Silhouette

AF-655 · Benjamin Moore

Benjamin Moore

Silhouette

AF-655

Hex code

#57504C

Light reflectance value (LRV)

10.2Very dark, close to black on a wall

0 black100 white

Undertone

Faint orange, a true neutral

Color family: Neutral
Sold for: Interior and exterior

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Benjamin Moore Silhouette AF-655 is a very dark warm gray, and Benjamin Moore named it Color of the Year for 2026. Its LRV of 10 means the wall sends back almost nothing, so it lands as a soft black and keeps only a hint of its warmth. Our method reads it as a faint orange, warm enough to live with wood and far too quiet to be called a brown. Cabinets, bedrooms and siding are where it is used.

Is Silhouette warm or cool? Undertones by the numbers

too close to gray to lean

Undertone

Faint orange

graysaturated

Barely off gray.

Measured, Silhouette carries a faint orange and nothing else worth naming, which at this depth adds up to a warm gray rather than a brown. Beside white trim the warmth is the first thing you see, and it is what keeps the color from reading as a cold black. Beside oak or walnut that same warmth vanishes into the wood and the wall goes back to looking like dark gray. Its relatives run warmer still: Stone Brown 2112-30 and Topeka Taupe 1463 both tip into taupe, while Willow CC-542 is the nearest of them and hard to separate. Shadow 2117-30, the other near-black people set against it, goes purple where this one goes brown.

Silhouette in north, south, east and west light

North light is where Silhouette is least eventful: it drops a shade deeper and cooler and the orange goes quiet, a kinder result than most warm darks manage in that exposure. South light does the most for it and warms the color until the brown is plain to see. An east room holds it steady from morning to evening. A west room is dull early and richest in the last hour of sun. Since the lean is warm, 2700K bulbs exaggerate it and 4000K cancels it, which leaves 3000K as the setting that matches the chip.

Watch for

Under 4000K downlights the warmth disappears and it reads as a plain dark gray
Beside cool gray tile the brown suddenly becomes the thing you notice
On a full wall the gap to the step above it is wider than the two chips suggest

Best rooms and surfaces for Silhouette

Silhouette works where its warmth has something to answer: a bedroom with wood floors, a study lined with shelves, a dining room lit by lamps instead of downlights. On kitchen cabinets it is the softer alternative to a black, holding enough brown to sit beside white oak and unlacquered brass. In a small bathroom it belongs on the vanity rather than the walls, because a windowless room at this depth loses the color completely. Used on all four bedroom walls it needs a light ceiling and a light floor to stay comfortable, and the bedding usually has to stay pale for the same reason.

Silhouette on an exterior

Benjamin Moore sells Silhouette for exterior use, and the warmth is its argument outside: in full sun it opens into a soft brown-black rather than going flat, and in shade it settles back toward black. That range suits a house with wood or stone across the front, where a cold black would argue with the material. It is used on siding with a cream trim, and on shutters and a door against a light body color. A south wall will fade first.

Try Silhouette on your own walls

Upload a photo of your room, or the outside of your house, and TryMyHome renders Silhouette 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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Silhouette vs Urbane Bronze, Black Fox, Kendall Charcoal and Iron Ore

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

Silhouette vs Urbane Bronze SW 7048

Silhouette is a touch lighter; undertone faint orange vs subtle yellow-brown.

Urbane Bronze SW 7048 is the comparison the searches are full of, and the pair really are close: both are very dark warm neutrals, with Urbane Bronze about two points deeper at an LRV of 8. On a wall the split is that Urbane Bronze reads clearly bronze while Silhouette keeps its warmth in reserve and stays nearer a gray. A room meant to look brown wants Urbane Bronze. A room meant simply to look dark wants Silhouette.

Living room walls rendered in Sherwin-Williams Black Fox SW 7020, white trim, ceiling and wood floor unchanged

Silhouette vs Black Fox SW 7020

Silhouette is noticeably lighter; undertone faint orange vs subtle orange.

Black Fox SW 7020 carries the same idea further into brown. It measures a subtle orange at an LRV of 7, deeper than Silhouette and with more of that lean on show, so on siding it lands as a dark chocolate where Silhouette lands as a warm charcoal. On trim and shutters the gap barely registers; across a whole wall it is unmistakable.

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

Silhouette vs Kendall Charcoal HC-166

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

Kendall Charcoal HC-166 is the step directly above Silhouette on the strip they share, four points lighter at an LRV of 15, and the two get shortlisted together constantly. Kendall Charcoal keeps enough light in it to stay a gray in a room with one window. Silhouette does not, and turns into a soft black in the same spot. The leans hardly separate them: yellow-brown against orange, which nobody would call from a chip.

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

Silhouette vs Iron Ore SW 7069

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

Iron Ore SW 7069 answers the same brief cold, a true neutral with no lean at all and roughly four points darker at an LRV of 6. Put next to it, Silhouette looks openly warm, and that is why people choose between them rather than treating one as a substitute for the other. Iron Ore belongs in a room of white, steel and glass. Silhouette belongs in a room with wood in it.

Questions about Silhouette

Is Silhouette the Benjamin Moore Color of the Year?

Yes, for 2026. It follows Cinnamon Slate 2113-40 in 2025 and Blue Nova 825 in 2024, and it is much darker than either of them. The announcement is why searches for the name climbed, though the color itself is part of the Affinity collection rather than something mixed for the occasion.

What colors go with Silhouette?

Benjamin Moore's own picks beside it are Fossil AF-65, Pashmina AF-100 and Swiss Coffee OC-45: a warm off-white, a mid taupe and a soft white. All three are warm, and that is the pattern to follow. White oak, rattan, unlacquered brass and cream stone all belong with it. A blue-gray of similar depth beside it just makes the wall look muddy.

Does Silhouette look brown or gray?

Gray across a room, brown up close. The measurement finds only a faint orange, too little to name from the doorway and enough to see on a sample patch taped beside a white. Warm bulbs and warm floors bring the brown out; cool tile and 4000K lighting take it away and leave a flat charcoal behind.

What is one shade lighter than Silhouette?

Kendall Charcoal HC-166 is the step up on the strip they share, four points lighter and a genuine dark gray instead of a near-black. Two steps up, Gray Mountain 1462 no longer reads as a dark color at all. Nothing sits below Silhouette on that strip, so a deeper version has to come from outside it, and Midsummer Night 2134-20 goes about two points down.

Is there a Sherwin-Williams equivalent to Silhouette?

Stony Creek SW 9610 and Metropolis SW 9575 are the two nearest by measurement, both close enough to pass at a glance on a wall. Urbane Bronze SW 7048 sits a little further away but it is the one with a page here and the one people actually put beside it. Nothing at Sherwin-Williams is sold as a match for the name.

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