Kendall Charcoal

HC-166 · Benjamin Moore

Benjamin Moore

Kendall Charcoal

HC-166

Hex code

#676662

Light reflectance value (LRV)

14.6Dark, a statement on four walls

0 black100 white

Undertone

Faint yellow-brown, a true neutral

Color family: Neutral
Sold for: Interior and exterior

Try it on your walls Get a sample

Benjamin Moore Kendall Charcoal HC-166 is a dark gray with a trace of brown in it, light enough to be a wall color rather than a stand-in for black. Its LRV of 15 sits in the dark band, dark enough to make a statement on four walls while a room's corners and shadows still show. Our method reads it as a faint yellow-brown. It turns up on siding, kitchen cabinets, libraries and dining rooms.

Is Kendall Charcoal warm or cool? Undertones by the numbers

too close to gray to lean

Undertone

Faint yellow-brown

graysaturated

Barely off gray.

Measured, Kendall Charcoal holds a small amount of yellow-brown and almost no red or blue, which is why nobody agrees on what to call it. A warm room brings the brown up and it reads as a deep greige. A cool room drops the brown and leaves a plain charcoal. Put it beside sage cabinets or an olive rug and it borrows green from them, a context effect rather than pigment. Its nearest relatives make the same point from either side, since Burnt Ember CSP-120 and Overcoat CC-544 both sit within a point of it and neither is easy to name either. White trim is where the brown shows most.

Kendall Charcoal in north, south, east and west light

A north room strips the brown out and leaves a straight cool charcoal, which happens to be the version most people picture anyway, so this is one of the safer darks for that exposure. South light does the reverse and pushes the warmth forward until it reads close to a deep greige. East and west rooms move it a little each way, coolest in the morning on a west wall and warmest at sunset. Bulbs settle the argument: 2700K brings the brown up, 4000K takes it out, 3000K holds the middle.

Watch for

Reads brown in a south room and gray in a north one, out of the same can
Picks up green from sage cabinets or an olive rug and stops looking like a gray
Needs two full coats over a light wall or the brown dries patchy

Best rooms and surfaces for Kendall Charcoal

Kendall Charcoal is a wall color first, and that is what separates it from the near-blacks: a library, a dining room or a bedroom takes it on all four walls and still feels like a room rather than a box. On kitchen cabinets it is one of the most used charcoals, because there is enough light left in it to show a shaker profile, and it sits under both white and wood uppers. A powder room in it looks deliberate instead of dim. It struggles in a windowless space under cool bulbs, where the brown disappears and the wall goes flat, and beside heavy beige tile, which drags it toward green.

Kendall Charcoal on an exterior

Benjamin Moore sells Kendall Charcoal for exterior use, and outside is where it is searched for most. On siding it reads as a warm charcoal in sun and a cool one in shade, so a house with two exposures shows two versions at once, which most owners find easier to live with than a flat black. It is common on shingles with white trim and a darker door, and on shutters against a light body. Full sun lifts it several points. Amherst Gray HC-167 is the usual step up when a whole house in it tests too dark.

Try Kendall Charcoal on your own walls

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

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

Kendall Charcoal vs Iron Ore SW 7069

Kendall Charcoal is noticeably lighter; undertone faint yellow-brown vs none (a true neutral).

Iron Ore SW 7069 is nine points darker at an LRV of 6 and measures a true neutral, so the two are not really competing for the same job. Iron Ore is a near-black for doors, cabinets and siding. Kendall Charcoal is a gray you can put on a wall and still read against. Exteriors are where they get cross-shopped, and the real question is whether the house should look black from the street or gray.

Living room walls rendered in Sherwin-Williams Urbane Bronze SW 7048, white trim, ceiling and wood floor unchanged

Kendall Charcoal vs Urbane Bronze SW 7048

Kendall Charcoal is noticeably lighter; undertone faint yellow-brown vs subtle yellow-brown.

