Ocean Air

2123-50 · Benjamin Moore

Benjamin Moore

Ocean Air

2123-50

Hex code

#D3E1E1

Light reflectance value (LRV)

71.8Off-white, light and airy

0 black100 white

Undertone

Subtle blue-leaning green, a cool color

Color family: Blue
Sold for: Interior and exterior

Try it on your walls Get a sample

Benjamin Moore Ocean Air 2123-50 is a pale blue-green sitting right at the edge of being an off-white. Its LRV of 72 is bright enough to open a room up while leaving just enough pigment to register as a color against white trim. Our method reads it as a subtle blue-leaning green, so on the wall it lands somewhere between water and air rather than on any definite blue.

Is Ocean Air warm or cool? Undertones by the numbers

leans blue-green

Undertone

Subtle blue-leaning green

graysaturated

A gentle lean, quiet on the wall.

Measured, Ocean Air is a green with a blue lead and very little of either, the kind of tint that only declares itself against something plainer than itself. Next to bright white trim it is clearly a color; next to a gray wall it passes for a white. Warm oak and brass make it look bluer by contrast, while cool gray tile can wash it out completely. Polar Ice 1660 is a hair lighter and Summer Shower 2135-60 a hair darker, which shows how narrow this part of the deck really is.

Ocean Air in north, south, east and west light

North light suits it least and shows it most: the blue comes forward, the whole thing goes cool, and a north-facing bathroom in it can read faintly clinical. Warm wood, brass and 2700K bulbs put the softness back. In a south room the color nearly disappears at midday and looks like a plain white until the sun moves off that wall. East rooms hold it truest through the morning. West light gives a gray hour before lunch and a soft one after. Under 4000K bulbs it turns hospital blue, which is the one thing to avoid here.

Watch for

Vanishes into plain white on a sunlit south wall at midday
Goes clinical blue under 4000K bulbs, which matters most in a bathroom
Against white subway tile the wall reads colored, against gray tile it reads white

Best rooms and surfaces for Ocean Air

Ocean Air is used mostly in bedrooms, and it does what a pale color should: keeps a small room open and gives the walls a tint instead of a color. It is a good ceiling color above white or cream walls, where it reads as cool light rather than paint. On kitchen cabinets it is very pale, closer to a white with a cast than to a blue, so it suits a cottage kitchen more than a modern one. In a hallway with no daylight it goes gray and there is no point to it, and it will not carry a big bright living room on its own.

Ocean Air on an exterior

Ocean Air is sold for exterior use and is one of the softer siding colors in the deck. In full sun it goes almost white, and only the shaded elevations and the eaves show the blue, which is exactly the look people want on a beach house. It is a traditional porch ceiling color for the same reason. On shutters or a front door it is too pale to give any contrast, so leave those for something with more depth in it.

Try Ocean Air on your own walls

Upload a photo of your room, or the outside of your house, and TryMyHome renders Ocean Air onto the walls so you can judge it in your light, with your floors and furniture. Your first five renders are free.

Trusted by 19,897+ happy homeowners

Ocean Air vs Sea Salt, Chantilly Lace, White Dove and Upward

Living room walls rendered in Sherwin-Williams Sea Salt SW 6204, white trim, ceiling and wood floor unchanged

Ocean Air vs Sea Salt SW 6204

Ocean Air is noticeably lighter; undertone subtle blue-leaning green vs subtle green.

Sea Salt SW 6204 is the color people most often hold up against Ocean Air, nine points darker at 63 and with far more green in it. Sea Salt reads as a soft green in most rooms; Ocean Air reads as a cool white with a blue cast. If the wall should be visibly colored, Sea Salt does that. If you want light with a hint of something in it, Ocean Air is the one.

Living room walls rendered in Benjamin Moore Chantilly Lace OC-65, white trim, ceiling and wood floor unchanged

Ocean Air vs Chantilly Lace OC-65

Ocean Air is much darker; undertone subtle blue-leaning green vs faint yellow-leaning green.

Chantilly Lace OC-65 is the plain white Benjamin Moore itself pairs with Ocean Air, eighteen points brighter at 90 and with no color to speak of. Run together, Chantilly Lace on the trim makes Ocean Air read as a definite blue-green; used alone in a bright room, Ocean Air can pass for a white. Putting the two side by side is the quickest way to prove the color is really there.

Living room walls rendered in Benjamin Moore White Dove OC-17, white trim, ceiling and wood floor unchanged

Ocean Air vs White Dove OC-17

Ocean Air is much darker; undertone subtle blue-leaning green vs subtle yellow-leaning green.

White Dove OC-17 is warm where Ocean Air is cool, and eleven points brighter at 83. Using both in one room takes some nerve: the warm white makes Ocean Air look distinctly blue, and Ocean Air makes White Dove look yellow. Pick White Dove for a soft white house and Ocean Air when one room should feel cooler than the rest of it.

Living room walls rendered in Sherwin-Williams Upward SW 6239, white trim, ceiling and wood floor unchanged

Ocean Air vs Upward SW 6239

Ocean Air is much lighter; undertone subtle blue-leaning green vs subtle blue.

Upward SW 6239 takes the same cool direction much further, fifteen points darker at 57 with the blue clearly in charge. Ocean Air keeps its color in reserve and shows it only against white; Upward announces itself from the doorway. In a bedroom where the walls are meant to be blue rather than nearly white, Upward is the sample to order.

Questions about Ocean Air

Does Ocean Air look blue or green?

Blue first, green just behind it. The measurement puts the two almost level with blue slightly ahead, which is why it reads as watery rather than as a sky blue. In warm afternoon light the green shows more; under cool bulbs the blue takes over and the green disappears.

Is Ocean Air a good bathroom color?

Yes, and it is one of the safer pale blues for one. It keeps a small bathroom open, it works with both white and marble tile, and it does not go green against chrome. The risk is the lighting: cool bulbs over a mirror turn it clinical, so keep vanity bulbs at 2700K to 3000K.

What is the Sherwin-Williams version of Ocean Air?

Blue Horizon SW 6497 sits nearest of the Sherwin-Williams colors, a little brighter but with the same watery cast. Iceberg SW 6798 is the next nearest and slightly bluer again. Mountain Air SW 6224 is the closest at the same lightness if matching the brightness matters more than the hue.

What colors go with Ocean Air?

Benjamin Moore pairs it with Chantilly Lace OC-65 as the white, Beneath the Clouds 2131-50 as a mid-tone blue-gray and Metropolitan AF-690 as the deeper neutral. In materials it takes white oak, marble, polished nickel and pale linen, and it looks thin beside orange-toned wood or yellow brick.

What is one shade darker than Ocean Air?

Gossamer Blue 2123-40 at 55 is the next step down its strip, and it is a large one: that color is a proper mid-tone blue rather than a tint. For a smaller move, Summer Shower 2135-60 at 69 or Windy Sky 1639 at 66 add a little depth without changing the character.

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 Ocean Air, checked in morning and evening light, is the last step before a gallon.