Hale Navy

HC-154 · Benjamin Moore

Benjamin Moore

Hale Navy

HC-154

Hex code

#434B56

Light reflectance value (LRV)

8.4Very dark, close to black on a wall

0 black100 white

Undertone

Subtle blue, a cool color

Color family: Neutral
Sold for: Interior and exterior

Try it on your walls Get a sample

Benjamin Moore Hale Navy HC-154 is a deep navy pulled back with gray, dark enough to do the job of a black while the blue is still visible. Its LRV of 8 puts it among the darkest colors people paint on full walls, so it absorbs light rather than returning it. Our method reads it as a subtle blue. It is used most on cabinets, islands, front doors and studies.

Is Hale Navy warm or cool? Undertones by the numbers

leans blue

Undertone

Subtle blue

graysaturated

A gentle lean, quiet on the wall.

Measured, Hale Navy carries a small amount of blue and almost nothing of red or green, so the navy is real but held down by gray. Against a bright white trim the blue steps forward and the color reads plainly as navy. Against oak flooring or brass the gray takes over and it can pass for a very dark charcoal. Its own relatives split around it: Mysterious AF-565 is hard to separate from it on a wall, while Blue Note 2129-30 carries more blue and looks like a truer navy in the same room. Beside gray quartz it turns colder than the chip led you to expect.

Hale Navy in north, south, east and west light

North rooms cost Hale Navy the most: the cool light flattens it and a small north bedroom can feel chilly, so paint a sample on the wall farthest from the window before you commit. South light suits it best, warm enough to offset the blue and show the color close to the chip. East rooms give a soft version in the morning that cools off after lunch, and west rooms do the opposite, dull early and richest at sunset. Bulbs at 3000K keep it honest; 4000K hardens the blue.

Watch for

Goes flat and cold in a small north room, more than the darks with a warm lean do
Turns into a plain black once the lamps are low and the blue drops out
Cool 4000K LEDs push it toward a brighter, harder blue than the chip

Best rooms and surfaces for Hale Navy

Hale Navy runs on cabinets, islands and built-ins far more often than on four walls, and that is where its depth pays: a navy base under a light counter reads as color rather than as a dark room. On walls it belongs in an office, a study or a dining room, where the light is controlled and the room is meant to close in. A small bathroom with one window shrinks fast under it, so keep it to the vanity there. Behind a bed it works as a single wall, but choose the wall that faces the window or the blue never appears. Warm floors and brass pulls are the usual counterweights.

Hale Navy on an exterior

Benjamin Moore sells Hale Navy for exterior use and it is a common body color on shingle and lap siding. Full sun brings the blue out and the house reads lighter than the same paint does indoors; on a shaded north elevation it drops close to black. On a front door it is the steady navy choice because a porch roof does not turn it purple the way it turns some navies. White trim sharpens the edges and a cream trim softens them.

Try Hale Navy on your own walls

Upload a photo of your room, or the outside of your house, and TryMyHome renders Hale Navy 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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Hale Navy vs Naval, Charcoal Blue, Cyberspace and Hague Blue

Living room walls rendered in Sherwin-Williams Naval SW 6244, white trim, ceiling and wood floor unchanged

Hale Navy vs Naval SW 6244

Hale Navy is noticeably lighter; undertone subtle blue vs noticeable blue.

Naval SW 6244 is the Sherwin-Williams navy weighed against Hale Navy most often, and it is the bolder of the pair. Naval measures a noticeable blue at an LRV of 5, so it is darker and it reads as a saturated navy on the wall. Hale Navy holds more gray and stays nearer a dark neutral. Take Naval when the blue is meant to be the subject of the room, and Hale Navy when it should sit behind the furniture.

Living room walls rendered in Sherwin-Williams Charcoal Blue SW 2739, white trim, ceiling and wood floor unchanged

Hale Navy vs Charcoal Blue SW 2739

Hale Navy is a touch lighter; undertone subtle blue vs noticeable blue.

Charcoal Blue SW 2739 sits close enough that a chip taped to the wall can fool you, yet it runs darker at an LRV of 6 and more clearly blue. Hale Navy still answers to gray in weak light; Charcoal Blue keeps its blue there. That shows on cabinets, where Charcoal Blue holds color under a dark counter and Hale Navy goes quiet. Daylight favors Charcoal Blue, and rooms without much of it favor Hale Navy.

Living room walls rendered in Sherwin-Williams Cyberspace SW 7076, white trim, ceiling and wood floor unchanged

Hale Navy vs Cyberspace SW 7076

Hale Navy is a touch lighter; undertone subtle blue vs faint blue.

Cyberspace SW 7076 answers the same brief with almost no blue left in it. Measured at a faint blue and an LRV of 6, it is a dark blue-gray, and set beside Hale Navy it is obviously the gray one. A room that wants a very dark wall without naming a color takes Cyberspace. A room that wants people to see navy takes Hale Navy.

Living room walls rendered in Farrow & Ball Hague Blue No. 30, white trim, ceiling and wood floor unchanged

Hale Navy vs Hague Blue No. 30

Hale Navy is a touch lighter; undertone subtle blue vs noticeable blue.

Hague Blue No. 30 is Farrow & Ball's answer to the same question and the more pigmented of the two. It measures a noticeable blue at an LRV of 7, close to Hale Navy for depth but with more color showing, so it reads inky rather than neutral. Hale Navy is the quieter option and the easier one to sit beside existing gray trim. Hague Blue wants a room with real daylight to pay it back.

Questions about Hale Navy

Is there a Sherwin-Williams equivalent of Hale Navy?

By measurement the nearest is Sea Mariner SW 9640, close enough that few people would separate the two once they are on a wall. Charcoal Blue SW 2739 and Sea Serpent SW 7615 come next and both have pages here. Sherwin-Williams sells nothing under a matching name, so a store color match from the Benjamin Moore formula is the exact route.

Does Hale Navy look black?

In low light it does. So little light comes back off a wall this dark that the eye stops picking up the blue, and a Hale Navy hallway at night reads black. Daylight returns the navy, and it shows first on a surface angled toward a window, such as a cabinet door, a stair rail or the face of an island.

What colors go with Hale Navy?

Benjamin Moore's own picks beside it are White Dove OC-17, Glacier White OC-37, Coventry Gray HC-169 and Lenox Tan HC-44: a soft white, a crisp white, a light gray and a tan. Warm wood, unlacquered brass and cream stone all keep it from going cold. What does not work is another blue-gray of similar depth, because neither one then reads as a color.

Is Hale Navy a good front door color?

It is one of the most used, because it stays navy in shade. A porch roof keeps a door in permanent shadow, where plenty of navies slide toward purple or black, and the gray in this one holds it steady. Use an exterior enamel in satin or semi-gloss so the surface gives something back, and expect a south-facing door to fade before a north-facing one.

What is one shade lighter than Hale Navy?

Evening Dove 2128-30 is the step up on Benjamin Moore's list of relatives for it, roughly four points lighter and still dark enough to read as a near-black blue. If the lighter step should stay navy rather than turn gray, Newburyport Blue HC-155 and Van Deusen Blue HC-156 are the two people cross-shop against it, both a few points lighter and more openly blue. Going darker, Evening Sky 833 is deeper with a purple lean, and Gentleman's Gray 2062-20 is colder.

Is Hale Navy too dark for a bedroom?

That depends on the window. On all four walls of a bedroom with one small window it closes in, and the people who do it anyway usually keep a white ceiling and a pale floor. With a large window or two exposures it is comfortable, and the easiest version is the headboard wall alone with the other three left light.

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 Hale Navy, checked in morning and evening light, is the last step before a gallon.