Essex Green
HC-188 · Benjamin Moore
Benjamin Moore
Essex Green
HC-188
Noticeable green, a green color
- Color family
- Green
- Sold for
- Interior and exterior
Benjamin Moore Essex Green HC-188 is a near-black bottle green, the color people reach for on shutters, front doors and paneled rooms. Its LRV of 6 puts it among the darkest paints in the fan, so the green only declares itself where light lands on it. Our method reads it as a noticeable green, more green than the black-greens it is usually shortlisted against. Benjamin Moore sells it for interior and exterior work alike.
Is Essex Green warm or cool? Undertones by the numbers
leans green
Undertone
Noticeable green
A visible lean you see in daylight.
Measured, Essex Green carries a clear green with a little yellow behind it, enough that it reads as bottle green rather than as a black in any decent light. Against a warm white trim the green comes forward and the wall behaves like a color. Against a cool gray it flattens and can pass for a very dark charcoal. Its nearest relatives are all quieter about it: Black Forest Green HC-187 has less green and more blue, Waller Green CW-510 is grayer, and Hunter Green 2041-10 leans further toward blue-green. Put brass or unfinished oak beside it and the yellow behind the green becomes easy to see.
Essex Green in north, south, east and west light
North light treats Essex Green better than it treats most darks, because cool light strengthens the green instead of draining it and the room reads green rather than black. What that exposure takes is the yellow behind it, so warm wood or a cream trim is worth keeping in the scheme. South light softens it toward sage on the sunlit wall. East rooms swing widest of all, warm green early and gray-green by mid afternoon. Bulbs belong at 2700K or 3000K, since anything cooler drives it gray.
Watch for
- Reads as plain black in a hallway with no window, with the green back only at the door
- Cool 4000K bulbs pull the green out and leave a gray-green nobody picked
- Softens toward sage on a sunlit exterior wall, which catches people out
Best rooms and surfaces for Essex Green
Essex Green is a joinery color first: kitchen cabinets, a butler's pantry, a paneled study, a fireplace wall. On cabinets it is the green that stays green under a white counter, where paler sages drift toward beige. A bedroom in it works when the room has windows on two sides, and it is calmer than a near-black because the green gives the eye something to settle on. A small bathroom takes it well on the vanity and badly on the walls. Where it fails is an open plan of white rooms, since one dark green room in that sequence reads as a hole rather than a change of pace.
Essex Green on an exterior
Benjamin Moore sells Essex Green for exterior use, and outside is where most people have met it: shutters, a front door, a porch floor, sometimes the whole body of a shingled house. Full sun opens it into an obvious green and shade closes it to near-black, so shutters on four elevations show both readings at once. It goes naturally with cream, buff and warm white trim, and with red brick. Against a cool gray body color it looks colder than anyone intended.
Try Essex Green on your own walls
Upload a photo of your room, or the outside of your house, and TryMyHome renders Essex Green onto the walls so you can judge it in your light, with your floors and furniture. Your first five renders are free.
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Essex Green vs Salamander, Black Forest Green, Jasper and Ripe Olive
SalamanderEssex GreenEssex Green vs Salamander 2050-10
Essex Green is a touch darker; undertone noticeable green vs subtle blue-leaning green.
Salamander 2050-10 is the pair people search most often, and the whole question is which way the green leans. Salamander measures a subtle blue-leaning green at an LRV of 6 and reads teal in daylight, while Essex Green keeps its yellow and reads bottle green. Depth is the same, so temperature decides it. Brass, oak and red brick point to Essex Green. Nickel, marble and cool gray point to Salamander.
Black Forest GreenEssex GreenEssex Green vs Black Forest Green HC-187
Essex Green is a touch lighter; undertone noticeable green vs subtle blue-leaning green.
Black Forest Green HC-187 is a point darker at an LRV of 5 with roughly half the green in it, so it reads as a black with a green cast where Essex Green still reads as a green. On a sampled wall indoors the gap is easy to see; on a cabinet door it almost disappears. Outside, Black Forest Green is what you choose when the shutters should recede, and Essex Green when they should be part of the house.
JasperEssex GreenEssex Green vs Jasper SW 6216
Essex Green is a touch lighter; undertone noticeable green vs subtle green.
Jasper SW 6216 is the nearest Sherwin-Williams page color to Essex Green, a point and a half darker at an LRV of 4 and measuring a subtle green. Strength is what separates them: Jasper is the quieter, grayer version, Essex Green the one with more pigment on show. A front door in shade makes the two look alike, and an hour of sun makes Essex Green plainly the greener.
Ripe OliveEssex GreenEssex Green vs Ripe Olive SW 6209
Essex Green is a touch darker; undertone noticeable green vs subtle yellow-leaning green.
Ripe Olive SW 6209 takes the same depth and turns it toward olive. It measures a subtle yellow-leaning green at an LRV of 6, which puts the yellow that hides behind Essex Green out in front, so a wall in it reads dark olive instead of bottle green. A kitchen with warm oak is Ripe Olive's room. Anything meant to look traditional stays with Essex Green.
Questions about Essex Green
Does Essex Green look black?
In poor light it does. Very little comes back off a surface this dark for the eye to work with, so a shutter on a north elevation and a corridor after dusk both come out black. Daylight restores the green, and it appears first on whatever faces the window. Sampling it on the darkest wall in the room is the honest test.
What colors go with Essex Green?
Benjamin Moore's own picks beside it are Powell Buff HC-35, Simply White OC-117 and Overcast OC-43: a buff, a bright white and a soft cream. The warm ones matter most, because a cool white beside it kills the yellow that keeps the green from going gray. Red brick, unlacquered brass, oak and warm stone all work. A cool blue-gray next to it does not.
Is Essex Green a good front door color?
It is one of the standard answers, and it holds up because the green survives being in shadow. A door under a porch reads almost black there and green once the sun swings round, a change most owners enjoy rather than resent. Use an exterior enamel in semi-gloss so the panels catch light, and give it a warm white or buff trim rather than a stark one.
Is there a Sherwin-Williams equivalent to Essex Green?
Roycroft Bottle Green SW 2847 is the closest by measurement, clearly related rather than identical. Rookwood Shutter Green SW 2809 comes next, and Jasper SW 6216 is the nearest one carrying a page here. None of the three is sold as a match, so ordering a sample of each and looking at them on the door is the only way to settle it.
Is Essex Green too dark for a bedroom?
It is dark, but the green makes it easier to live with than a black would be. A bedroom with windows on two walls carries it without trouble; one small window does not, and the room shuts down after dusk. The usual compromise is the headboard wall on its own, or all four walls with a warm white ceiling and lamps instead of downlights.
Get a sample before you paint
Use the visualizer to narrow your shortlist, then confirm the finalist on your actual wall. A peel-and-stick sample of Essex Green, checked in morning and evening light, is the last step before a gallon.
- Made with real paint
- Delivered next day
- Peels off clean
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