Urbane Bronze SW 7048 is the warmer and darker of the pair, an LRV of 8 with a subtle yellow-brown strong enough to read as bronze rather than as gray. Kendall Charcoal has the same family of lean at a fraction of the strength, so it stays a charcoal while Urbane Bronze commits to brown. Walnut, leather and aged brass belong with Urbane Bronze. White oak and black metal belong with Kendall Charcoal.

Living room walls rendered in Benjamin Moore Chelsea Gray HC-168, white trim, ceiling and wood floor unchanged

Kendall Charcoal vs Chelsea Gray HC-168

Kendall Charcoal is noticeably darker; undertone faint yellow-brown vs subtle yellow-brown.

Chelsea Gray HC-168 is the lighter one by nine points at an LRV of 23, and the two get confused because both are Benjamin Moore charcoals with a warm lean. Chelsea Gray still behaves like an ordinary neutral wall color in a dim room, where Kendall Charcoal wants daylight to work. On cabinet doors Chelsea Gray shows hardware and grain more clearly. A room with one window is safer in Chelsea Gray.

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

Kendall Charcoal vs Peppercorn SW 7674

Kendall Charcoal is noticeably lighter; undertone faint yellow-brown vs none (a true neutral).

Peppercorn SW 7674 measures a true neutral at an LRV of 10, five points darker, and the combination makes it the flatter and colder of the two. What keeps Kendall Charcoal from looking like primer across a big wall is exactly the trace of brown that Peppercorn does not have. A modern room with no wood in it is Peppercorn territory. Where there is oak, brick or brass to answer, Kendall Charcoal has something to answer with.

Living room walls rendered in Benjamin Moore Iron Mountain 2134-30, white trim, ceiling and wood floor unchanged

Kendall Charcoal vs Iron Mountain 2134-30

Kendall Charcoal is noticeably lighter; undertone faint yellow-brown vs faint orange.

Iron Mountain 2134-30 runs four points darker at an LRV of 11 with a faint orange in place of a faint yellow-brown, a difference too small for most people to name and just large enough to see. Set together, Iron Mountain is the near-black and Kendall Charcoal is the gray. Decide between them on depth, because at this strength neither undertone will settle anything.

Questions about Kendall Charcoal

Does Kendall Charcoal look brown or green?

Both, depending on the neighbor. The measurement holds a small amount of yellow-brown, so a warm room draws the brown out, while sage cabinets or an olive rug borrow the green side of that same lean. On its own in daylight it reads as a dark gray, and the movement in either direction is slight rather than dramatic.

What colors go with Kendall Charcoal?

Benjamin Moore's own picks are Simply White OC-117, Snow White OC-66, Hawthorne Yellow HC-4 and Harbor Haze 2136-60: two crisp whites, a soft yellow and a pale blue. The whites carry the most weight, since a warm white next to it doubles the brown. White oak, brick, aged brass and cream limestone all work. Heavy beige is the pairing to avoid.

What is one shade lighter than Kendall Charcoal?

Amherst Gray HC-167 is the step up on Benjamin Moore's list of relatives for it, about four points lighter, and it is the usual answer when Kendall Charcoal tests too heavy on the wall. Ashwood Moss 1484 is the step down, four points darker with a greener cast to it. Among its nearest matches, Overcoat CC-544 is a hair lighter and a little less brown.

Is there a Sherwin-Williams equivalent to Kendall Charcoal?

Storm Warning SW 9555 is the closest by measurement, near enough that separating the two on a wall would be difficult. Grizzle Gray SW 7068 comes next and reads slightly greener. Neither is sold as a match for it, so ask a Sherwin-Williams store to mix the Benjamin Moore formula if the color has to be exact.

Is Kendall Charcoal dark enough for kitchen cabinets?

Yes, and part of why it is used so much on cabinets is that it is not black. At this depth a shaker rail and stile still catch light, so the doors read as joinery instead of as flat panels. Base cabinets in it under a light counter, with white or wood uppers above, is the arrangement people build around it, in a satin or semi-gloss enamel.

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 Kendall Charcoal, checked in morning and evening light, is the last step before a gallon.