable Gray (SW 7029) for a south-facing room, because its Lab b* is 5.7 against 7.1, so it is the cooler of the two and offsets warm direct sun
Pick Useful Gray (SW 7050) to warm a north-facing room, because it is the warmer of the two (Lab b* 7.1), which counters cool indirect light

Closest matches to Agreeable Gray in other brands

Closest matches to Useful Gray in other brands

Common questions

Is Agreeable Gray the same color as Useful Gray?: They are very close: a CIEDE2000 difference of 1.6. Side by side you may see a slight difference between Agreeable Gray and Useful Gray.
Which is lighter, Agreeable Gray or Useful Gray?: Agreeable Gray, with an LRV of 60 against 59.

Full pages

Related comparisons

By Paint Pairs. Color data from manufacturer specifications, via PaintDB. The most-viewed colors are checked against each manufacturer's own color page.

Published 2026-10-01. Updated 2026-10-01.

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.