Iron Mountain

2134-30 · Benjamin Moore

Benjamin Moore

Iron Mountain

2134-30

Hex code

#575553

Light reflectance value (LRV)

11Very dark, close to black on a wall

0 black100 white

Undertone

Faint orange, a true neutral

Color family: Neutral
Sold for: Interior and exterior

Try it on your walls Get a sample

Benjamin Moore Iron Mountain 2134-30 is a very dark gray with barely any color in it, one step short of behaving like a black. Its LRV of 11 means the paint takes in most of the light in the room and shows its lean only where daylight lands on it directly. Our method reads it as a faint orange, about the smallest warmth a color can carry. Siding, shutters, cabinet bases and doors are its usual work.

Is Iron Mountain warm or cool? Undertones by the numbers

too close to gray to lean

Undertone

Faint orange

graysaturated

Barely off gray.

Measured, Iron Mountain holds a faint orange and next to nothing else, a smaller lean than most near-blacks carry and a good deal smaller than the name suggests. It behaves as a warm-leaning charcoal in practice: the warmth appears on a sunlit patch and vanishes in shadow, so one wall can look warmer than the wall opposite it. Gray 2121-10 is its closest relative and runs a hair cooler; Dragon's Breath 1547 is warmer and deeper than both. The thing it never does is turn brown, which is the mistake people make when they read the name and expect rust.

Iron Mountain in north, south, east and west light

A north room takes away what little warmth it has and leaves a cool charcoal, which is less a failure than a different color from the one on the chip, so buy the sample before the gallon. South light works the other way and the warm lean becomes visible on the sunlit wall. An east room hardly moves it from morning to night. In a west room the last hour of sun is the only moment the warmth is obvious. Bulbs matter more than exposure here: 2700K draws the lean out and 4000K removes it.

Watch for

A sunlit wall can look warmer than the shaded wall opposite, from one can of paint
The name promises rust and the paint does not deliver any, so sample it first
Next to a black window frame it drops back and reads as a mid gray

Best rooms and surfaces for Iron Mountain

Iron Mountain earns its keep outdoors and on joinery rather than across interior walls. Indoors it suits a paneled room, a mudroom or a laundry, where the surfaces are cabinetry and doors instead of big flat planes. On kitchen cabinets it goes deep enough to read as near-black under a white counter while the rails and stiles still show. A full-height bookcase in it steps back and lets the books do the work. Four walls of it want real daylight or a lot of lamps, and a windowless room is where it disappoints, because the faint warmth goes and only gray is left.

Iron Mountain on an exterior

Benjamin Moore sells Iron Mountain for exterior use. On trim, shutters and a garage door it holds an edge against a light body color without the hardness a black would bring, and the faint warmth stops it looking blue beside cream. A front door under a porch roof stays where you put it rather than shifting through the day, which is most of what people want from a dark door. On window frames it reads charcoal from the street and near-black from the path.

Try Iron Mountain on your own walls

Upload a photo of your room, or the outside of your house, and TryMyHome renders Iron Mountain 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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Iron Mountain vs Wrought Iron, Kendall Charcoal, Iron Ore and Peppercorn

Living room walls rendered in Benjamin Moore Wrought Iron 2124-10, white trim, ceiling and wood floor unchanged

Iron Mountain vs Wrought Iron 2124-10

Iron Mountain is a touch lighter; undertone faint orange vs none (a true neutral).

Wrought Iron 2124-10 runs about three points darker at an LRV of 8 and measures a true neutral where Iron Mountain keeps a faint warm lean. In a room that settles the mood between them: Wrought Iron holds still all day, Iron Mountain shifts a little with the sun. Doors and sash meant to read black belong to Wrought Iron. Siding and walls meant to stay gray belong to Iron Mountain.

Living room walls rendered in Benjamin Moore Kendall Charcoal HC-166, white trim, ceiling and wood floor unchanged

Iron Mountain vs Kendall Charcoal HC-166

Iron Mountain is noticeably darker; undertone faint orange vs faint yellow-brown.

Kendall Charcoal HC-166 is four points lighter at an LRV of 15, and the pair get cross-shopped for the same exterior job. The gap shows from the street, where a house in Kendall Charcoal still reads gray and a house in Iron Mountain reads charcoal heading toward black. Kendall Charcoal is the one that also works inside a room. Iron Mountain is the one that works on a whole house.

Living room walls rendered in Sherwin-Williams Iron Ore SW 7069, white trim, ceiling and wood floor unchanged

Iron Mountain vs Iron Ore SW 7069

Iron Mountain is noticeably lighter; undertone faint orange vs none (a true neutral).

Iron Ore SW 7069 is five points darker at an LRV of 6 and measures a true neutral, so it is both deeper and flatter than Iron Mountain. The small amount of warmth Iron Mountain keeps is what softens sunlit siding and stops a big elevation looking graphic. Iron Ore is the match for a modern house with black windows. Iron Mountain is the match for shingles and cream trim.

Living room walls rendered in Sherwin-Williams Peppercorn SW 7674, white trim, ceiling and wood floor unchanged

Iron Mountain vs Peppercorn SW 7674

Iron Mountain is a touch lighter; undertone faint orange vs none (a true neutral).

Peppercorn SW 7674 is the nearest Sherwin-Williams color to Iron Mountain, close enough that swapping one swatch for the other would go unnoticed. Peppercorn measures a true neutral at an LRV of 10, a point down, so all that separates them is the way Iron Mountain warms a fraction in sun while Peppercorn stays where it is. Either does the job; take whichever brand the rest of the house already uses.

Questions about Iron Mountain

Does Iron Mountain look brown or blue?

Neither, in most rooms. The measurement puts a faint orange in it, which is warmth rather than brown, and there is no blue there at all to find. It can be pushed to look blue by a warm cream or a yellow-toned oak beside it, the way any gray can. Put a true taupe next to it and it swings back and reads cool.

What colors go with Iron Mountain?

Benjamin Moore's own picks beside it are White Dove OC-17, Snowfall White OC-118 and Barren Plain 2111-60: a soft white, a bright white and a pale warm gray, which is the standard kit for a near-black. Outside, a light body with Iron Mountain shutters is the usual arrangement. Inside, it takes oak, brick and blackened steel, and it does not need a second gray in the room.

What is one shade lighter than Iron Mountain?

Shark Gray 2134-40 is the next step up on its own strip, twelve points lighter and a clear mid gray rather than a near-black, which is a bigger jump than most strips ask you to make. Midsummer Night 2134-20 is the step down at about three points darker, and below that Night Horizon 2134-10 goes deeper again with a purple lean.

Is there a Sherwin-Williams equivalent to Iron Mountain?

Peppercorn SW 7674 is the closest by measurement and works as a substitute in practice. Stony Creek SW 9610 is the next nearest and slightly warmer. Neither carries the name, but the distances are small enough that a house repainted part in one brand and part in the other will not show a seam.

Is Iron Mountain a good exterior siding color?

Yes, and siding is the most searched use for it. A whole house in it reads charcoal rather than black, and the faint warmth keeps the walls from going blue against cream trim or red brick. Full sun lifts it several points, so a south elevation and a north elevation will never look identical from the driveway.

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 Iron Mountain, checked in morning and evening light, is the last step before a gallon.